IBD confirmed in my boa... what should I be expecting?

[xFenrir]

Wow. I've heard that IBD can lie dormant in boas for months but this is the first time I've heard of a confirmed case where the snake was outwardly healthy for 11+ years.

Do you know exactly which virus was found in your boa? While arenavirus is the one that causes IBD, nidovirus and ophidian paramyxovirus (aka FERLA virus) cause similar symptoms, and in the past symptomatic snakes were diagnosed with "IBD" before more specific blood tests on live critters became available.

Did you take your snake to SEAVS in Fairfax, VA? If not you might want to reach out to them, I think they do research on certain diseases. University of Florida is another option.

I don't know if they IDed the virus, I can definitely check. I'm not sure if they would do that - they are an exotics vet in MD but I think they were only going off of something like a CBC panel and cultures. I know they said the inclusions were observed visually, I'm assuming they did a smear or something? They did tell me the type of spinal infection but I'm having trouble remembering, I know it wasn't salmoella though which is what we were concerned about.

I'm happy to reach out to anywhere that is researching IBD or similar diseases. Should I be looking for certain departments? Google doesn't bring up much on whos doing research so I'll have to rely on more experienced or connected keepers to tell me where to turn though.