IBD possibly caused by newly discovered rodent virus!

[Skiploder]

guess ill fall under that group then, I dont understand why on earth you would bring, what is now understood as random misinformation out of basically no where. Was it just "someone said IBD, I must bring this up!". So you took the time to post it so there must of been some sort of point..... then the link you post could easily tie into your sarcasm when you are thinking it does, hence my confusion on the 2nd post. Skip being over the top with his words.... yes im going to see that as sarcasm, he is normally such a dull character.

Tell you what, OWAL, let me explain why I always reference back to the Boaphile quotes. Maybe then it will put this whole thing into context. Then again, maybe it won't..........

A number of years ago I had to deal with IBD. It was chronicled here and on some other forums. How it occurred (in two long term animals) and what we went through in terms of testing, emotions, money stress etc.(including things I learned that were contrary to the common wisdom at the time) were openly shared.

At the time, there was a real fear in the snake community that it could jump to colubrids, and while my collection of boas was very small, my group of colubrids and antaresia and aspidites encompassed some animals that are fairly rare in the States and whose history with me goes back almost 30 years.

I made a conscious effort to share everything that I was learning and guess what? I took a drubbing for it.

Many people in the boa community sent me PMs and emails accusing me of fear mongering and more people than I could have ever imagined claimed that IBD did not exist. The proof that was cited? Well, the number one reference was Ronne's quotes.

Now whether Jeff still denies the existence of IBD or not - I don't know and could care less. The fact is that he did and that the fact that he was considered by some the final say in all things boa was constantly used against me. Why do I still bring it up? Well, OWAL, some of those people who used those quotes against me (and posts he has made on other forums) still post on this forum today. It's my way of needling them back for the BS they tried to fling at me. In fact, in some cases, I am careful to use their very words.......

I'll go ahead and drop my knife and hold out my hand to Travis or anyone else I've snapped at in this thread. IBD is deadly serious to me. I had to euthanize long term animals I cared about and had to sacrifice more for testing. I spent a long stretch of time in constant dread of walking into the snake house and more importantly, my faith in this community plummeted. I saw people who were more concerned that by me sharing my experiences, that it would hurt their bottom line. When I heard from the IBD researchers that the boa community was literally not supporting their research, I decided that I was done with boids and the subset of hypocritical jackasses who seemed to be their voice at the time.

There are people in this business that I will not spend a penny on because of their stance on this issue. I have made it a point to not support deniers. I also give annually to IBD research and have repeatedly encouraged people to support the work of Dr. Jacobson and others.

If anyone wishes to discuss this further, you can PM me. That includes anyone else who has been cross linked to this thread on other forums.