Have you guys read this sad IBD story?

[Skiploder]

It seems awfully strung out to me too, I was always advised that balls died within about a month.. not several months. If she had necropsies done, they would have seen the IBD to begin with, so when did she have the first necropsy? Or possibly testing on liver biopsy? If she never had that done, then I would suspect something else for it to take so very long between snakes, but I guess anything is possible.

Time of death from IBD varies from snake to snake, species to species. I had two long term captive boas come down with IBD. They were in a room with several pythons species - including a ball.

They were also in a rack with 10 pythons - none of which were infected. These boas were asymptomatic for over five years. The two boas who were diagnosed with it via esophageal biopsies had been mated several times over the years.

So in my very limited experience, it doesn't spread that easy. It takes a definite vector. On the other hand, an RI or other virus can be spread easily through the air.

I had a friend go through an OPMV outbreak and all of his affected snakes went very quickly with amazing amounts of mucous coming out of their mouths in the very final stage.

It could have also been an RI. There are several highly resistant strains out there. That's why it's so important to not administer antibiotics until a culture has been performed.