RI transmission

[ja88er]

I work at a bigname pet store and we have one scrawny ball python in the back, not on floor display. I was doing animal maintenance this evening and checked up on him, and my heart sank - he whistled.

I contacted the store leader right away and told him the snake needs a vet apt asap, and he said he'd see about it tomorrow, and I fully intend to follow up on that as much as possible, to make sure it's done. I'm 100% sure this was caused by the poor husbandry the store insists on (and I'm aiming to take the snake home as soon as I have the setup for him) and I plan to up his humidity as much as I can to help, but obviously more treatment than that is needed. This snake is chronically underweight and has had a series of terrible sheds, and I'm seriously worried this RI could kill him.

That aside, my question is: can an RI be transmitted from snake to snake using a human as a vector? I already have one BP at home, and I don't want to risk passing on the infection to my Paris. Is there any chance this could happen from casual handling?

[Gc99]

I mean, if it was me, i would change my clothes and throw them in the washer as soon as i got home, and shower too, but i dont really know how contagious is a RI

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[piedlover79]

Wash your hands before and after handling the sick snake, wash your hands when you get home and as mentioned above change clothes and shower.

You are not going to contract reptile RI and act as a vector in the traditional sense and the chances of RI virus or bacteria surviving on your skin or clothes is slim to none. However proper washing is good practice. I'd worry more about bringing mites home from a pet store than a disease.

[ja88er]

Thanks for the advice, I've changed my clothes and done a few rounds of hand washing, but I'll shower before sleeping tonight. I haven't handled Paris yet tonight, to be safe, and I'll remember to take precautions after my shifts.

[Gc99]

Thanks for the advice, I've changed my clothes and done a few rounds of hand washing, but I'll shower before sleeping tonight. I haven't handled Paris yet tonight, to be safe, and I'll remember to take precautions after my shifts.

Sounds like a plan! And keep us updated about the RI, hopefully the little snake pulls through

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[ja88er]

Sounds like a plan! And keep us updated about the RI, hopefully the little snake pulls through

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Will do! He's been through a lot, the poor guy, this RI is making me so anxious. I just hope my boss takes it seriously and gets him a vet apt within the next few days, I'm gonna be badgering him about it until he does.

[Gc99]

Will do! He's been through a lot, the poor guy, this RI is making me so anxious. I just hope my boss takes it seriously and gets him a vet apt within the next few days, I'm gonna be badgering him about it until he does.

Hopefully he gets to a vet really soon

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[Ba11er]

With profit margins on the line i don't think your boss will want to get a vet. The best thing you can do is try to pass on proper husbandry information to prevent needless RI infections in the bp's / reptiles in the future. Books and research on proper husbandry practices will be a good way to prove you know what your talking about, and make sure you do know what your talking about before going to your boss.

If you dont mind buying better thermometers/hydrometers to get accurate temperatures readings would be another good step to take. Learning basic treatments for common illnesses cant hurt either, especially since you'll probably be the only one trying to get this animal better. good luck !

[ja88er]

With profit margins on the line i don't think your boss will want to get a vet. The best thing you can do is try to pass on proper husbandry information to prevent needless RI infections in the bp's / reptiles in the future. Books and research on proper husbandry practices will be a good way to prove you know what your talking about, and make sure you do know what your talking about before going to your boss.

If you dont mind buying better thermometers/hydrometers to get accurate temperatures readings would be another good step to take. Learning basic treatments for common illnesses cant hurt either, especially since you'll probably be the only one trying to get this animal better. good luck !

I have a temp gun that I've brought to work a few times before, and if I can get permission to work in the back room today I'm gonna try to improve his setup as much as I can. We're really not equipped for proper reptile care anywhere but on the floor, where there's UTHs already set up, but at least I can get him on substrate that will hopefully hold humidity better than reptile carpet. Generally if an animal shows signs of illness or injury, it's store policy to get them a vet apt within 24 hours of being notified, but I've had problems getting my boss to pay attention to this snake before - maybe three months ago he'd had two bad sheds in a row, with his head covered in stuck skin, and it took over a week to get him a vet apt then, I think because my boss didn't think it was a medical problem. The mammals get vet apts as soon as they start sniffling though, which makes me think he's just not a fan of reptiles.

I'm definitely going to try to spread as much accurate information as I can though - I think the biggest problem is that most of the staff get all their husbandry info from the store company and it doesn't occur to them that there might be better sources. That and we're obligated to follow the store caresheets even if they're nonsense. But I'm definitely going to read up on RIs and other preventable illnesses before my shift today, and come armed with printouts.

Thank you for your advice and support!

[ja88er]

A quick update on the store snake, he got a vet apt this past monday and I heard about it today when I got in for my shift, apparently the vet said it's not an RI! They didn't do a bacterial culture, which I really would have preferred, but from a physical examination they said it wasn't an infection - I'm not sure whether to trust them on that or not, a culture seems like the most definitive way to tell for sure, but I'll be keeping an eye on the snake for the next few days to make sure.

If it's really not an RI, my next best guess would be shed around the mouth/nose making the whistling sound I heard? He was looking pretty crunchy when I first heard it, and he's had a history of bad sheds so that might have been it. I'm upping the humidity as much as I can to help with that, and the store protocol is daily soaks (even though that's gotta be stressing him out, but it's almost impossible to keep humidity up in the tank we've got). Either way I'm really hoping the vet's right and it's not an infection.