For those that don't know what happened -- Respiratory Virus in Ball Pythons

For those new to the site/hobby or those that missed what happened a few years back that caused me to lose my entire collection. I remembered that I kept an updated blog on MySpace (which I stopped using shortly after this happened and moved to Facebook), so I copied everything from that blog and posted it to a public note on Facebook, with hopes that it will raise awareness, increase hobbyists' commitment to full quarantine, and get everyone to join ranks against irresponsible flippers/brokers, unethical breeders, and scammers, and force these dirtbags out of our hobby for good.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=492777058669

For those that do not have Facebook, I will post everything here as well:

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Now that I have made my way back into the hobby, there are a few who don't know what happened to me over 2-3 years ago. I am bringing this to Facebook, so that the information is available for those who are interested, and so that people will learn from the experience.

2 years ago, my ball python collection was devastated and destroyed by a contagious respiratory virus. Some research was done, but much more was needed. The general consensus of those working on it, including some of the leading names in herpetology, was that it was likely a paramyxovirus (PMV), possibly a hybrid of PMV and something else, like a reovirus.

There were 5 others that came forward as having purchased from Damian Wyatt around the same time as I did, and also ending up with infected animals. One was Dr. Jason Brodnik, a veterinarian in Colorado (the same Jason that was the first response quoted above). There were 3 others that were private small-time keepers that subsequently also lost everything or close to it. One of these victims I can't seem to find the name of but know he existed. Another was in Virginia, and another was in Texas. A more well-known victim was Tim Bowles of Snowballs Ball Pythons, who effectively sued Damion Wyatt for the losses. Matt Lehrer of GHI Reptiles purchased 2 snakes from Tim before the connection was made to Wyatt's animals and before they knew that the virus was indeed the same thing I had, and those animals proved to also have the virus (luckily caught by Matt's vet) and were euthanized. The known victims are as listed below:


Jennifer Harrison -- Madison, WI -- Virus
Dr. Jason Brodnik, DVM -- Northglenn, CO -- Virus
Michael Ogburn -- Heathsville, VA -- Virus
Joe Ellis -- Virginia Beach, VA -- Stolen Animals (through breeding loan -- the animals died of "unknown" causes in Wyatt's care)
Tim Bowles -- Unknown -- Virus
Matt Lehrer -- Florida -- Virus (purchased from Tim before the connection was made to Wyatt's animal)
Roy Sample -- Dallas, TX -- Virus


God knows who else purchased virus-laden animals from Wyatt without knowing it and where those animals have gone in the last 3 years.


Symptoms of this virus are as follows...WARNING - Extremely Graphic:


Generally, the first sign is typical of any RI. Clear bubbling mucous, wheezing, drooling, lack of appetite. Then the mucous turns bright green, almost like the fluid inside a glowstick that has burned out, and intensifies, often showing smears all over the sides of the tub and the substrate. The wheezing gets worse, and the infection does not respond to ANY antibiotics whatsoever, nor any antivirals, even Interferon. Raising the heat does nothing. Then blood starts appearing within the mucous, and the snake's tissues swell around the upper body. The wheezing gets worse, and the snake begins to forcefully expel air/fluid from its lungs (almost like a cough, but snakes can't cough). The death usually comes at night when you are asleep, although I unfortunately had to witness two dying in front of me one evening. You go to check them in the morning, and you find them bloated, cloudy looking as if in shed, upside down and twisted into horrific shapes due to due to severe convulsions and the snake fighting to breathe, covered in blood that was expelled from the lungs, mouth, and nostrils. It is an excrutiating death for these animals to go through, and an image I will never get out of my head.

The common method of transmission for paramyxoviruses is airborne, and that is what Dr. Jacobsen concluded for the virus that infected my collection. Droplets are expelled into the air from the lungs. Transmission also occurs through shared water sources, direct contact with and contamination of feces, urates, blood, etc. The problem with this virus is that it affects each snake differently. Some show symptoms for 2-3 months before dying. Some show only vague symptoms for maybe 24 hours at most before winding up dead the next day. It also does not follow any predictable pattern. In my case, it bounced all over the place and affected different snakes in different racks in different rooms.

Necropsy results and tissue samples will yield these common factors:


Severe hemorrhaging of the lungs. Exudate present in the respiratory tract, nasal passages, etc. Secondary infection of pseudomonas spp. Liver necrosis. PMV titre may or may not yield a positive result; individual animals develop antibodies at different rates based on individual immune system, time since contraction/transmission, length of active viral infection, etc.

Here are a couple good links about paramyxovirus and snakes. Most were written by Dr. Elliot Jacobson, DVM, Ph.D. The main person that worked on my dead bodies, organs, tissue samples, blood samples, etc. and gave me the majority of the information I was working with. As you'll see in the article from the University of Florida website, the stages of illness described are almost dead-on to what I saw in my snakes, along with the problem of some snakes showing no signs and dying instantly overnight, and others showing symptoms going through all 4 stages. The end result is a convulsive neurologic condition prior to death.

http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/college/de...myxovirus.html

http://jvdi.org/cgi/reprint/7/1/72.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/pss/20095233


Coming back into the hobby after such a devastating, painful loss...has left me with a deep-seeded anger and hatred toward irresponsible animal flippers, brokers, shady sellers, unethical breeders, and scammers. I will do EVERYTHING within my power to expose and stop these people so that NO ONE will ever have to go through what I went through. Period. I also do not trust anyone that resides in the state of Texas. It is well-known that Damian Wyatt of TW International did a LOT of local sales, trading, shows, etc. (he was based in Cedar Hill, TX -- the Dallas/Fort Worth area), especially after he did a rapid blow-out of his collection after being exposed as a virus-spreader. As such, I will NOT do business with anyone in the state of Texas, regardless of reputation. Sorry, but I will not take that risk.

This is what was posted on my MySpace, which I no longer use:



LAST UPDATE: December 20th, 2008

I had stopped updating this journal back in May/April, as it got too time consuming repeating myself across multiple blogs, my website, the forums I was on, the BOI, etc. My MySpace blog left off before the crap really hit the fan, if you can believe that -- the end result was that about 15 snakes died, more within my "healthy group" were getting sick, it turned out to be a brand spanking new virus that no one in the veterinary community had ever seen before (nor the CDC in Atlanta, as they were sent samples as well by Dr. Jacobson and could not identify it). Thus, there was no way to cure it, no way to stop it as the vaccine was not working, and no way to know how it spreads and how long it can lie dormant. So every one of my animals had to be euthanized in the summer of 2008. My entire remaining collection was frozen, including my clown, spider, new morph projects, hets, breeder females, morph babies I'd produced, rare kingsnakes, the whole nine yards. I had already lost my mojave, adult het g-stripe female, adult het clown female, adult albino female, and a lot more. All I kept was my one original pet Spoon, and the g-stripe that had been here on breeding loan as his owner couldn't take him back but didn't want him put down. However, just a few months later, a little over a year since this all began...the virus finally came full circle and both have become symptomatic. I put the g-stripe down last week, and it has taken me a lot to bring myself to put Spoon down. My original decision was that if nature wants to take him, then it will have to be on his own time. But seeing him suffer was more than my heart could bear, and I knew what excrutiating, painful death he was in for as I had seen it happen to all the others. I finally made the decision to put him down. I picked him up, held him for the last time and cried harder than I have ever cried. I put him into a pillowcase, and put him in the freezer. I could not force myself to remove his body and had to ask my dad to do it. I didn't want my last memory of him to be his frozen, cold body. Afterward, I could not sell any of my equipment or racks afterward for risk of spreading the virus, it all had to be destroyed, burned and trashed. Altogether I'm out about $20,000 total when you add up the losses of my morphs, hets, racks, equipment, babies I produced, and vet bills. That doesn't even include my normal breeder females or my emotional trauma from watching my beloved animals die over and over and over again. I will never, EVER forgive Wyatt for this.

What pisses me off even more, is that he claimed he was in Iraq after filing for bankruptcy -- in order to earn extra money to dig himself out of the hole he was in. I guess that was a lie too? What a dirtbag for using something like that as an excuse while my friends and ex-husband really ARE/WERE over there serving our country. I loathe that man.

Dr. Jacobson at the University of Florida still has the samples we sent him and plans to continue doing what research he can on the virus, to include mapping the DNA in order to identify it. However, this takes a lot of money that his research department doesn't have, so unless people donate, I don't know if he'll ever end up getting any answers. For me, it is all in the past now and no amount of information will fix it or make me feel any better.

This was my original MySpace blog entry:

As of April 2008, I will be only updating my website journal, as it gets too time consuming to do both. Everything is divided up into the appropriate months the updates were posted (I retroacted the 2007 entries and put them into January 2008) and I will keep updating the timeline here at least. The newest info is posted in the April and May journals -- so feel free to keep checking my website for updates.

My Journal:

http://pinkladyconstrictors.com/?page_id=4 (WEBSITE NO LONGER EXISTS)

A sincere thank you to all of you who have followed along and supported me throughout the rollercoaster ride. Now we need to keep working for more info about this virus -- and we need to stop Wyatt from continuing to sell infected snakes. He is still selling adult het pied females and other snakes on Kingsnake under his girlfriend Kristen's account (the displayed name on the ads is "Kris"). Please do NOT buy these snakes!

Timeline (will continue to be added to as things happen):


September 25th, 2007 -- Sahara is shipped.

September 28th, 2007 -- Sahara arrives.

September 29th, 2007 -- Dizzy shows mild symptoms of RI, begins Tylan.

October 2nd, 2007 -- Sahara shows strong symptoms of RI, Dizzy is worse, both begin Baytril.

October 12th, 2007 -- Dizzy dies, Sahara begins Cipro and moves to my bedroom.

November 16th, 2007 -- Sahara begins Fortaz/Amikacin.

November 26th, 2007 -- Lola dies, Lily and Dawn show severe symptoms of RI (developed earlier but were not caught until this date) and move to my bedroom, all antibiotics are stopped.

November 30th, 2007 -- Necropsy/Pathology results come back on Lola, 3 sick females begin Doxycycline.

December 6th, 2007 -- Sahara dies, Doxycycline is stopped.

December 7th, 2007 -- Amazon dies (no symptoms prior).

December 8th, 2007 -- Dawn dies.

December 10th, 2007 -- Sahara sent out to the lab, Dawn and Amazon kept frozen in reserve. Lily started on Tazicef injections.

December 14th, 2007 -- Lily dies, body brought to vet for reserve.

December 31st, 2007 -- Maggie, Angel, and Sita show symptoms of RI.

January 8th, 2008 -- Java and Tarzan show symptoms of RI.

January 16th, 2008 -- Maggie dies.

January 18th, 2008 -- Amadeus, Mojo, Shiva, and Brizzy show symptoms of RI.

January 18th, 2008 -- Remaining 7 "healthy" animals are pulled and put into brand new sterile enclosures in my bedroom. None show symptoms, and hopefully this will keep them far enough away. If any develop the sickness, they will be put back into the snake room.

January 25th, 2008 -- Java and Amun die. Sita and Shiva are euthanized in order to get proper lab samples for a final determination of what we're dealing with. The remaining snakes (healthy and sick) are injected with the Colombovac vaccine. The remaining sick snakes are started on a double antibiotic regimen (Ceftazidime and Doxycycline).

February 16th, 2008 -- Mojo dies. "Healthy 7" are still doing very well; none are sick, all are shedding and eating regularly, Lucky laid 6 huge healthy eggs on the 14th, and is doing fantastic. As she was never infected and was vaccinated, the eggs should not be contaminated and are being incubated as normal. They are due to hatch in April. Of the remaining 3 sick snakes, Amadeus has resolved all RI symptoms and is eating voraciously like he usually does. He is still being kept in the sick quarantine as a precaution, and most likely will have to be euthanized because he had at one point shown symptoms. Unless the tests come back as this virus being something else, then he may be able to be kept. But odds are it is unlikely. The other two sick snakes are 2 gravid females that continued to ovulate despite only having been bred twice each way back in October. These eggs will most likely have to be destroyed as the virus can pass from mother to embryo.

March 16th, 2008 -- "Healthy 7" are continuing to do well, remain healthy, eat regularly, shed well. The 3 remaining sick snakes have miraculously gotten better and no longer show symptoms. Unsure if this is a result from the double antibiotic therapy clearing up the secondary infection, or a result from the vaccination, or maybe both? Either way, the sick ones are still being kept far from the healthy ones, and I am still waiting to hear back from the lab on results from the samples and whether the previously-sick ones need to still be euthanized or not (and their eggs).

April 8th, 2008 -- Lucky's eggs hatch; Dr. Gordon confirms that they will be just fine. Some results come back from Florida -- negative for OPMV, positive for reovirus. Potentially viral cancer or going back to the rhabdovirus theory -- not sure yet. Many more tests and research are needed. Another victim has come forward with an identical situation and symptoms in a snake he bought from the same seller, and it has now spread to others. This victim happens to be a veterinarian, so while I feel horrible that he is now suffering my same problem, maybe we can finally get some answers with 3 good vets putting their heads together.

April 12th, 2008 -- 5 babies are still doing well, as are all of the adults. Jason's titre came back positive for OPMV. Dr. Gordon feels that the virus is a hybrid between OPMV and something else, hence the negative reaction to the OPMV test that Dr. Jacobsen did, but continued success of the vaccine. Dr. Jacobsen mentioned something about a myovirus, which is entirely new.

April 30th, 2008 -- In researching the tests that detect the presence of the virus, it came out that many snakes don't develop antibodies or any immune response for several weeks; some die before they ever do. Considering that the 2 females we euthanized for samples were only sick for 3-4 weeks, it is highly likely that they hadn't developed any antibodies yet -- hence the negative test result. That result needs to be tossed and we need to do new titres on blood samples from Angel and Tarzan, as they were sick for quite awhile before they got better, so they should have a decent amount of antibodies built up. The group of healthy, unaffected ball pythons as well as my rainbows and my colubrids are still doing wonderfully well -- feeding, shedding, drinking, being normal snakes. The mojave babies are doing great too.

May 4th, 2008 -- Still no news; although Dr. Jacobsen found fit to violate my doctor-client confidentiality and share all of my medical info with a complete stranger that inquired via e-mail, and subsequently posted it on a public forum. I am furious about that. My remaining "healthy" animals are still doing fantastic. (LAST ENTRY)

These are comments that were made on my MySpace in response to this blog:

drjason21

Male
Age: 39


Dr. Jason I obtained my female het pied female from the same Damian Wyatt out of Texas. She got sick 10 days after shipping. Her culture revealed a resistant strain of pseudomonas bacteria, resistant to 10/13 antibiotics. She also showed a titer of 1:8 for paramyxovirus. Damian Wyatt has denied knowledge of sick respiratory snakes he has sold. I am attempting to receive a refund for this snake, and I pray my albino's will be unaffected. I am currently treating with amikacin injections, amikacin nebulizations, and will start ceftazidime as soon as I receive it.

Dr. Jason Brodnik
Northglenn, Colorado

JustyneDicksonfolgers123

Female
Age: 22


Justyne Dickson HOLY moly. I ran into this post on RTB.net and I had to comment on this one. I don't breed balls but that had to be such a terrifying time for you: to see nearly your entire collection get wiped out. You have quite a backbone to still be able to TYPE after an incident such as that.

Good luck with all your ventures: I don't have much money and there's nothing I can offer you except my prayers. Good luck with everything.

TrixieDotsontrx_ee

Female
Age: 26


Trixie Dotson Oh my god. I am so, so sorry for what you have gone through. I was in tears, I am amazed at your strength. I don't think i would be able to do anything but sit in my snake room and cry. I hope you find the answers you're looking for, both for your snakes and for the rest of us. It hits especially close to home with me because I live in Texas. This now has me terrified to by from anyone here. It seems like all BP keeper's worst nightmare. I am praying for you and your animals.

dragon_sanctuary

Female
Age: 28


Dragon I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your snakes. I was in tears reading your blog; that must be a horrible thing to go through! I couldn't even imagine if it was one of my two bps. I wish I could offer an animal to donate to you after this problem is resolved, but I have no breeders. So, I'm going to send a donation to your vet for research. You're a very strong, brave person for enduring all of this and then posting it here; you truly have my admiration. Thank you so very much for sharing this with all of us, even though to witness it and then to have to write it must hurt you deeply. Please don't leave herpetoculture; the indrustry needs more people like you. Please keep us updated. You and your snakes will be in our thoughts and prayers. I pray the worst is behind all of you now. I'm certain the ones you've lost will be waiting for you on that rainbow bridge, and I pray you don't have to suffer the heartbreak of losing any more. Please contact me and let me know if there's any way at all I can be of help other than a research donation.

LeighPropperdarkmaya

Female
Age: 27


Leigh Propper I dont know you, but I wanted to send you my heartfelt thoughts. I read your blog with tears coming down my face - This is the worst nightmare I could think of! I am so emotionally attached to my snakes, and it sounds like you are too - I would be absolutely beyond the point of thinking. I honor your bravery and strongness in trying to find out the issues, I would have just broken down crying and given up.

Please keep everyone posted on how things progress.

I do not have much money at all, but I would love to donate some babies to you if you so desire or anything else I might be of help to do.

I am so, so, truly sorry.

AnnaPhilpotminiannalee

Female
Age: 30


Anna Philpot This really sucks. I'm so sorry this is happening to you and your snakes. I wish I could help. I'm praying that the remaining healthy snakes don't get sick and that the sick ones get well. Thanks for keeping us updated on the progress

thewickedthingaboutus

Female
Age: 22


Chelsea Lynn [illbeyoursoldier] So, I had read the original blog a while back, but I hadn't realized you updated like this. I never thought to look untill my friend's RI problem had come up. I guess it was false direction; either way you would know more about it than I would.

But I wanted to say, my heart goes out to you, Jen. This made me cry -- and I don't cry. I was the one on Kingsnake that said I'm glad I'm not the only cornball that names each of her animals. I know how you feel, they are more the money and more than just breeding problems.

Good luck with everything, Frank and I will be donating to the cause.

And I hope to help, someday, if this hell is ever over for you, to help rebuilding your collection.

Good luck. The community will be supporting you.

BethSkeltonmycozyspot

Female
Age: 24


Beth Skelton Dear god!!

I am most literally in tears right now.

I have only just started collecting morphs and so far, i'm up to 8, including 3 normals....

I am looking at them and imagining what it would be like to loose them all...

Its truely heartbreaking.

I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted.

Beth

heatsherps

Female
Age: 38


HeatsHerps Geez girl. I am so sorry that you are dealing with this huge mess.

Try this Vet. They have a great exotics specialty department. Not sure if they can help, but it's worth it to make the call & see what they say, or who they may be able to refer you to. Good luck!!!!

Tufts
508-839-5302

laraemtfirefighter

Female
Age: 33


Lara God what a shame. I don't know what I would do if I was in your shoes. I would feel so helpless. My prayers go out to you and the snakes.

darkbloodwyvern

Female
Age: 26


jessi I can't beleive the seller is still selling animals. I really hope your collection that remains will survive. It is great your vets are so hardworking and that you are determined not to spread this kind of thing. I doubt I will be getting any new balls for a long time, and none from texas.... sorry ya'll

again, good luck surviving this, i hope you will still stay in the hobby, it could use ethical herpers badly.

JustinKobylkajkreptiles

Male
Age: 29


Justin Kobylka Please let us all know what the end result is, thanks for sharing your story. I can't imagine how you must feel right now.

Justin

handintheflame

Male
Age: 23


jaime [xx] Wow Jen... I'm so sorry to hear about all of this. Please keep us posted. Have you contacted the guy that you bought Sahara from? Keep your head up.

-Jaime

BrianBarczykbhbreptiles

Male
Age: 102


Brian Barczyk Two things, please keep me and the rest of the Ball world posted on how things turn out and what you find. Secondly, when everything gets calmed down and you have it all under control please let me know. I'd like to donate a few animals to you to get you back going. I know you're not asking, I'm offereing, so please take me up on it. I understand how tough times like these are and I'd like to be able to help you get back on your feet. hang in there, my thoughts and prayers will be with you. Brian (BHB)

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I don't ask for pity. I ask for responsibility and proactiveness. Don't let unethical sellers and flippers cause this to happen to you, or anyone else. Take a stand.

is it possibl;e to post that on here or email it to me i dont have a facebook account, thank you, we are very interested in learning what happened, thanks

I also dont have a facebook account.

Weird, it should be public. I made it public? Let me see.

Try again, see if it's public now.

nope still wont let me

Alright. Give me a minute to post it here, it's a lot.

thank you

Post is updated, copied and pasted the entire thing from FB.

I know your not posting this to get sympathy but OMG I am so sorry you had to go through that, I cant even imagine your feelings during all of this. I will definitely say your doing the right thing by putting this back out there so people can understand the importance of quarantine. Again Im soooo sorry you had to go through that and the absolute best of luck this time around.