IBD disease / My ball and my boas

I picked them up on monday, a week ago today. I am still moving in so other than morning look ins I had not handled the snake. Thursday was the first time I had a chance to pull him out for feeding and that is where I said, Something is wrong, he was not acting right.

So from thursday to Saturday he exhibited; flipping, head shaking, and crossing over his body, like knotting himself up!

Went to the vet, and now I wait for results.

So the symptoms are totally new? Sounds more like something that happened where they were boarded (or since they came home) than IBD...it just seems too fast. Don't get all worked up worrying about it - wait til you get the results.

PLEASE:

If my snakes are confirmed to have the IBD, Can anyone tell me if I can keep them and not breed them? Not introduce any other reptiles?

Will they live the normal life?

I am thinking if they are ALL infected and I do not bring in any more into the room, then why not keep them.

Please let me know!

Thanks a lot!

Mike

to the best of my knowledge.. IBD will slowly kill off anything infected.. so no.. the others would NOT be able to lead a healthy life.. Hence why people put down their entire collection when they confirm they have it.

Also.. not sure.. but there are a lot of different theories on how it is spread.. I would be concerned if your entire collection was infected, that you may accidentally infect other peoples..

not a worth while risk.

If it is confirmed.. all others that were in contact must be put down. Sad, but necessary

You could keep them...they might not show symptoms for years, BUT - you couldn't breed them, get other snakes, touch other people's snakes, go to reptile shows, etc. Of course, we have no way of knowing if the development of inclusion bodies is painful or uncomfortable for the snake; but once they start showing any type of symptoms, the most humane thing to do is euthanize them. Why not address that question with the vet, IF the report comes back positive for inclusion bodies?

Like Harald said before, this seems awfully fast to go from outwardly healthy, to showing symptoms, to death.

Until the results come back, I would try and find out if any cleaning agents were used at the petstore you boared these animals and if the temps were controlled and acceptable.

Since it was a petstore boarding, I would tend to think they did something wrong that affected your snakes ie: chemical eposure, extreme temps, exposure to new or sick animals, etc.

Unless your snake showed symptoms prior and you did not notice, this seems to have progressed extremely fast.

Post the results when you get them. I would be curious to see what they reveal.

The Pet Store said the only chemicals used in the room are cleaning chemicals. They said the temps were normal for the snakes.

The vet has harvested all the organs and is doing a tissue sampling for testing.

The blood test results should be in tomorrow AM~

I will post more when I find out!

Mike

Yeah, don't get worked up until the pathology report comes back from the necropsy. I agree, it sure does sound fast. And if the other albino and the BP were both housed together, and are the only two showing signs, sounds sorta like cooking to me.

Good luck on the tests coming back negative. But wait till they come back before jumping the gun.


Rick

Being a Pet Store was involved,my guess is excessive heat exposure as well.Basking temps of 100*F are common on quit a few Care sheets via internet sources. Animal Care is well down the list on Pet Store Priorities

The ball is having a necropsy done on him today. Will this show if he was infected with the IBD?

It should, because they can look at several different tissue sample from various organs, but if they find no inclusions it does not mean 100% that they are not present.
I know that No Pest Strips contain a chemical (vipona?)that can cause neurological damage which exhibits similar symptoms.
When I used to work at a petshop many years ago, we used no pest strips frequently when new animals came in as we were unaware of the dangers.