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.

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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.

No problem. I've stuck to the 90 day rule for quarantine, and it seems to be working okay for me. Others may say differently, I don't know.

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Originally Posted by Tigergenesis

What's the 'life cycle' of mites?

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Go to this link: http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_02.asp and scroll down. You will see a "life cycle" chart for mites.

Jennifer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emroul

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. ;)

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Exactly. My point was that it's very difficult and/or unlikely for most folks to be able to use quarantine as a method of avoiding mite infestation. If you have a separate outbuilding for quarantine, you might be able to do it successfully, but that's not going to apply to most herpers.

Better and easier to just proactively treat for mites when/before bringing them in the door. Based on this, my guess is if you have bp's only, then a Black Knight spraying, course of Panacur, and 30 days quarantine (or skip the Panacur and quarantine for 90 days) ought to work. If you have any boids that can just be carriers, then I don't think you can ever safely end quarantine between species.

What is Panacur for?

Treating internal parasites. Panacur is recommended along with Flagyl. That's what the vet gives the snake when it has internal parasites.

If you buy a snake from a well known breeder like NERD or Bob Clark etc.

Do you still need to quarentine your new addition for 90 days?

Sorry , not trying to hijack the thread but I figured it was an appropriate question to put here.

Thanks for the links! It was very nice of PKR and the others to put those up. However, I got the idea that most of those where from 1996.

I'm by no means an expert in IBD but I did have several conversations with my vet recently who has been involved in some recent studies. I'm not sure if the airborne theory mentioned in the older article has been completely ruled out but from our conversation I got the idea that it is an aids like disease spread by contact with bodily fluids such as with breeding and mites/ticks and mother to offspring.

My vet indicated that he didn't think enough had been done to control it and that it is now common in boa collections all over the world. I'm not sure how many breeders are doing the liver biopsy test but at this point and with the potential of a boa to live a long time with it and spread it to mates and offspring it sounds like that would be the only way to be assured of starting a clean breeding group. Maybe it's a good thing for us python people IF (I'm not sure) a python can't live long enough to pass this on to their offspring. Also I'm wondering if the egg might offer protection, but then again boas probably don't have blood exchange with unborn babies either (no placenta) and it sounds like baby boas can get this from their mother so maybe hatchling pythons can too.

Scary stuff! Sounds like if you control all mites and don't house boas and pythons together you are probably safe for the pythons but boa breeders face the challenge of not spreading it through breeding.

PS: While I think your odds of not getting mites or IBD are much better with a well known breeder as compared to a pet store I would feel that the stakes are just too high not to quarantine a new python, at least long enough to be sure you have killed off any mites