DragonsDenSerpents
11-13-2012, 11:55 PM
So a little bit of background before I get into this. I've had this one adult female corn for a little over four months now. She came to me (expo pickup) very underweight, but I thought little of it as the guy I purchased her from said she had just double clutched and she could be finicky about large prey. I figured, she's a pretty girl and just needs some weight put back on her.
She did almost 90 days in quarantine during which she pooped, shed, and ate enthusiastically. I was bringing her along slowly with fuzzies and hoppers, but toward the end of her 60 days quarantine, it became apparent that she hadn't been putting on weight. I brought her to a local herp vet with a fecal sample and he stated she had some pinworms and put her on a parasite treatment. Three weeks later, she was pronounced clean (fecal test), and I assumed she just wasn't gaining much as I was bringing her around slowly. Into my main rack she went.
I keep pretty basic cleanliness procedures; hand sanitizer between cleaning/feeding/handling each snake, no water bowls are mixed, and each snake is fed in its bin - the mouse tossed if uneaten (I tend to thaw all at once to make feeding faster).
Fast forward to last week. The female shed and four days later, I fed her a hopper. The next morning, she regurged. Her temps were at a solid 84 over the heat mat and 75 on the cool side. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. I put in a call to a different herp vet from the first, about an hour and a half away from me and took the girl in today. She was strikey at the vet (not unusual for her) and her fecal sample came back positive for crypto. She was immediately euthanized.
Right now, I'm keeping the two pied sided bloodreds I purchased from Tom in quarantine. I already use gloves with them and all of their cleaning and feedings, so I'm not terribly worried about those two, but it's the rest of my snakes I'm terrified for. Every snake is going to get a stool sample examined by this second vet (why the first didn't pick up on it with two samples, I have no idea), but none are showing symptoms.
I'm sick to my stomach at the thought of my snakes being sick and having to euthanize them. I should have brought another sample to the vet sooner when my "Patient Zero" continued to show no signs of weight gain. As soon as I got home, I sterilized everyone's bins with a 10% bleach solutions and cleaned with hot, soapy water. I bought new water dishes for everyone. Right now I'm just sitting in my reptile room just watching them. They're all pets to me, not just breeders and the thought of losing any of them is horrifying.
Has anyone who has had crypto had only one animal be positive for it? I'm doing as much reading as I can, and it seems likely that some of my other snakes will test positive, despite my using hand sanitizer/not sharing bowls. I also was away in New York City this weekend for a wedding, and I'm not sure if the guy I had coming by to take care of the cat and the reptiles cross-contaminated by accident. If so, did he use the same rag to clean the geckos' water dishes as he did with the snakes? If so, should I be testing the geckos' stool as well? Did he use the sanitizer at all? I left instructions for him to, but did he follow it?
Just worrying myself sick and trying to wrap my brain around all of this. :(
She did almost 90 days in quarantine during which she pooped, shed, and ate enthusiastically. I was bringing her along slowly with fuzzies and hoppers, but toward the end of her 60 days quarantine, it became apparent that she hadn't been putting on weight. I brought her to a local herp vet with a fecal sample and he stated she had some pinworms and put her on a parasite treatment. Three weeks later, she was pronounced clean (fecal test), and I assumed she just wasn't gaining much as I was bringing her around slowly. Into my main rack she went.
I keep pretty basic cleanliness procedures; hand sanitizer between cleaning/feeding/handling each snake, no water bowls are mixed, and each snake is fed in its bin - the mouse tossed if uneaten (I tend to thaw all at once to make feeding faster).
Fast forward to last week. The female shed and four days later, I fed her a hopper. The next morning, she regurged. Her temps were at a solid 84 over the heat mat and 75 on the cool side. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. I put in a call to a different herp vet from the first, about an hour and a half away from me and took the girl in today. She was strikey at the vet (not unusual for her) and her fecal sample came back positive for crypto. She was immediately euthanized.
Right now, I'm keeping the two pied sided bloodreds I purchased from Tom in quarantine. I already use gloves with them and all of their cleaning and feedings, so I'm not terribly worried about those two, but it's the rest of my snakes I'm terrified for. Every snake is going to get a stool sample examined by this second vet (why the first didn't pick up on it with two samples, I have no idea), but none are showing symptoms.
I'm sick to my stomach at the thought of my snakes being sick and having to euthanize them. I should have brought another sample to the vet sooner when my "Patient Zero" continued to show no signs of weight gain. As soon as I got home, I sterilized everyone's bins with a 10% bleach solutions and cleaned with hot, soapy water. I bought new water dishes for everyone. Right now I'm just sitting in my reptile room just watching them. They're all pets to me, not just breeders and the thought of losing any of them is horrifying.
Has anyone who has had crypto had only one animal be positive for it? I'm doing as much reading as I can, and it seems likely that some of my other snakes will test positive, despite my using hand sanitizer/not sharing bowls. I also was away in New York City this weekend for a wedding, and I'm not sure if the guy I had coming by to take care of the cat and the reptiles cross-contaminated by accident. If so, did he use the same rag to clean the geckos' water dishes as he did with the snakes? If so, should I be testing the geckos' stool as well? Did he use the sanitizer at all? I left instructions for him to, but did he follow it?
Just worrying myself sick and trying to wrap my brain around all of this. :(