Need URGENT help/advice...

[Ridinandreptiles]

Some disease ransacked my colection over my two day vacation. I had left, the snakes had water and all looked good...some had shown very minimalweight loss as it is that time of year for them to staop eating. I get back and 1 snake is DEAD. and looked like it had had substantial weight loss....two others are horrificaly skinny and almost to the point of no return. One thing that i had noticed is that the younger snakes are the only ones that seemed to have gotten ill. so, my question is what parisite/disease did this so fast and what should i do now.......i dont want to have even one more snake get ill as the thought wrenches my gut...please help me!

[Ridinandreptiles]

id like to add that the skinny ones that are not looking good are great eaters and refused food today...

[Skittles1101]

There is nothing we can do on here to help you I don't think, I suggest getting a necropsy done on the dead snake as soon as possible, and a vet trip should be set up for the sick ones. Quarantine any healthy looking ones in a different area of the house to avoid them getting sick.

[Ridinandreptiles]

yes i plan on quarantining/disenfecting all other snakes......i was wondering if anybody has an idea of what can do this to a snake???? especially in the short amount of time it happened in.....

[Skittles1101]

I'm sure there are a number of things that can, that's why you should get the necropsy done...

[Kittycatpenut]

I'm not sure if it affects snakes, but Crypto does something similar to leopard geckos. Definately get a necropsy.

[Ridinandreptiles]

how should i save the corpse considering the only vet office in our town in closed till Jan. 2?

[mr.spooky]

how big is the snake?

[Skittles1101]

I've heard freezing it is the last thing you should do as it can kill whatever the cause was. My inexperienced guess would be to refrigerate, but I'd hold off on that until someone with more experience with this chimes in...

[mr.spooky]

what state are you in? some state animal diagnostic labs accept animals from private owners. thats really a long time for refrigeration, and freezing will destroy cells, limiting tests. if there are no other options freeze it and hope for the best.
spooky