The quarantine process

[LadyOhh]

I am very anal about temps and humidity as you can see thats why I use several thermometers to double check accuracy of my T-Stats and the thermometers themselves.

LMAO!!!

Show them your room

[West Coast Jungle]

LMAO!!!

Show them your room

I know

When Heather first visited my snake room I think she was a little overwhelmed by the 20,000 accurites coming out of all the tubs.

We all have our quirks

[Mochelem]

Please never depend on luck. Eventually it will catch up with you and as seen far too often, the snakes will pay the ultimate and final price.

Lol Im not depending on luck, I see some holes in my QT system now and when the new arrivals come I will pay a little more attention to them.

Unfortunatly I live in a small appartment for the time being, and all I can do is have them one room away... That is uncontrolable but I will be thinking of this sort of thing when we are buying a house in a year!!

[frankykeno]

Lol Im not depending on luck, I see some holes in my QT system now and when the new arrivals come I will pay a little more attention to them.

Unfortunatly I live in a small appartment for the time being, and all I can do is have them one room away... That is uncontrolable but I will be thinking of this sort of thing when we are buying a house in a year!!

Hey it's not like any one of us in a normal home situation can create some sort of level 5 biohazard containment field LOL. At least you are trying by keeping them in completely seperate rooms. If this thread helps you see some issues to address and tweak your QT to make it even more effective, hey we did good!

You'd be surprised how many people either don't quarantine at all and think seperate tubs in the same rack means disease can't spread from a new, incoming animal to one that's been there for years.

[snakelady]

This is a great thread!

I do most of the good practices mentioned in the earlier threads. 3 months qt. Wash, change clothes, don't share food or tongs, etc.
My regular snake room is in my lower level and my QT is on the upper level of my house. Of course the air does circulate through the whole house but I can't build a separate building like I'd like to...some day maybe.

I wasn't sure what to do about new arrivals if my QT section was already occupied. Now I've got some ideas. Thanks guys!

[FloridaHogs]

Same as most of the things mentioned. I use two different rooms for quar. (my kids rooms). The kids do not handle the animals unless mom is around, and they do not handle the qt animals at all. That is as far away as I can get the qt animals from the main collection (my office/dining room). I do a 3 dose round of panacur for newbies, so once that is over, and they are clean and feeding, then they come out of QT. I do not care for PAM because Hoggies are sensitive to it, so newbies get a nice mineral oil rub down. Only had mites come in once, and the min. oil took care of them right quick.

As for cleaning my water dishes and tubs.....all but my 41 qt tubs fit in my dishwasher, which has a wonderful sanitary cycle. (no I do not wash human dishes with the snakey ones) I have twice as many water dishes as I do tubs, so it is an easy exchange one a week. Take out dirty, put in clean, wash dirty for the next week. Easy breezy! I am thinking about doing the same with my tubs. Have extras, so that on cleaning day I can just swap clean for dirty. I think it would make cleaning day go faster.

[Drew87]

GREAT THREAD!!! I say sticky it.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

*QT is 60 days minimum (usually 90) upstairs in the spare bedroom (the snake room is downstairs in the basement)
*Each room has it’s own supply which is cleaned separately \
*All new addition as well as establish collection get treated with PAM
*Un-eaten prey from snakes in QT are kept separately and only offered to snakes in QT
*I always work with my establish collection first and than work with the snake in QT

[Mochelem]

Quarantine process is very important to the health of your collection. This process separates newly aquired snakes from your healthy collection. Just because you get your snake from a reputable breeder doesn't guarantee that the snake will be free of illness.

1. You will need enclosures in a separate room as far away as you can get from the rest of your collection (a separate building is prefered but not allways possible), these enclosures need to have heat, substrate, hides and fresh water just like any other enclosure.

2. (optional) Treat quarantine enclosures with PAM (Provent A Mite) prior to receiving your snakes. This may be a good idea in case there are some mites or eggs that you cant see on your snake.

3. Any tools used for your snake such as feeding tongs, hand sanitizer, paper towels, disinfectant, spray bottles, should all be used strictly in your quarantine area and never taken into the same room as your collection. It is advisable to feed and maintain your general collection before maintaining the quarantine snakes. If you are in the quarantine room before you go into your collection room you should take a shower, and change clothes before entering your collection room.

4. Keep snakes in the quarantine room for a 90 day period, during this time observe snake for any signs of illness such as mites, respiratory infection, problematic feces, or signs of IBD. If you aquire any new snakes during this 90 day period, then start all snakes at day 1 in the quarantine area. Make sure all snakes are there for 90 days without any signs of illness.

5. When feeding quarantined snakes, if they refuse to eat keep the live rodent in the same room as the quarantine snakes, and feed the rodent to the same animal on the next feeding day. The rodent could possibly spread an illness. If it is a Frozen thawed or pre killed rodent and its refused just throw the rodent away. Make sure the snake is eating regularly before you put it with your collection, this can be a sign of internal paracites. If a snake wont eat make sure your husbandry is right and take a fecal sample with the snake to your Vet.

6. If people come to visit you and want to see your snakes, dont let them handle anything in quarantine. Don't let your children handle quarantine animals, in fact handling should be kept to a minimum unless your prepared to take a shower and change your clothes.

7.When you first get the snakes give them a good look over, make sure you dont see any obvious signs of paracites and illness. If you find any mites treat it as soon as you see them. Any other signs of illness such as scale or mouth rot or respiratory infection should be immediatly treated by a Vet, and the breeder that you aquired the snake from should be contacted, most give a health guarantee...


Just remember to use common sense, spreading some of these illness' are just like catching a cold, you can catch it just from being near somone who has an infection...

[kid_mustango02]

Another thing I'd like out of this thread is the threats we're looking out for which could take 90 days to start showing. I realize I'm doing a semi-QT process, but dont really know why