He was fine last night. I went to change his water today and he wasn't moving, but he's not stiff yet.

Approximately 8 month old King Snake. Now I know how he probably died - he had a prolapsed rectum (inside out butt). I adopted him as a charity case when I worked as a Vet Tech because he was going to be put down. He wasn't totally healed yet but he had gotten to a point that he didn't require sutures to hold things in.

The reason I'm worried about starvation is because of how he looked. No ribs were pronounced but the underside of his body seemed to sink in quite a bit. Is this just a result of muscles relaxing? I was feeding him about every week and a half - one pinkie which he always took with no complications. It was about time to feed again. I was going to buy another box of pinkies tomorrow after work.

Also - his body was wet. He was right next to his water bowl so perhaps he took one last dip in the water before his time was up.

I know the only real way to know for sure what happened is with a necropsy - but does anyone think this could have been starvation? I'm worried because I took this creature home to help it, not torture it.