There are not a lot of things that scare me in regards to reptiles but IBD is the big one that brings the fear.
Some of you may have seen a post I made on some other sites (KS, A-A) or the youtube video I had posted of my poor sick boa Cinnamon: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpFsC7xOAyE)
I purchased Cinnamon in 2001 as a baby, the first morph (salmon) I ever bought.
She got sick about a year ago, become very badly dehydrated (my fault) and by the time I caught it, she was showing neurological distress and could not move properly, her head kept corkscrewing over herself. She was able to right herself when flipped but could not move properly, no eye movement and no tongue flicks. Started treatments with my vet who ran a blood panel. We were unsure if it was bacterial, a parasite on the brain, spinal meningitis or IBD. Well my vet didn't think it was IBD, but that was the first thing I started to worry about. After treatments, she had eye movement again and tongue flicking like normal but could not move properly and could not drink or eat on her own.
For the past year I had been tubing her peditalite and baby food to keep her strength up and see if she would show any improvement. She never got worse, but never got better. My poor baby had no quality of life and I could tell it was stressing her more and more every time I'd tube her. So finally made the decision to have her euthanized. This was done on 4/11 via heart stick at my vet's office. He performed a necropsy which did not reveal anything amis. So samples were sent to Dr Reavill at Zoo/Exotic Pathology Service (I had spoken with this lab previously as they were highly recommended to me) for pathology testing for IBD.
This entire time, I have been completely freaking out about my collection and how I might have to euthanize all of my snakes. My stress level from 1-10 has been hovering around 15 for months now. I got the call yesterday that the report came back. She is negative for IBD. THANK GOODNESS. I have *never* felt such relief. I hate that I failed my boa and caused her downfall from my oversight on her hydration but at the same time, the feeling of relief about knowing for sure she does not have IBD is such a weight off my shoulders. I have brought new snakes into my collection but have held off on selling anything for the past year until I knew for sure.
The euthanazia, necropsy and pathology testing came out to a total of $545. I thought others might be interested in knowing the cost as a reminder, this is not a cheap hobby.
The peace of mind was so worth it though!
It appears based on the findings that she did have a bacterial infection that caused lessions on the brain; we did knock out the infection but by that time the damage had already been done.
She was a great pet (never was bred), she came to work with me as part of a halloween costume, she had a bit part in a local student film, just a really great boa! I will miss you Cinnamon, RIP my beautiful girl.
I've always tried to be an open book about my reptiles, so I hope someone else can learn something from this in some way.
-April
Some of you may have seen a post I made on some other sites (KS, A-A) or the youtube video I had posted of my poor sick boa Cinnamon: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpFsC7xOAyE)
I purchased Cinnamon in 2001 as a baby, the first morph (salmon) I ever bought.
She got sick about a year ago, become very badly dehydrated (my fault) and by the time I caught it, she was showing neurological distress and could not move properly, her head kept corkscrewing over herself. She was able to right herself when flipped but could not move properly, no eye movement and no tongue flicks. Started treatments with my vet who ran a blood panel. We were unsure if it was bacterial, a parasite on the brain, spinal meningitis or IBD. Well my vet didn't think it was IBD, but that was the first thing I started to worry about. After treatments, she had eye movement again and tongue flicking like normal but could not move properly and could not drink or eat on her own.
For the past year I had been tubing her peditalite and baby food to keep her strength up and see if she would show any improvement. She never got worse, but never got better. My poor baby had no quality of life and I could tell it was stressing her more and more every time I'd tube her. So finally made the decision to have her euthanized. This was done on 4/11 via heart stick at my vet's office. He performed a necropsy which did not reveal anything amis. So samples were sent to Dr Reavill at Zoo/Exotic Pathology Service (I had spoken with this lab previously as they were highly recommended to me) for pathology testing for IBD.
This entire time, I have been completely freaking out about my collection and how I might have to euthanize all of my snakes. My stress level from 1-10 has been hovering around 15 for months now. I got the call yesterday that the report came back. She is negative for IBD. THANK GOODNESS. I have *never* felt such relief. I hate that I failed my boa and caused her downfall from my oversight on her hydration but at the same time, the feeling of relief about knowing for sure she does not have IBD is such a weight off my shoulders. I have brought new snakes into my collection but have held off on selling anything for the past year until I knew for sure.
The euthanazia, necropsy and pathology testing came out to a total of $545. I thought others might be interested in knowing the cost as a reminder, this is not a cheap hobby.
The peace of mind was so worth it though!It appears based on the findings that she did have a bacterial infection that caused lessions on the brain; we did knock out the infection but by that time the damage had already been done.
She was a great pet (never was bred), she came to work with me as part of a halloween costume, she had a bit part in a local student film, just a really great boa! I will miss you Cinnamon, RIP my beautiful girl.
I've always tried to be an open book about my reptiles, so I hope someone else can learn something from this in some way.
-April
