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Today At The Reptile Shop.

Ahhh atleast PM me what your thinking Mike! im in suspense and need of education here! lol
 
I had a scare with IBD last summer. The parents of my BCI were both diagnosed with it and the ONLY way to tell for certain if a snake has it is by having a vet perform a liver biopsy and doing pathology on it. There is no blood test, no other way to know for sure if a snake has or does not have it. Boas can live symptom free and be carriers for YEARS, while pythons will generally develop the disease quickly and die from it. If you have a boa with IBD any other snake in your house can catch it from mites, dirty hands, clothes, etc. It's contagious and deadly. I now think of every boa as a potential carrier. Unless I'm buying from someone who can show me vet records of biopsies on all their boas, I'll never buy another one. Call me paranoid, but I won't take that chance. I'm now unhappy with my local herp society because they won't do the biopsies and will still adopt out rescued boas. It's just too risky.
 
Every single boid in captivity has the potential to carry the disease without you, the owner never even knowing it. And it can continuously pass down generation after generation and spread throughout many collections. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that people with substancial collections (ie couple hundred boids) have come into contact with the disease at some point without ever knowing it or have bought from people who have aswell. Heck, I could have it. Thankfully when Windsor got sick, he was tested for IBD and it was negative. I am actually going to get viral testing done on a couple of random snakes as a wee health check.

With the huge influx of American imports, I am sure there will only be more and more reports of crypto and IBD etc in years to come. People simply do not practise proper quarantine procedures. I didn't until last summer. But I now keep any new additions at my partners for 2 months before bringing them home to my rep room. Even then they are kept at the opposite end of the room, with strict hygiene procedures. We also spray every new snakes box with proventamite for the first 2 months. Can't be too careful eh...

Diseases are rife within captive snakes. People just don't seem to acknowledge it. When keeping large quantities of reptiles (as most crazy corn/royal/boa people do) you bet your bottom dollar they are sourced from many different sellers and even different countries. Are full vet checks provided for these expensive snakes? When pigs fly I guess... I look forward to a day when reptile trading becomes far more controlled, documented and sensible.
 
snakewispera snr said:
No thats not it...LOL
No this is a real health problem and I've had a pile of answers off other herpers saying the same thing... I just want more opinions to see the general consensus.
As it stands I think that it probably isn't B.S. as quite a few of them I respect.... And they wouldn't make things up....
MIKE
Click to expand...

I don't think it's BS, as such - I just think it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how IBD works.

Pythons tend to die from IBD rather quickly. They're exposed to it, they get ill, they show awful symptoms, and they die. Boas on the other hand can get IBD, remain healthy for years, and then some unknown event can cause it to develop symptoms and die. It's not something you can really quarantine for, unless you keep each boa in individual quarantine forever!

Keeping boas and pythons in the same collection cannot cause IBD. If you buy a boa with IBD - sure, the python may die of it. But if your boas are clean, then the pythons will be fine, as there is nothing to catch.

Personally I would only buy a boa from someone reputable who has pythons too, as a boa-only collection could have IBD carried asymptomatically, while a collection with both in ... well, if there's IBD in there, the owner will have realised and noticed.
 
Tula_Montage said:
Thankfully when Windsor got sick, he was tested for IBD and it was negative. I am actually going to get viral testing done on a couple of random snakes as a wee health check.
Click to expand...

Hi Elle,

I offered to pay for viral testing on one of your snakes, as you have no verification that virus testing was carried out at all, and had made no plans to have a panel done for which you would receive results. I am glad to hear you've decided to have it done on some of your own snakes anyway! But do let me know as I have other things I can better spend my money elsewhere, and there's no point in me paying for testing you're getting done anyway.
 
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