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

This affected 3 other people, one of which I know lost both snakes he owned. The others I'm not sure what happened with their animals. The person that sent me the infected snake was getting out of the business and had a lot of high-dollar animals and a lot of imports. He was mass-selling everything after I came forward in order to get as much money as he could before the information spread and he was caught. There is no telling how many other people bought animals from Wyatt and ended up with this virus in their collections.

And unfortunately, if anyone did have this virus, I doubt they would come forward and handle it the way I did. Most people would rather hide it and continue on or sell out to save their own skins. After the way I was vilified and crucified when I came forward with it, I can pretty much assure you no one else will do the same.

Originally Posted by JenHarrison

Unfortunately all research on it stopped shortly after I euthanized my collection due to lack of funds. I could not afford to keep plugging money into it after everything I already lost, and despite a bunch of promises, no one else in the hobby donated either. So basically if it hits someone else, there's still no idea what it is, how long it incubates, whether an animal can be an asymptomatic carrier and if so for how long, how long it can live on an inanimate surface, what disinfectants can kill it, or how it can be treated in the animal. Nothing.

Glad to see you back with us!

It is a shame that there's no funding for such research, given the potential of a tragic impact on our reptile community if we find no way to cease the spread of this unknown "virus".

It is for sure a virus, if you go back through the timeline in the blog, you'll see the entries as we worked through the different tests and possibilities. The last thing I got from Florida was that it was likely some hybrid between OMPV and something else, an RNA virus, possibly a reovirus. They didn't have the funds to do DNA mapping like he wanted to.

I had added info from my subsequent posts into the main post, so that is everything is in one place for those looking for information.

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

agian thyanks for sharing

stuff like this makes me want to board up in my house with my animals and never come out. You are an extremely strong individual to be able to come back after something like this!

Well I just came across this and am pretty glad I did. I brought 3 snakes from him at a expo the year defore last and as soon as they shed the infection showed up(he had about 30 females he was selling). I lost them and two more. I had taken them to the vet and spent lots of money but with no luck. But lucky for me I had separated them when the signs showed up. He was at an expo about 4 months ago and his collection had dropped, don't know if he sold or they had died. I just hope that this doesn't spread it is very bad and when I see him again I can now confront him. Thanks for the info!

Jesus Christ. He's still selling snakes? Bossroy, you can go on the BOI and search for his big thread that involved what happened with me. There is a lot of information there. I HIGHLY reccommend that you post a new thread to the BOI (don't add to the long one, people won't want to go through the whole thing), so that it brings it to the forefront and people see the warning and stop buying from him before this gets out of control. We can't discuss BOI-related things here which is why it needs to be brought there.

speechless, how many more collections have to suffer before someone goes after this guy. so if this virus is airborn which we do not know but say it is he put everyone elses stock at the show at risk. I guess i will only buy from nerd at least i know what he has or does not have in this matter.

great write up this has been a concern for me as a friend lost snakes to that I will pass on this thread to him to read,I will know now what to look out for as would hate to lose collection at least there are symptons to look out for and what to do about it,act quickly thats for sure..cheers.