Let's Clear Some Stuff Up About IBD

[Skiploder]

I'm starting to see the same things stated over and over again about IBD. Namely that it's universally quick and fatal in pythons and that neurological symptoms are the calling card.

While I am far from an expert on IBD, I did deal with it in my collection and I documented as much here. During that ordeal, I was able to correspond with Dr. Elliot Jacobson and talk directly to vets at UC Davis about the disease.

Without dredging up too much history and repeating what I've posted in previous threads, I had two dwarf locality boas with the disease. One presented with mild anorexia and other subclinical symptoms. The other never showed a single symptom.

After failing to be able to resolve any of the former snake's subclinical ailments, my vet took a series of live biopsies, culminating in one of the esophageal tonsils. The histology came back positive for IBD.

At the time, I was heavily into other boid species including aspidites, antaresia and I even had a couple of ball pythons. At great expense, I had tests run on the majority of my animals. The only animal that was also harboring the disease was the boa's mate.

How could that be? The common forum geniuses had assured me that IBD kills and kills quickly. The on-line know it alls had also pointed out numerous care sheets written by other forums mensas that assured me that it spreads like wildfire and that my snakes should all be corkscrewing and stargazing.

Well, when I talked to actual vets and researchers I found that IBD can be present indefinitely without showing any symptoms. I found out that more often than not, it presents itself not with a series of in your face neurological issues, but as stubborn subclinical infections such as mouth rout, RI, gastritis, etc.

I was informed in an email from Dr. J himself (which I shared with some people on this site) that due to the difficulty in screening for the disease and the length of time it can remain dormant, that you can't set a QT period. In the case of my two boas, one remained an asymptomatic carrier for over 7 years.

I was also informed that the carrier rate of asymptomatic boids could run over 30% and that healthy control animals sent to U of F from breeders tested positive for the disease.

After being excoriated by several boa big wigs, I have pretty much kept my mouth shut.

However before we frighten a whole new crop of forum newbies with the dreaded IBD boogeyman, let's make sure that we all understand a couple of things:

(1) IBD more often times than not does NOT present with neurological symptoms.

(2) Animals can carry IBD for an indefinite period of time.

(3) Animals do not always succumb quickly. The idea that a ball python collection is safe with a 90 day quarantine simply isn't true.

Now with regard to ball pythons, my son's godfather is a school teacher who has a ball python as a class room pet. That snake is probably 9 or ten years old.

Since Chris has had the snake, he has never even been kept in the same room as another reptile. The snake has been with Chris since it was a neonate.

Some time in 2009 or 2010, this ball python developed an RI. It was cultured and treated. It then was afflicted with mouth rot, another RI and then a skin infection.

While Chris does not go to our vet, he goes to another vet who may be one of the best in the country. This vet immediately performed a series of biopsies. The culprit - IBD.

Chris made the decision to not euthanize the animal. I don't know the exact time period, but the snake has been living with symptomatic IBD for over a year and was most likely asymptomatic for at least 9.

This is a ball python. Not a boa. A ball python. When Chris told me about what was going on with "Stretch", I talked to my vet. Sure enough, she has treated many pythons species who have similar back stories. Yes I know that flies in the face of what many people have read on Anapsid and other regurge sites, but if you stay current with the disease you'll find that it just isn't universally fatal in pythons.

From an article Dr. Jacobsen recently wrote:

"Snakes make up approximately 19% of all reptiles kept as pets. Of these, boa constrictors and pythons - especially ball pythons - are bred in large numbers for the pet trade. Because many IBD-infected boid snakes may not show outward signs of the disease, infected snakes considered healthy have been sold. We do not know what percentage of snakes infected with IBD will develop clinical symptoms and how many will remain clinically healthy. It is possible that latent infections can persist for long periods.


My own correspondence with Dr. J confirmed the same thing. As I stated earlier, I already shared that with people on this forum, including a mod or two.

We need to stop screaming IBD every time someone's snake does something a bit odd. We also need to stop telling people that if they've had a python more than 3 months and it's healthy that it's free of the disease.

A fine line exists between providing a clear picture of IBD and hysteria. While we should all be concerned about the disease and it's ability to remain undercover so long (and the ramifications of that ability) we also need to not freak people out about it.

As my vet told me, when a snake with neurological symptoms is presented to her, IBD is one of about a dozen things that enter her mind. The trick is that she is a vet and can attempt to diagnose and treat the other 11 things that are more common and often more probable.

None of us are vets, and while we should continue to help people who come here with problems, we need to be extra careful in the advice we dole out.