Really? I didn't think it was that prevalent that does give one cause to think. I'm pretty sure you would know more than I working for a vet's office. So, if 75 percent of all snakes really were carriers, that would mean a majority of collections have crypto unknown to the owner because they appear healthy. Who is going to go pay a vet for fecals to be done when the snake is doing fine.
Yet when people find out there is crypto in their collection the snakes are often all destroyed and other such drastic measures. I wonder, if crypto is so common, is this too drastic of a measure to be taking? If a snake can be exposed to it and appear perfectly healthy is it necessary to euthanize it to prevent the spread of crypto as some people have done because of another snake in their collection getting sick? Just makes me wonder.
I do think most regurges are for the reasons Bitsy gave though - temps, food size, shed cycle, etc.
My numbers are not based on actual testing in snakes, just a possibility based upon what I see in a percentage of fecal exams I perform on dogs and cats where I find other coccidia species, plus things I have read and/or heard at the vet conferences I've attended over the years. As mentioned by Wade in his search of info, coccidial protozoans are more of an issue in already compromised individuals. We see more coccidia oocycts in fecal samples from puppies and kittens than in adult pets, and they are present in a much higher percentage in samples that also contain another parasite ova or in those that are from pets that are ill in one way or another.
Florida law requires that all puppies and kittens sold must be free of internal parasites. Eliminating coccidia completely in fecal samples of some litters is so difficult that making sure that the sample reads negative on the exact day the health certificates are issued has become almost an art form. Everyone knows that the puppies or kittens are in perfect health and that the odd coccidia oocyst means absolutely nothing, but should something happen in the future, we can swear in a court of law that the sample we read was negative. Some breeders seem to have more of a problem than others, but that also seems to fluctuate based upon the time of year, the number of litters they have on the ground at one time and will be a problem with one breeder this year, and not the next and then turn up in a breeder that has never had a problem before.
So based on that, I would dare say that if someone were to sample every snake in their collection tomorrow, they would find some that show a few oocysts. Now prove what species of coccidia it is, and then determine if it is actually causing a problem or not. Can cryptosporidosis be a major health concern, causing fatalities and spreading throughout a collection? Of course! But does someone have to destroy his entire collection because one snake regurged and on the third fecal sample tested, a coccidia oocyst was present, maybe not. If someone has a snake that has been regurging, has lost dramatic weight and shows the mid-body firm mass, and then tests positive for oocycts (and I mean hundreds of oocysts for any animal that is symptomatic), I would say there is a big problem and they need to quarantine and euthanize any snakes that show symptoms to prevent a wide-spread outbreak in their collection. But any snake in that collection that remains healthy, never regurgitates, maintains weight, etc and stays that way for years, I really don't think it needs to be euthanized, even if in one sample taken 16 months after the initial diagnosis, a few oocycts are seen.
Do some people go "overboard"? Good question. Maybe "yes", maybe "no". It all depends upon your own personal take on things. I work with a woman who was completely germophobic when she started. She would spray Lysol on everything someone else touched, would refuse to pick up anything that fell on the floor, and literally "hosed down" a co-worker with Lysol after that co-worker coughed due to the common cold. And yet, she had no issue handling money, one of the filthiest things around. For her first couple of years working at the clinic, she got sick (colds, simple stomach bugs, etc) quite frequently. Over the years, when she had to stop with the Lysol or get fired, she became less phobic, got exposed to the run-of-the-mill germs she had been so afraid of, and low-and-behold, built up a natural resistance to them and now rarely ever gets sick! Keep yourself, or your snake, in a glass bubble and the body forgets how to fight for itself against the simple little every day germs.
Susan, could you comment on the difference between regurgitation and vomiting? What is your definition?
To me, regurgitation is more of a voluntary action used to provide food for the young or your mate. Vomiting is an action to empty the stomach for any other reason, no matter how long the contents have been there. The terms are synonyms for each other and medically, there are many different kinds of vomiting, from projectile to dry to cyclic, etc. The corn snake community, or maybe the herp community as a whole, has gotten "regurge" stuck in their terminology, probably because when it happens in snakes, they see the partially digested food item still "whole", and when they think of "vomit", they think of the chewed up, more liquified, partially digested stomach contents they themselves have left in the porcelain bowl. "Barf", "up-chuck", "hurl", "puke", et al are other synonyms, but they even sound worse than "vomit". "Regurge" is much nicer, but I'm going to maybe start to use "emesis" more frequently. In any case, you can
uke01: or you can
uke02:, it all comes out the same in the end.
