IBD at petstore (I think) - HELP!

[weirdbuglady]

I work at a pet store and a while ago we got a shipment of ball pythons, some of which were destined to go to other stores. We still have about 40 waiting to be sent out. I admit the conditions are crowded and not very good but they have been eating regularly, I keep bugging the bosses every day to find a place for them but no luck, we've been stuck with them about a month. I don't know why they got so many snakes, its heartbreaking not being able to do much for them.

The problem is, the last time we cleaned the enclosures (they were all in small separate tubs but they started getting blisters from the humidity or perhaps from the conditions they were shipped to us in. We took a few to the vet and he gave us a cream to use, and it worked but we didnt want them in unsanitary conditions, we wanted to keep them separated but they would keep overturning their water dishes and making an aweful mess in their tubs), and we put them in groups into a bunch of 10 gallon tanks... and we found a few with what I think is IBD... they would keep twisting their heads around and around, pointing their heads upwards, and generally acting strange. Totally uncoordinated. Those we kept separated and they died within a few days.

Now the problem is... at one point, these balls were shipped to us all together in a few tubs. And now they're back together again, so, if those ball pythons had IBD, how likely is it that the others have it too? Would *all* of them have it? We have a few out on the floor for sale that were separated right away, should I be worried about those? I read that IBD can take a long time to show up. I don't want us to send out sick ball pythons, but we don't want to keep them all either, its a lot of mouths to feed. What do you think we should do?

I took home one of the baby ball pythons very early on... I'm hoping he doesnt end up having it

[JLC]

A necropsy done on the bodies of the deceased snakes can confirm or rule out IBD. From what you describe, though...and from what little I know of the disease....it doesn't sound like IBD to me. It sounds like the little snakes had some sort of neurological damage...either due to genetics, or injury, or being exposed to some sort of toxic chemical. Injury or poisoning could easily result in death. And genetic defects could also bring about a quick death in an animal being exposed to highly stressful situations, as it sounds like those are.


Good luck with them. I'd certainly keep an eye out on the rest to see if any others show the same symptoms. And if at all possible, I'd get one or more of those deceased animals to a vet for a proper necropsy to find out if any of the other animals are at risk or not.

[weirdbuglady]

Thanks, I'll definitely have the boss do that, she's usually not hesitant about taking anything to the vet, and it would be worth it to get an answer.

I was worried because I read about how IBD made snakes act disoriented and move funny but I don't really know a ton about it... I just hope that's not what it is.

[wolfy-hound]

If it IS IBD, then most if not all would probaly die.
It could easily be due to overheating during piling up near heat too.
Lots of possibilities so we'll all hope that it's something easy for you to take care of.
Good luck!

[qiksilver]

IBD info

[darkdreamer]

I would have that tests done on the dead ones, if your boss sells the others with the knowledge that they "could possibly" have IBD not only would that be bad Ethics but bad business, What is he going to do if they do have IBD and they all end up dying? Not to mention of the possability of those snakes coming into contact with other snakes.

Just a sad situation....

[weirdbuglady]

Yeah I read that link on IBD, the thing is it has so many symptoms, I want to make sure. I go into work again on thursday and I'll see if she has a vet that will do tests on a dead one. At first I thought it was just stress from shipping, etc., when a few died, but in the past week we've had a few that were acting very strange and writhing around that ended up dying. No matter what I feel horrible that we don't have enough room to house them separately and correctly. The boss said we're definitely not ever getting that many bps at once again!

If they do have IBD, I'm not sure what we should do, since it would definitely be bad to sell the snakes and have them die at other pet stores and possibly infect other snakes. Luckily at least these snakes are in a separate room at the other end of the store from our other snakes and all the employees are obsessive about washing hands and using hand sanitizer.