Pregnancy And Snakes

[alucard0822]

We have one child and another on the way, and have brought up the topic to several vets and my wife's doctors, although every situation is different. Have to be careful with opinions, some folks in a position of knowledge or authority would rather you get rid of every pet you have if there is ANY risk no matter how small or manageable, may not know much about reptiles, or may be biased, although a good doc can better help you make an informed decision on the risks, minimizing them, and deciding what you can manage.

First and foremost is the health of you and your baby, if housing and caring for ANY pet will make it too difficult for you to handle the hourly round the clock feedings and care of a newborn, then they have to go, temporarily if you can foster them out for a while, or get someone else to care for them, downsizing a collection as needed. Reptile caging should be very secure, especially if you have any larger species. Keeping live rodents is fairly high risk, they can carry LCMV virus, which can cause defects or death in an unborn child, it's primarily carried and passed from wild rodents through bites or bodily wastes, so it's critical to exterminate any unwanted houseguests, as the predominate risk is from wild pests. There is less risk from a captive colony not exposed to wild rodents, or rats from a trusted breeder, but it is still possible. The severity of the effects though basically puts it in a category where you probably shouldn't handle or even keep live rodents, and feed frozen/thawed if possible, preferably by someone else, or at minimum wear gloves, use disinfectant and take precaution which would lessen the risk.

Salmonella in snakes can be contracted through their waste and poor sanitation, kids and pregnant women are at a higher risk of contracting it after exposure, so good husbandry is important all the time. It can on rare occasions cause complications beyond temporary "food poisoning" symptoms, and stress from the symptoms can be bad, although the risk from other sources like undercooked, or contaminated food, and less severity compared to LCMV or Toxoplasmosis(passed from cat waste), means it isn't a critical problem. Have someone else clean and disinfect the cage if you can, clean and disinfect often, and wash/disinfect hands and anything else the snake touches while you handle it.

I'm not a doctor, only passing on what the general consensus seems to be between our docs, and general good practices handling reptiles. Only had 1 assistant tell me we should get rid of our reptiles, couldn't really say why, did say she was afraid of snakes, and kinda backpeddled on it being something she heard or read somewhere(seemed a lot more opinion than fact). Her boss the doc said no reason to get rid of them, our cat's litterbox was more of a concern, although it was preferable that I handle feeding and cleaning, and good hygiene after handling was important. Have had some of the same family opinions as Darkbird, and had about the same reaction to them, for some reason otherwise rational people let all facts and logic go out the window as soon as you mention anything to do with snakes.