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Originally posted by herpetological
[b]Keep in mind however, that there are a few importers that conduct "in house" exams and can provide reasonably healthy specimens.(I say reasonably because it's very expensive to go through the entire regime of tests and treatments to say an import is 100% clean and healthy)
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A really complete battery of tests to clear a snake runs me about $300, and that's at wholesale rates. That's assuming I want to do a complete head to tail physical exam in the clinic with x-rays, run a complete panel of bloodwork to establish baseline data and get OPMV titer. I don't expect any import houses are doing that, and I don't even do all of that most of the time. Here are the basic procedures I use to clear a snake when there is zero budget to do it with. Material cost is about a dollar.
1. Cloacal wash if no fresh fecal sample available; fecal flotation and fecal direct smear on slides.
2. Tracheal wash; examine at 100X for Rhabdias and pentastomes, at 400X for bacteria
3. Complete physical exam and gentle head to tail palpation. May or may not be under anesthesia; depends on the patient's stress level.
4. Basic cytology and/or hematology, if anything looks suspicious (lesions, lumps, etc). I'm still learning how to stain slides properly and identify what I see there.
Someday I will be able to add endoscopic exam to this list. Still saving up for the endoscope though.
Obviously when parasites are found, they are properly identified and treated with the appropriate medication. Note that I say "when" and not "if". WC snakes have parasites, period. Ask me sometime why endoparasites seem to co-exist in wild caught snakes and cause problems in captives, if you are in the mood for a very long talk on the subject. LOL
All of that stuff, a good import house (or any hobbyist really) can theoretically do. Some of the importers actually do some of these things, but they are missing one very important piece of the puzzle, which is to say a good microscope. I don't know why, as a usable one can be found for about $100. Far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong, none of the importers actually have one of these useful toys. Anyhow without a 'scope, what the import houses do is shotgun the snakes with some antiparasitical medication that may or may not be the right choice. Also unless they have a good digital scale, a mg/kg dose is hard to administer so they do things like dump a bottle of Flagyl in the water and hope each snake drinks enough (but not too much). Some of the import houses try harder than others though.
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Caution is always the key when working with imports. Some dealers sell straight "out of the bag". I've even seen shipments that were never opened go right back out after they were cleared.
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Yikes. Snakes really need to be hydrated and treated immediately on landing.
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On some species imports are a neccesary evil so to speak. At least until a viable gene pool is established in captive collections.
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Shut down the importation of some of these species completely, and watch how fast the captive breeding efforts start happening. Right now it's a matter of supply and demand; nobody wants to buy CB as long as cheapie WC's are available.