Burm Had IBD--Had to Euthanize It.

[2kdime]

Tiffany, check into Trifectant.

Its what I use once a month to completely "NUKE" enclosures

It doesnt get much more hardcore than this.....

http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/pages/pro_trifect.html

[CoolioTiffany]

So was it diagnosed with IBD or you simply took a preemptive strike? Also Freezing the animal will make it impossible to do a Necropsy. freezing them destroys the tissue and makes pathology near impossible to determine.

I understand your concern and can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing..but if this animal has been in your collection longer than a few weeks you might want to start looking at your other pythons.

As for whats ok to save...I'd say nothing..

there is no known way IBD is transmitted or how long it can live outside a host.. trash it all.. and anything he touch or was with in 20' of..just to be safe..

Hopefully you properly QT'ed this animal..

Every snake in my room seems to be OK, I'm not noticing any signs of them acting strange like the Burm did. In the QT room I checked on everyone before misting, and everyone seemed to be just fine. However, my mean Blood is closest to my Burm, though she is still as mean as always and never noticed a change with her behavior, but I will definitely pull her out later and check on her.

He was QT'ed in the far corner of the room, away from the entrance of the room. Like I said the Blood was closest to him but I don't think anything major could have happened with her, although I will double check her later.

I will disinfect anything he touched and throw away anything I need to so I'm sure my snakes cannot get whatever he had.

[CoolioTiffany]

Tiffany, check into Trifectant.

Its what I use once a month to completely "NUKE" enclosures

It doesnt get much more hardcore than this.....

http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/pages/pro_trifect.html

Thanks! Now that's the stuff we all need

[Twisted Reptiles]

Sorry it didn't work out TIffany. Based on our conversation beforehand, I think you did the right thing. Whether or not it was IBD or not, the snake was suffering and wasn't well and really had little to no chance of survival.

To clarify, this snake was part of the USGE seizure in Texas and was one of many the Phoenix Herp Society went and picked up. From what I've heard and seen, some of the stuff they brought back was pretty abysmal. Some of the critters they brought back from there had all degrees of illness. Could it have been IBD? Yeah. Could it have been something else? Of course. Did she do the right thing? I believe so.

Its easy to sit here and second guess her, but she made an informed decision and it was not an impulsive one. Was freezing the best way? Maybe not, but not everyone is prepared to deal a smashing blow to the skull. There have been many debates over euthanization methods in the past, and I've yet to see one that one conclusive.

Cut her a little bit of slack, her post was a lot more nonchalant than she actually was.

[wolfy-hound]

Without a necrospy(which you cannot do since you froze it) you can't say it was IBD. With as bad of shape as he was in, he could easily have been losing motor control due to the poor shape(through being skinny) and organ failure just before a natural end(which would have happened due to the bad condition he was in to begin with), instead of saying it was automatically IBD just because of tremors and he was skinny and lethargic.

It's a good idea to sterilize and throw out and all that anyway, because there's no telling what he could have had. Euthanizing by freezing or other methods has been discussed to death(sorry for the unintended pun) in several threads. Since you took the snake home from a Sanctuary, I would have thought you would take it back to them for them to euthanize as they saw fit, rather than do it on your own. Just as a matter of policy from most rescues and such, that seems to be the norm rather than home euthanisia.

In the future I would seriously advise you to have a quarentine area further area from your collection than just in a corner of the same room. If you cannot set up a spot in another area of the house, I wouldn't bring anything even a little bit suspect home at all. Just to protect your own animals, understand. Feeling bad for the little skinny guy and hoping you could help is all well and good, but I do not want to read about more of your animals falling ill and dying just because you wanted to help out a sickly one. That would be horrible.

Big hugs for having to lose the poor little guy. I hope that nothing else gets sick. I'll be holding thumbs that it was nothing contagious for you.

[Jason Bowden]

IMO
You did the right thing. This snake was very sick!

I had to put one down last year. To make an aggrivating situation short, I purchased a ball python last year that arrived to me very sick. I went to the vet and one of the first things he told me was that it would be in my best interest to cull the animal. We tried Baytril----After 3 more visits and no progress, I opted to put him down. During all 4 visits to the vet, the vet told me I should cull the snake( in other words-- put him down). The vet explained to me that not enough research/testing, etc. had been done in the herp field to identify and cure all herp viruses, etc.

Just did the typeing for Tiff. She's a strong, smart young lady!

[Crazy4Herps]

Though, as others have mentioned, it can't be "called" IBD without bloodwork, it definitely sounds like a serious neurological condition that puts too many other snakes (both yours and the ones at the shelter) at risk. As it is not your snake, it is not your obligation to pay for blood work, and if the sanctuary has other sick snakes, it's unlikely that they would. Without a permanent owner, there's almost no chance the snake would have received treatment and vet care, even if the problem was treatable (which is unlikely when it comes to neuro problems).

I'm very sorry for your loss and very glad that none of your other animals were affected.

[Chocolate Muffin's]

Tiffany, taking on abused animals in light of the obvious risk is a very noble and compelling thing to do. Your maturity is beyond your youthful years and it is amazing at times.

When I first read the post I was a bit surprised by your tone and that you chose to put the animal down yourself. After one of the people explained a little of the history behind this situation, I feel differently now.

Whether or not the animal had IBD is somewhat irrelevant if you, in good conscious believed the animal was suffering. Sometime, we as adults and as human beings have to make difficult decisions that are unpopular.

Kudos for your graceful handling of the comments and making a choice that you can live with.

[CoolioTiffany]

Before I euthanized the snake, I talked to one of the people at the sanctuary about the Burm and he told me if it was really that bad I can go ahead and freeze him and dispose of him however I needed to. So I did talk to someone before I made the choice the euthanize him just to make sure if it was ok with him that I did that. I did tell him to check all the other Burms in case they got it too.

I felt I did the right thing with freezing him because I simply do not have the heart to smash its head and do not have money to take a snake that is not mine to see an exotic veteranarian. In the future, I wont be making a thread like this again, and if my snakes do end up getting what the Burm had I wouldn't dare to post.

Thanks to the ones that did have nice posts and the ones who posted helpful info that didn't offend me.

[coldblooded]

I'm sorry you had to go through that, it sounds very rough

I don't know how long it takes IBD to show up in animals other than ball pythons, but I would consider all your animals under quarantine now that shared a room with it if they weren't already before. From what I have heard, some python species can live with it for a while much like some boas can. I would be keeping a very close eye on them.

Hopefully it wasn't IBD or something easily transmissible.

I know it must be hard to be around animals every day that need rescuing. I have taken in rescues before on more than one occasion. We take a huge risk in doing so, though..

I'm sorry you were offended by some peoples' posts but I really do think they had your (or the snake's) best interest at heart. It is true that it cannot be conclusive that it was IBD since there was no necropsy, but you made a judgement call that was necessary.