Well, the good news is Cate's passing wasn't due to anything that could affect the rest of my collection...not that I'd figured it was, but when dealing with animals ANYTHING is possible and it's always better to be safe than sorry.
The culprit in this case was a portosystemic shunt in her liver that was causing partial blood flow to be diverted around the organ instead of through it. Since she had been on a slow growth diet for the past few years it was no big deal - not something that would have really shown itself in a younger snake. Over the past 4 months I had changed her feeding regime for breeding preparation, and evidently her system couldn't handle the elevated levels of impurities in the blood that wasn't being filtered through her liver. Unfortunately this was a congenital time bomb - a problem that would have manifested sooner or later and since there weren't any outward signs, completely unexpected. Like I've said before, it just really sucks that it had to be
that snake. The past couple of weeks have been really rough, to say the least.
On the upside, I still have Cate's brother Tango, who is the pride and joy of my boa collection. A dear friend of mine will be taking him on loan this year to breed to several big Belknap laddertail Surinams, so hopefully I'll someday see Cate's beauty live on through Tango's offspring.
Thanks to everyone who has posted/sent their condolences over Cate's death...
"What do I do when my love is away.
(Does it worry you to be alone)
How do I feel by the end of the day
(Are you sad because you're on your own)
No, I get by with a little help from my friends..."
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