Well I have been in touch with someone who knows people directly organising the upcoming Rodbaston show. And suggested that they should impliment hand sanitizer on EVERY table.
funny Den, i was about to raise that one too..
it is, and has been for some years, compulsary to have hand sanitizer on tables at all UK shows, not just IHS.
the UK is not as slack in its hygiene precautions at exotics shows as Elle would suggest!
Its unfortunate that many people's personal hygiene precautions are not as guarded.. i am probably not the only one who has handled others snakes, then handled my own, without always sanitising inbetween.
i do however, take the precaution, of stripping and changing when i come home from shows, before i go back into my reptile room, but thats more to prevent mites..
anyway..i have a friend, also in scotland, who had 3 snakes with long term RI's, all not responding to multiple types of antibiotic. she took the decision to have the worst PTS to have full tests ran. the results have come back as negative for viral problems, what they do have is chronic active hetrophylliac tracheo bronchitis. (scuse spelling, she is telling me this over the phone as she has no www connection at the moment) this has been caused by micro plasma bacteria, which are unaffected by antibiotics.. so the 7 weeks on antibiotics they had would not have touched them... ironically, the one she did not use in this treatment program, baytril, would have worked on them! Fortum, Amikacin and Penicillian were the ones she used.
in order to actually find the micro plasma bacteria, they did full bacterial cultures taken from tissue samples from the lungs, heart and brain. there was no damage in the heart and brain, but the one from the lung fluid and tissue shows the micro bacteria.. these bacteria were not able to be seen on the samples from the live animals, they can only be seen on biopsy.
the tests were carried out by two exotics specialists at the department of clinical studies, Royal School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh.. in the exotics department, and set my mate back some £800+
she does now however have a fully clean bill of health for all her remaining snakes.
so, the reason for this post...
just to say that, as lyn said, until the tests come back one way or the other, and although its good of lynn and elle to raise their concerns.. it is as yet inconclusive as to what the real cause of death was.
paramyxovirus, there are 2 types attack reptiles, type 1 and type 7. and this is what the test for. however, on initial post mortum, paramyoxovirus presents with pus in the lungs and severe damage to the lungs and bronchial tubes. it also presents tissue damage in both the brain and heart. In the case of Windsor, one would have expected to see the physical presentation of symptons on initial incision into the lungs/heart or brain.
Whilst the animal was still alive, a royal who had param for 6+ weeks, would also be highly likely to show fitting and seizures, again due to the ongoing brain damage.
the tests being done should also rule out IBD one way or the other.. the post mortum SHOULD show, or not show, the presence of the inclusion bodies..
I'm being told, if i want to learn the more techy stuff on it, that the exotics guys at edinburgh will be happy to talk me right though it.. as my friend says, they have told her the laymans version, if i want i can get the full spec version.. although it may require some dusting off of the 'ole grey matter!
*phew* techy head back off for lunch!
hope that gives some more info to people anyway
Nerys
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