So, I'm looking on Craigslist....

much to my chagrin, and I see an ad to "rehome" a female baby ball python. Turns out that this young lady bought one at the Raleigh show, and can't keep her. Thirty dollar "rehoming fee" and she is mine. Good enough. We agree to meet, and she shows up with her in her hand. I nearly shat. I knew that I had to bring something to put her in, but I figured there would be some sort of transfer. But she is a sweet girl, captive hatched, and managed to escape in my car when I got home. All I had at work was a cardboard box, and she figured that out quick. So, my question is, what is the incident of IBD in CH snakes? She of course is in quarrentine, but I was wondering.

They don't live very long if they have it. You would probably know within 3 months. How old is she? Is there a reason you suspect this?

3 months? IBD has been known to kill pythons in a matter of weeks...

Just practice your normal quarantine procedures and everything will be fine.

All I said is if it was going to happen, it would probably happen in that time period. My snake lived over a month, with me anyhow, before he died of IBD.

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Originally Posted by darkangel

All I said is if it was going to happen, it would probably happen in that time period. My snake lived over a month, with me anyhow, before he died of IBD.

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Was a necropsy done to confirm IBD?

Unfortunately not, they gave me the standard answer of 'even if we did we can never confirm' yadayada. But after some research there were several cases of IBD in my area in that time period, from that Petco, and several of their pythons were star-gazing. I of course can't ever be 100% sure, but he developed the symptoms very quickly, and prior to the days before he went to the vet, was asymptomatic. He had no parasites and no RI.

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Originally Posted by darkangel

They don't live very long if they have it. You would probably know within 3 months. How old is she? Is there a reason you suspect this?

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I don't have any reason to suspect it, just a little nervous as this is the first one I've got that didn't come from a respectable breeder or a family member. She can't be more than two months old. From what I've seen, IBD is symptomless until its too late, and by then the whole collection has it. As she is from out of the coutry, techncally, its my first exposure, so to speak.

It's not symptomless in pythons. They show very drastic changes such as neurological disorders, wasting, anorexia, etc. It's a very dramatic disease progression with pythons. Boas, on the other hand, sometimes won't show signs for years other than poor eating habits every so often.

FWIW, I've gotten many snakes off of Craigslist and all have been fairly healthy(some underweight or had retained shed). But all were free and clear of any external or internal parasites(checked myself). They all came out of quarantine just fine. There was one I didn't quarantine because he had been kept with a boa for 3 years of his life(boa was also 3 years and severely stunted). So, if he actually had had a problem, he would have been dead long ago :) Probably why I named him Petri-Dish(he has since gone to Sarah, renamed Tim, and is their garbage disposal).

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

FWIW, I've gotten many snakes off of Craigslist

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It was that I was embarassed about getting a snake off of Craigslist, its the fact that I was looking at it.:P

I know :) It's easy to get sucked in to the black hole that it is.