My Experience with a Fatal Viral BP Infection (for those who need advice)

[LindseyVail]

Hello!

In the past 7 months or so I had one of my ball pythons pass away from a viral infection. I wanted to share the story in case anyone needs advice.

Fez was about a year old ball python, with your standard glass tank setup with the standard temps, humidity, etc. One day he started seeming disoriented when we held him, he was pushing his nose on things and such. Over the next few days he spiraled and started moving in a loopy way. We took him to the vet immediately and they thought it might be IBD. We sent in a viral test and got an x-ray and started doing physical therapy and giving antibiotic injections. He stopped being able to strike his food after a few weeks (he kept missing), his eyes went crosseyed, he stopped really thermoregulating or even moving around his tank for that matter. He wasn't drinking so we gave him baths as well. He also couldn't flip over when he was on his back. Every night it was a bath and physical therapy.

After a week or two the results of the IBD test came back negative (however, there was a 20% chance of a false negative). The vet decided to switch to some sort of anti-inflammatory injection (that wasn't an immunosuppresant) instead of antibiotics. He said that the neurological symptoms were coming from swelling of the brain and spinal cord tissue. They also tube-fed him while he was there. The injections helped. His eyes went back to normal, he was able to flip back over when upside down, he was thermoregulating, etc. However, he still couldn't eat even though you could tell he was hungry. He couldn't strike the food because his aim was so bad and even when he got it in his mouth, he dropped it eventually because he didn't have the coordination to slither around in order to eat and fully digest his food. He got down one pinky one time, and it took him over an hour (he was on small rats before he got sick).

After a while we went back to the vet because although there was some improvement, there wasn't a good quality of life by any stretch of the term. We had a conversation with the vet as to whether to put him down or to tube feed him. After many tears and a lot of thinking, we decided to put Fez down. (At this point it had been 6 months since his first symptoms and about 2 or 3 months since he had last eaten a normal meal on his own. We were at a research vet hospital, so they offered to do an autopsy for free. We got a call a few weeks later saying it definitely wasn't IBD and was most likely another infection (which I am unfortunately forgetting the name of right now).

If anyone needs advice on a sick snake, feel free to reach out. I posted some threads about Fez during the ordeal which you should be able to find under my username.

[alittleFREE]

I'm sad to hear that you had this experience. It sounds like you did everything you could. Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry for your loss!

Did they have any idea how he caught the virus? Or was it a bacterial infection? Just curious, as this seems like a nightmare.

[bcr229]

I'm sorry. I'd also very much like to know what he had.

[Bogertophis]

Very sorry for the sad loss of your snake...but I appreciate you sharing your experience with us here. Would love to know what his actual diagnosis was
from the necropsy. You & the vet did your best for him, it's a shame that the illness 'won'. Unsettling to know that there's more than just IBD floating around
with similar symptoms...poor snakes.

[Armiyana]

After seeing the negative on ibd, my thoughts were on meningitis. I am curious to know the actual result myself.

So sorry for your loss, but thank you for sharing this with us. I hope that things will look bright for you with future pet endeavors.
The fact that you tried so hard for your little Fez is amazing and inspiring.

[Bogertophis]

By the way, are your other snakes remaining healthy, with no signs of a similar infection? I hope...

[Michelle-07]

So sorry to hear that... but also thanks for sharing your experience.

[LindseyVail]

Hi all-
We ruled out bacterial meningitis because the antibiotics weren't working. I'll try to call the vet and see if they have the name of the specific virus they ended up thinking he had, even though the necropsy didn't yield definite results.

Thankfully none of my other snakes (rainbow boa and BCI) have showed any similar symptoms whatsover. Both are healthy. When Fez got sick we moved him to the other side of the room and always made sure to be very sanitary about his care and handling him.

Unfortunately we don't know where he got the virus from. He could have had a bad rat or maybe when we got him he had some underlying viral infection that hadn't manifested itself physically. I wish we knew what exactly caused it so as to help others in the future.

[Florence_Bones]

Can snakes get sick from bad rats???????

[dr del]

Can snakes get sick from bad rats???????

Yes, if the rat was exposed to any toxins or if the rat has started to decompose too much. That's why we don't feed wild caught rats/mice etc and always do the "sniff test" before offering once you have defrosted the prey if using F/T.

I also advise not re-freezing F/T if the snake doesn't seem interested - the next time you defrost it it will decay even further during thawing and eventually you end up with a "rat grenade" that busts open when the snake strikes. Not a great deal of fun for anyone that.