My Ball Python tested positive for Nidovirus

[BuddyK]

The title says it all.
My first snake was a corn snake, who I’ve had for the past 6 months. I’ve always wanted a Royal Python, and researched them for years. I finally took the plunge and bought Buddy, who was perfect when I first bought him home. He’s a stunning low white pied with a lovely temperament, I was over the moon.

He was great for the first 2 weeks, he ate for me twice. Then out of the blue, he stopped eating. I tried to leave him be, knowing this is common in royals. Then after a month of not eating, I noticed he had a bubbly mouth. I knew this must’ve been an RI, so took him to the vets the very next day. Upon talking through my vivarium, temps and humidity, the vets said they seemed to be good. The vets took swabs and blood work from Buddy but said it would take a week or so to get results. They gave me antibiotic injections to give him daily, and nebulise him twice a day which I have been doing for the past 10 days.

However, today I received my results back. Buddy tested positive for Nidovirus. I didn’t know what this was at first, but upon researching it a bit I realised the fatality and I am absolutely heartbroken. He came from a big breeder so I will definitely provide them with the results, but I’m not sure what they’ll say about this. I have never seen a bad review against this breeder, which makes me very confused with how my snake can have Nidovirus but no one else (that I can see) has experienced this? I also checked reviews for my corn snake’s breeder and I’m met with the same thing. All positive reviews.

I’ve kept Buddy completely quarantined from my corn snake, and have been careful, I assume Nidovirus affects all snakes, however I can’t find much information on it. I don’t know if my corn snake has it, and whether I can even get him tested as it can lie dormant in them.
I am heartbroken, as I’m sure I will have to get Buddy euthanised as there is no cure. I just wanted to share this here as I can find very little information on it. Has anyone else had any Nidovirus experiences? I can’t possibly see how it can be preventable which is so upsetting.