mjcnj

I just learned a big lesson and anyones input is greatly appreciated.

I am relatively new with snakes, and I made a big mistake. I put all of my yearling and younger boas, Albinos and het for albinos in a cage with a ball python and had them boarded while I was on an extended stay vacation, for 2 weeks. They and I have been home for a week. The are back in there individual cages now.

All of a sudden the ball python is all out a whack. He looks like his equilbrium is off, his head is heavy or something. He moves back over his own body and flips himself over.

I checked around and even spoke with Peter kahl and it is all but a blood test away from being confirmed that he has a neurological disorder, more than likely IBD. Which is deadly, no cure.

Now, here is the part that people like me, new, should no. Boas can be asymptomatic carriers of the deadly disease, they can live a normal life, but it is highly contagious in a group.

My ball python was with the infected boa. The boas that were clean are not anymore. The python, as pythons tend to be, will possibly die quick or it will strugle to survive and then die. The recomendtion is to euthenize the animal. As far as th boas they are more than likely all infected and there fate is to be seen. They may live out there life without showing signs of the disorder or they may succumb to the same neurological disorders that the Ball python has.

PLEASE correct me if I have misstated something, but I just wanted people to know about this, if they do not already.

They call it the Reptiles AIDS, there is no cure.

Please add or correct me if I am wrong. i have done a lot of research today and I may have missed soomething.

Thanks

Mike