IBD in boas??

[tigerretic76]

its not cool for the animals, but staying away is probably the best thing you can do for your animals

[DavidG]

I'm only a little firmiliar with IBD. Is it possible to transfer from human to animal? Bad wording... If I walked into a pet shop after holding my snake at home and it has IBD then held a snake while there (30 minutes later) could the shop snake get IBD?

[Michelle.C]

I'm only a little firmiliar with IBD. Is it possible to transfer from human to animal? Bad wording... If I walked into a pet shop after holding my snake at home and it has IBD then held a snake while there (30 minutes later) could the shop snake get IBD?

They aren't entirely sure all of the ways it can be transfered. A few ways is through reproduction between an infected animal, sharing water sources, fecal contamination, mites, saliva, etc. So, in theory, you probably wouldn't transfer the IBD, but it is possible.

I seriously wouldn't risk handling strange animals without sending yourself through a sterilization of sorts.

After visiting someone else's collection, I remove all contaminated clothes and they go directly into the washer. After that, I bathe. I do this same procedure after visiting pet stores, etc.

[tigerretic76]

the bad thing about ibd, is there is little truly known about it. in my line of work of veterinary medicine, i get to work with alot of herp vets (im an emergency/critical care guy though, but i do relief work with some of the herp vets around my area). one of the herp vets, dr. todd driggers is doing pretty extensive research on ibd. there are tons of theories on this disease and how it is transmitted. one theory is that it is mite transmitted, meaning the mites are asymptomatic carriers of the inclusion cells that infect snakes. kind of like lymes disease of tick fever (in dogs). they are also speculating that it is transmitted much like flu or cold viruses, oro-nasal or contact. most likely humans play no roll in transmission other than being a temporary host. i believe so far, the only way(s) to diagnose it is to do a full blown necropsy when the animal dies, or you can put them under sedation or anesthesia and do ultra sound to get cell samples from the liver (or more dangerously,the brain) and submit them to a pathologist. this disease is alot like aids was in the 80's, not alot known about it