SFD (Snake Fungal Disease) General Discussion.
 

This thread is for the specific discussion of SFD, carried over from an off-topic discussion on the BOI.

Again, this is meant to discuss all things related to Snake Fungal Disease - diagnosis, treatment, cause, possible preventative measures, ramifications for the herp community, etc - without referencing anything BOI-centric - specific transactions/buyers/sellers.

Some literature on the subject:

http://www.northeastparc.org/product...DiseaseFAQ.pdf

https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_in...al_disease.jsp

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26745835

Thank you for posting this. I have done some searches, but from all that I've seen, the mode of transmission is unknown. Hopefully future research will bring an answer, before snakes are increasingly affected.

First I heard about SFD was in timber rattlesnakes in the NE. Highly contagious, found in communal species like timbers, that overwinter in dens. There are lots of threads about SFD on the field herp forums. Field herpers now bring bleach with them so whenever they handle a wild snake, they disinfect their equipment afterwards. The most knowledgeable folks on SFD are herp vets and field herpers who have encountered it. To many herpetoculturists, it is more unknown.
Still hoping Joe's animals do not have SFD, but several professionals (vets, research folks) have seen his photos. Based upon their experience and knowledge, they believe it is highly likely it is SFD. But we shall see. Joe has nothing to hide. He will post the results when he gets them. Even if proven wrong.

When doing some more research on this I found this Facebook group:
Carolina Snake Fungal Disease Project

Interesting stuff. If you search for "Oscar" and "2016-0016" you'll find info about him. He's an eastern black rat snake that had a case of SFD bad enough earlier this year they were considering euthanizing him. I've attached a before/after picture from one of the group's photos.

Also noteworthy was a post on Sep 9 about a gravid eastern king snake with SFD that they collected. She laid eggs, which were incubated, and apparently the babies developed SFD both in the egg (these were stillborn with SFD lesions), or the lesions showed up shortly after pipping.

One of the interesting, or mysterious things about SFD is its relationship with the more common, and much less lethal, hibernation fungus that we've probably all seen on wild snakes. or even snakes we have brumated / hibernated ourselves.

In one recent study something like 40 of the snakes in a given study area (N=82 I think) showed signs of 'water blisters' or "hibernation blisters" and of them 75% tested positive for SFD. And the researchers suggested this was a low estimate.

So its starting to seem that *maybe* the same fungal species (O.o.) is present in both mild cases and severe / lethal cases. Maybe its a secondary infection?

But if it is the cause, why is it so often shed off with no serious repercussions but sometimes wipe out a big hunk of the population? I don't think anyone knows.

(The study is paywalled but I may be able to provide an illegal Russian link)

The latest published data shows the spread of SFD. Note the cases in western US, Europe and Australia now. These are from captive animals. It has only been found in the US and I think one Canadian site.

Thanks to this information I spent a great deal of time reading their posts, and I contacted them on the specifics of treatment if SFD is confirmed (or what they did for Oscar that has been successful so far).

Their recommendations are to soak the affected snake daily in chlorohexidine diluted in a warm bath, then to follow up with a vet to get immune building vitamins that can be injected into the snake's food. They used vitamins A, E, C, and B. They also injected vitamin B-Complex SQ into Oscar. The fungi apparently doesn't grow in temperatures above 98F, so it helps to keep the enclosure as dry and warm as is tolerated as the fungi thrives in moisture, and to wipe the snake off with a towel after soaks.

The above is choppily combined from several messages we exchanged, and I took some liberties with phrasing, but that is what they found helped Oscar to recover. I thought I'd add this for those who may wind up with a positive SFD diagnosis that want to begin some form of treatment for any captive snakes showing symptoms.

I would be careful with remedies that have no evidence behind them. Just because this one snake recovered doesn't mean the treatment worked, or even helped. Injections are potentially problematic, especially for high strung snakes like some Nerodia.

Not saying there's is not a good intervention, just would like to see a little more supporting evidence.

Joe, I agree completely. Any and all treatments should be discussed with a qualified veterinarian and tailored to best work for the individual animal. I was just curious about Oscar's treatment in particular and figured I'd share the information just in case anyone wanted to address the options with their vet.

Just ran across this ...

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161...merican-snakes