How long till the babies are born, Oren?
My torts were part of an experiment to see if herpes virus passed vertically from mother, through the egg, to the hatchlings. It did not.
The math says that by the 6'th of April... but this is not fool-proof since detecting ovulation is a bit difficult with Boas.
She may surprise me sooner.
Crypto is a digestion tract parasite so it has little to do with the young- the risk of infection is upon emerging since they can come in contact with shed occysts in the viv.
I will need to test at least some... I have yet to decide on how to go about it... depends on the size of the litter... there's a limit as to how many I can test.
Thinking of you Oren. Whilst no-one deserves this kind of luck, you really don't. Thank you for being so strong and so amazingly forthright. Yes you could have kept quiet, but then you wouldn't be the wonderful person you are
Thank you for the compliment.
Reaching a point where you are forced to come full circle and extinguish the life you fought to preserve for so long is difficult. Initially I thought to hand the animals over and have someone sign that they are aware of the snake's condition... Eventually I was convinced(by another) that I cannot know for a fact that the new owner will not breed and isolate the snake for the rest of its' life... I was dodging responsibility by trying to avoid taking life.
At the end of the day though, I cannot be a contributor to the escalation of Crypto propagation in the field. Some will consider me mercyless... God knows that there are instances where I feel I am just that.
Many tears have been shed, but we can only do what we think is right and hope that in the long run we caused as little damage and pain.
For a long time I thought and hoped that snakes will be a fundamental part of my livelihood... things were going my way and I had a collection I was really proud of.
And here I had to face with the death of the jewel in my collection... and discovering that some of the snakes I was emotionally attached to the most, were infected.
For a long time I have contemplated the thin line breeders have to tread... between treating the animals for what they are, and treating them as merchandise. I felt a dissonance for a long time, though that hardly means I wanted to stop.
In a way... Phoenix was true to her name. To me, her death was a sort of re-birth. It was, and still is painful, but it initiated a series of changes I consider significant in my life...
One is the transition from business planning to hobby-level breeding projects... the other is the re-prioritization of the way I allocate my financial resources and sharing my experiences so that they may spare others from going through the same ordeal.
I thought I might stop keeping snakes... but I know that it is very much a part of who and what I am... but that doesn't mean I should make a business of it.
This whole ordeal also reminded me of how much I find biology and medicine fascinating... I am currently looking into going back to "school"... I am contemplating herbal medicine studies.
In a way, I felt like one of the most sacred things I cherished was ravaged and violated... it still feels like it...
But I now know that it is inevitable... it could have just as easily been IBD... and had I spent even more money, I would find myself completely financially devastated.
This is not to say that it's not a valid way to make a living... I still believe that it is... but Israel presents a unique set of difficulties in the form of a less educated community, High costs due to taxes and expansive import fees- which importers try to reduce by purchasing low quality/inexpensive snakes, and inaccessibility to new stock in a case such as this if one wishes to re-build himself.
Thinking "why me" is very unproductive at this point... What keeps me going is my determination to try and react effectively to any situation, rather than allow myself to drown. There are people with much much harder life experiences... but I had my share, and it has served me so far.
If me sharing information can assist someone else, I have turned a horrible situation into a positive one. I also get to express my thoughts and feelings, which is very helpful to me.
If there's anything I would like people who read this thread to leave with, is to understand the seriousness of this threat to the hobby as a whole- I practice hygiene and care for my animals and yet, this parasite managed to infect many of my animals.
The actual source can hardly be traced and it is not contained as I thought it was.
By continuing to avoid lab testing stool samples we are jeopardizing not just our own animals but every animal we come in contact with, and it can and will spread to other collections.
Do not, as I did, assume that Crypto is something you only read about- it is a serious matter and if we do not give it the appropriate attention and significance, there may come a time where the majority of the snakes and lizards in captivity are at the mercy of this parasite.
