Burm Had IBD--Had to Euthanize It.

[CoolioTiffany]

Hi,

It really does seem to be affecting a heck of a wide set of animals to be IBD Tiff.

There are a few parasites that can cause the symptoms you mention (some protozoans and a couple of others I think).

This is why a lot of people wince when they hear of people taking in animals from rescue centers.

They are always short of cash and, typicaly (but not always ), have neither the manpower or resources to really deal with half the problems they get.

By their very nature they get a lot of the real problem cases - and those cost money at a heck of a rate.

At this point it's possible they are actually increasing the chances of the animals dying compared to the situation they were "rescued" from.

I hope they get some of the animals tested to find out what the problem is and manage to get it under control.


dr del

To really think about it, it really does seem to be affecting a lot of the snakes at the sanctuary.

We did Flagyl them for the first two or so weeks and got rid of any ticks or mites they may have had. The Ball pythons were the ones that were heavily infested with ticks, only a handful had mites. We did manage to get rid of anything external, and hopefully most of everything internal. Maybe for some of them the Flagyl didn't kill off everything it had and the parasite population increased.

To be honest, I believe we may have saved mostly only the colubrids because those snakes were/got in the best shape after we brought them here (including most of the Burms and only a portion of the Ball pythons), but everything else seemed to be in mostly OK to bad shape, or went from OK to bad shape. Our Hognoses we got from there (two Mexican Hogs, two Albino Hogs) that we're keeping are doing great with nothing really happening which I'm glad of, the Albinos are very nice looking and pretty friendly.

To add in lizards, they all mostly did horribly. The Columbian Tegus were healthy and mean, and mostly all of the Brown Basilisks did well too. Mostly all of the Agamas (Butterflies and Dragons) died, and some of the Leopard geckos were in bad shape (very skinny). Many of our Water Dragons (MANY) died, so we only have about (guessing) 10 or so left.

Thanks for the kind words, I do really hope we can fight off whatever is going around. I don't notice any of our snakes aside from the seizure show any symptoms of anything bad.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I think you really need to send the next one that dies off for a necropsy--if it's IBD, reovirus, or paramyxovirus, or one of the other nasties, they may at least be able to guess at which one, and give some advice. Some of these diseases can be passed between all species of snakes, and even some lizards.

I also recommend finding an alternative to freezing. Snakes do not hibernate--they brumate. That means they stay awake when it gets cold, they don't fall asleep. They just slow down a lot. So, the snake would be conscious as it starts to freeze. It can't be considered humane, or quick, unless you're using liquid nitrogen, and the animal is quite small. It's no longer recommended by any veterinary association, for this reason. There are still a lot of people around who remember when it was recommended, and pass the info on, unfortunately. Due to a reptile's slow metabolism, there are few ways to humanely euthanize one, sadly. If that's your goal...well, there simply is no choice but to stop freezing and use another method. Not condemning you, of course--you only knew what you were told. I recommend looking into it further on veterinary sites and research papers if you want confirmation on this.