Sounds like your burm was acting much the same way my boa was before she died.

Before my initial boa died of IBD I took her out of her enclosure to check her out. This was just a few hours before she died. She was very lethargic, weak, and didn't even struggle when I had a hold of her head to look at her. She had severe thick and runny mucous in her mouth and she had teeth falling out. She paced her enclosure in a panic because she was struggling to breathe due to the sudden pneumonia. Just a few days before she was fine and I didn't notice anything at all.

Also on another note over time her abdominal section developed a "bloated" appearance that made her look more like she was fat than anything else. I just thought because feeding her every 2 weeks was becoming too much so I had backed it off to every 3 weeks in hopes to have her lose some "weight." But since inclusion bodies showed up in the intestinal tissue that would explain why she was bloated and often constipated. Her intestinal tract was also quite inflammed... so IBD was destroying her intestinal tract and lungs.

Dr. Jacobson is in no position right now to receive any snakes for testing because him and his graduate student are up to their eyeballs in tissue samples and testing right now, but they will still accept samples sent to them.

They currently have a blood test that his graduate student recently developed to scan for IBD and it is $100. It is not a 100% IBD detectable test, but it is a start. If nothing is found there, then other tests need to be performed.

You have to have your local vet collect the blood sample(s) and tissue sample(s) and have them send the samples off to Dr. Jacobson personally.

I believe Adrya had mentioned you can submit blood tests to him for approx. $100, but you'll have to have a vet collect.
It's going to be pricey, and no one says it has to be done all right away, but I would have my snakes screened thoroughly before I reopened my collection any time in the next 2 years.

The reason they can't accept snakes right now is because it takes a lot of time for them to necropsy, collect tissues and then have the tissues aside to be tested the next day. If they have a lot to do, then necropsying an entire snake takes up a large chunk of a single day.

I'm sorry about your babies Adrya...

I hope this isn't used against me in the other thread -___- .... But I'm more than willing to pay $100 for the blood test... At least to start... If I could send him a live snake to test, I would... But if he can't accept one then that is understandable with the amount of work he has

Something also to consider is that we all need to be very careful about our tones in threads like these, that is unless we know for sure that someone is aware of a positive infection and hides it and actively spreads it. This is not the case here IMO.

But the biggest reason to remain civil and supporting is that so much is NOT KNOWN, so we need to encourage people who have verified cases to step up and give as much detail as possible. I am sure Adrya is not typing her story for free, so to speak. It has to hurt but the information needs to be out there. Not just for Ashley's sake but for all of us who keep animals that could become affected.

There is always a chance of paralysis by analysis but I do think the more information put forth the better.

I was going to send him some of my snakes for him to keep and research from but he didn't have the funds or space for housing and feedng.

Email him. He gets back to you within a day.



Thanks for the condolences, folks.

I will email him... If he can, I will send him at least one to start... I know I can't really help with housing since I'm not in Fla, but I could at least provide something for feeding and such...

Thanks, Drew.

I was most devastated by this when I first found out about it and for several months after. For those of you who use RTB.net, that was the reason I had disappeared without a word, when I used to be a very frequent poster. I was mentally numb from it all and I was so incredibly hard on myself for letting something like that get into my collection. I always had the goal and mindset that I would be so careful to never let anything like that happen. I thought I had been careful enough, but apparently you can never be too careful. I'm still hard on myself now but I'm better than I was. It doesn't kill me now to tell you all about this. I think now that whatever happens in my collection from here on out, happens. There isn't anything that I can do about it except to just keep on with my strict protocols within the reptile room to eliminate any contamination between animals as much as possible, even if every one of them is infected. I know that eventually I will lose them all and shedding anymore tears isn't going to help anything.

Basically, quarantine works for everything BUT IBD... so I would say it's best to get new arrivals tested and biopsied while they are in quarantine. And even after testing, keep them in quarantine for at least 6 months or more. With boas, quarantine should probably be at least a year. And at that rate you can't have more than just a few in quarantine at a time. It's just not worth the risk to not be careful enough.

Aha! it IS Dr. Jacobson, I told Courtney another doctor. Dr. Jacobson holds "seminars" and such about reptiles, he's BRILLIANT. AND, his office is ~1 mile from my house. I'll see if I can find when he's having another seminar to pick his brain about all of this.