[Paul de Boer, Jr.]

Sorry its taken me so long to put these up, the computer is in the baby's room.

The female amyae that I looked at was about 18 months old and had been introduced to a male a couple of times-- at least once with breeding activity. Those of you who have lost amyae near this age, have they had any breeding activity? I'm wondering if premature breeding increases their chance of fatality?

She was frozen after death (by the time i read your suggestion she had already been in the freezer for 2 days)

I was able to identify everthing but the 2 round organs under what I assumed to be the ovaries. They consisted of a liquid, and when i cut into them they lost all shape and substance

The cause of death looked to be impaction. would you still recommend a necropathy, nicole? there was no sand in the enclosure, was her food to large? she ate mostly crickets, when she ate. would some sand have helped?

i am having trouble loading the pictures into this post...[img][/img][img][/img]

[the moof]

i can't see ANY of the pictures, and it's REALLY annoying me i don't think it's your fault though.

[SelectGex]

Make sure to upload the images online..

www.tinypic.com

[Paul de Boer, Jr.]

sorry everyone, there are no pictures to view yet. I'll try to get them online soon...

[Paul de Boer, Jr.]

until i've figured out how to get them up on the forum, you can see them at the following address:

http://www.xanga.com/exceptionalreptiles

enjoy!

[Ken Bartenfeld]

I'll help real quick.

Here you can see the impaction.


In this shot you can see the entire animal. The stomach in under the lungs. You can also see the impaction (keep in mind she had not eaten for a couple of weeks) also notice the round organs to the left of the ovaries (these were comprised of a fluid and completely lost all shape and substance when lanced with the scalple)


For this shot i have put the ovaries back into the body cavity as they lay naturally.


A close-up of the intestines and the sex organs.


I opened the stomach to find this gel-like fluid.


Another shot where you can quite clearly see the impaction. the lungs, stomach, and sex organs are easily identified.

[Ken Bartenfeld]

I can't identify which organs are which...and if there was no sand, how was there compaction?

[arta]

Originally Posted by Ken Bartenfeld

I'll help real quick.

Here you can see the impaction.

******To me, this looks like normal sized fecal material that should have passed easily. I don't think this animal was impacted at all. Animals sometimes die for no apparent reason and a lot of people throw impaction out there. I keep all of my nephrurus on sand and have done so for the past 8-9 years and have not had a problem.



********I am almost certain that the round organs are the overies. She looks as if she was cycling and would explain the large fat bodies(the things I think you were calling overies). Without being able to poke around in the animals myself I am not certain hough. They could have been eggs in an early stage. Did you follow the uterine horn to the end? Were they in the middle or on the end?

In this shot you can see the entire animal. The stomach in under the lungs. You can also see the impaction (keep in mind she had not eaten for a couple of weeks) also notice the round organs to the left of the ovaries (these were comprised of a fluid and completely lost all shape and substance when lanced with the scalple)


For this shot i have put the ovaries back into the body cavity as they lay naturally.


A close-up of the intestines and the sex organs.


I opened the stomach to find this gel-like fluid.


Another shot where you can quite clearly see the impaction. the lungs, stomach, and sex organs are easily identified.

[arta]

Originally Posted by Ken Bartenfeld

I'll help real quick.

Here you can see the impaction.

******To me, this looks like normal sized fecal material that should have passed easily. I don't think this animal was impacted at all. Animals sometimes die for no apparent reason and a lot of people throw impaction out there. I keep all of my nephrurus on sand and have done so for the past 8-9 years and have not had a problem.




In this shot you can see the entire animal. The stomach in under the lungs. You can also see the impaction (keep in mind she had not eaten for a couple of weeks) also notice the round organs to the left of the ovaries (these were comprised of a fluid and completely lost all shape and substance when lanced with the scalple)

********I am almost certain that the round organs are the overies. She looks as if she was cycling and would explain the large fat bodies(the things I think you were calling overies). Without being able to poke around in the animals myself I am not certain hough. They could have been eggs in an early stage. Did you follow the uterine horn to the end? Were they in the middle or on the end? They do look a little large.




For this shot i have put the ovaries back into the body cavity as they lay naturally.

******Fat bodies



A close-up of the intestines and the sex organs.

******What I don't see are the kidneys. In this, or any of the other pics. Did you remove them?



I opened the stomach to find this gel-like fluid.

******This could be due to the animal being frozen



Another shot where you can quite clearly see the impaction. the lungs, stomach, and sex organs are easily identified.

*****OK in this pic the round organs now look to be very ripe overies. It is difficult to do a gross necropsy with pics over the internet, but nothing really stands out. Like I said earlier, sometimes animasl just die for no apparent reason. As for having pathology done, too late, because of feezing the animal and the length of time since death. In the fututre, if you have this happen again, refrigerate the animal and have the necropsy performed within a couple of days of the death of the animal.

[Paul de Boer, Jr.]

thanks, ken, for all your help posting the pics and helping identify the organs. i did not removed the liver, it was one of the organs i could not find or identify.

there were three vents in the tail, one large from which came the feces (when i moved it manually down the gi tract) and two smaller ones, each leading to a "wing" of the butterfly shaped fatty tissues (leading me to assume they were the ovaries)

i also wondered if the large round things were eggs, but they didnt seem to have any way of exiting.

-paul

PS - everyone please feel free to post these pictures on your website as long as you give me credit for them with the info below. but please note that my identification of the organs may not be correct. hopefully someone will be able to help us figure out why our amyae are dying early!
Paul R. de Boer, Jr.
pdeboer2@netzero.com
www.xanga.com/exceptionalreptiles