COELOMIC STEATITIS IN TENTACLED SNAKES (ERPETON TENTACULATUM)

A retrospective study revealed seven cases of coelomic steatitis in adult tentacled snakes (Erpeton tentaculatum), including two males and five females, between May 2014 and August 2020. Common clinical signs included death after unusual floating, generalized weakness, inappetence, reduced body condition, coelomic distension, and reproductive pathology in females. Hematology of one specimen revealed marked monocytosis and lymphocytosis with mild heterophilia (chronic and active inflammation). Gross examination identified variable degrees of intracoelomic fat necrosis in all snakes. Consistent histopathologic features included necrotic adipocytes, lipid saponification, lipofuscin/ceroid deposition, granulomatous inflammation, and multinucleated giant cells (Langhans type). Three females exhibited intralesional yolk fluid associated with periovarian steatitis. Hepatic lipidosis was the second most frequent pathologic finding. Thawed frozen lesser sand eels (Ammodytes tobianus) were fed during this period, stored in vacuum-sealed or opened packets at -18°C (frozen). After the death of the last specimen, vitamin E concentrations and peroxide values of the diet were analyzed. For the sealed and opened frozen batches, respectively, vitamin E concentrations were 0.71 and 0.49 mg/100 g (compared with 4 to 8 mg/100 g in average, fresh, raw mixed eel species samples) and peroxide values were 62.5 and 48.6 meq/kg (exceeding the acceptable peroxide values of 8 meq/kg for fish oils). This case study represents the first report of coelomic steatitis in tentacled snakes of unconfirmed etiology but with a putative association with feeding a long-term frozen-stored sand eel diet containing low vitamin E concentrations and fish oils with high peroxide values at time of analysis.