I work at a pet store and a while ago we got a shipment of ball pythons, some of which were destined to go to other stores. We still have about 40 waiting to be sent out. I admit the conditions are crowded and not very good but they have been eating regularly, I keep bugging the bosses every day to find a place for them but no luck, we've been stuck with them about a month. I don't know why they got so many snakes, its heartbreaking not being able to do much for them.

The problem is, the last time we cleaned the enclosures (they were all in small separate tubs but they started getting blisters from the humidity or perhaps from the conditions they were shipped to us in. We took a few to the vet and he gave us a cream to use, and it worked but we didnt want them in unsanitary conditions, we wanted to keep them separated but they would keep overturning their water dishes and making an aweful mess in their tubs), and we put them in groups into a bunch of 10 gallon tanks... and we found a few with what I think is IBD... they would keep twisting their heads around and around, pointing their heads upwards, and generally acting strange. Totally uncoordinated. Those we kept separated and they died within a few days.

Now the problem is... at one point, these balls were shipped to us all together in a few tubs. And now they're back together again, so, if those ball pythons had IBD, how likely is it that the others have it too? Would *all* of them have it? We have a few out on the floor for sale that were separated right away, should I be worried about those? I read that IBD can take a long time to show up. I don't want us to send out sick ball pythons, but we don't want to keep them all either, its a lot of mouths to feed. What do you think we should do?

I took home one of the baby ball pythons very early on... I'm hoping he doesnt end up having it