Why quarantine?

Okay, I know why - just thought I'd get your attention. I mean, I quarantine my new fish before adding them to my main tank. But I'm having a problem understanding quarantining herps. I think my problem is that I keep thinking to myself "I'm not going to put the snakes in the same cage anyway, so why quarantine?" At least I don't understand why to quarantine in a separate room. I understand the possbility of transmitting airborne illnesses, but I've also read that is extremely rare with snakes. I often read something like, "quarantine new snakes before adding to your established collection". Are they talking about if you're going to add your new snake to the same cage/tank as your original snakes? I guess the other reason I don't get this is because I can't see (correct me if I'm wrong) breeders with all the snakes they have even being able to quarantine each snake in a separate cage in a seperate room. That's a lot of rooms. So I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into it or not. If I plan to house my snakes in the same room but in different tanks/cages, do I need to quarantine in a different room? I can definetely understand if I'm using a rack because the quarters are so close. But if my snakes will be in cages/tanks on opposite sides of the room (for example), do I still need to quarantine in a separate room?

Thanks for reading, as I'm just having a hard time (for some reason) grasping this one - and I'm not sure if I'm understanding what I read.

:D

Oh yeah, and I do understand that I would clean the new animals tanks last (while in quarantine). I plan to clean on separate days so that they cleaning supplies/tools can be disinfected first.

There are several good resaons. Minor: mites, etc. Major: BID - This disease can be transmitted without contact between snakes (airborne) and is usually deadly to Boas, and is pretty much always deadly to Pythons.

So a new boid in your snake room could result in all your boids dying over the course of six months. So far, no cases of BID in Colubrids but it's not clear that they cannot carry it an then infect your boids.

In other words, quarentine your new corn from your bp's too, just in case.

There are good articles on BID online. Check it out.

He means "IBD." "BID" is at EBay! LOL

And from what I've read, mites can travel 48 feet in an hour (don't remember where I got that), so to quarantine effectively against mites, you need the rooms really far apart as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marla

...so to quarantine effectively against mites, you need the rooms really far apart as well.

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Or just fog the room with Black Knight. ;)

But as far as quarantining, I'm afraid of IBD the most. But there's nothing we can do about it. I would think quarantining a snake would just delay the symptoms. Say a BCI has IBD (they are able to have it their whole life and never show it; they are mainly carriers, but can also die from it) and you throw a Ball python(VERY susceptible to it) in the cage with the boa, and then Ball python dies within 30 days or so because of nothing, then you know the BCI has IBD...But other than that, how the heck would you know? So Tigergenesis, this has been one of my questions to...I'll be interested to hear some responses.

emroul,Ddoes every boa, of all the boa species carry this in their SyItem.
so i should prbually never let the bp's play with the boa do to this,right?
If there are no physical signs of IBD and you say that know one can tell who is a carrier, what happens chemically to the bp that makes him/her die in roughly 30 days, any evidence of this in a biopsy?
Its a known illness (or somthing) I would just think that theres gotta be somthing to see before it would be to late...Interesting!

Well, here are a few links to info on IBD. Hopefully this helps answer your questions if ou can take time to read them (they are pdf files so you need Acrobat Reader to see them accurately):

http://pkreptiles.com/pdf/articles/IBD.pdf

http://pkreptiles.com/pdf/articles/IBD_case_study.pdf

http://pkreptiles.com/pdf/articles/IBD_virus.pdf

http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html

http://www.anapsid.org/ibdafip.html

http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/sacs/wildlife/IBDINFO.html

Those are a few that I have read. They should keep you reading for awhile, so sit back and grab a drink! LOL..

Jennifer

the only way to tell if they have IBD is a liver biopsy. every boid CAN carry it, but not all do have it. as for what happens chemically...i dont know. and im also not sure why it affect pythons more then boas. i dont know if anyone realy knows that.
letting your BP play with your boa can just be risky. but consideing its airborn...if they have already been doing it, and you bp is fine, then they prolly dont have IBD

Thanks for correcting my dyslexic post. (BID vs. IBD) "Clapton is Dog".

Emroul, thanks for the links. I didn't realize that IBD was a possible airborne illness. Other than mites, etc I was having a difficult time figuring out what might be transmitted between snakes.

Now my question is this...some sources say quarantine for 1 month, some say 1-3 months, some say 3-6 months, etc. I don't know which to do. I realize that some boids (particularly boas) may be asymptomatic with regards to IBD. What's the 'life cycle' of mites? Now I'm boggled by the different recommendations on how long to quarantine.