Ibd

[erowyn]

we were housing a friends snakes for the weekend because his power was out and we noticed sunday that his green patternless burmese was having trouble closing his mouth, seemed to be breathing funny, so we called the vet and he said it was probably a resp. infection to come get some med and treat him... this morning my fiance went up to check on him and found him belly up in his tank covered in strange spots and having spasms.... we called the friend and immediatly rushed him to the vet where they told him he needed to be euthanized, he had IBD... inclusion body disease... or at least thats what i think he said... so reluctantly our friend let him put his snake down... in the process the vet told them several things that worried me... like this is passed snake to snake most likely through mites... it can lay dormant in boa's for up to 6 months but only about a month in a python... and is completely untreatable... has anyone heard anything about this? now im freakin out cause we have both a python and a boa and im scared to death of losing either of them... plus we are still housing his other albino burmese until he gets his power back on... is there really no treatment for this? am i destined to sit and watch my babies die? please anyone with info HELP

[qiksilver]

http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html

[erowyn]

well that only makes me feel worse... but more informed i suppose.... now at least i know what to look for when they start dying...

[Lobo_Reptiles]

I'm sorry to hear about your dilemma, but don't throw the towl in yet. Did you ever handle his snake or the inside of its enclosure and then come into contact with any of your snakes? For future reference, keep some unscented hand sanitizer where you keep your enclosures. It is a life saver...literally.

Now that you mention it...I read a few articles way back on a different forum for Boas. Apparently there is a big stink over the Green Burms. I guess a lot of them are dying in just the way you mentioned, but it isn't IBD...it's something in their genes. A lot of Burm lovers are urging to stop breeding the morphs. Did your friend get a necropsy done? I believe IBD can only be 100% confirmed through a necropsy.

I know it is mean, but hope that it was a genetic thing and not IBD. I'm not allowed to post the link to the forums on here, but if you PM me I can direct you to the thread. Good luck.

[erowyn]

he did have that done but he hasnt gotten the results yet... but the vet told him he had seen 3 cases already this year... if he does find out it is this then he plans to start hunting down the cause hoping maybe he can link it back to a pet store where the animals were bought or maybe where their feeders were bought... the only interaction the two snakes had was a mouse which was not in either cage for more than a few minutes... in the sick snakes for only a few seconds... before we realized his snake was sick... we offered it to my ball but he wouldnt eat it so we took it out of his cage... i was told that if a python contracts this it wont be long before signs of the disease are showing... so hopefully we will know soon....

[SPJ]

I'm sorry to hear about your dilemma, but don't throw the towl in yet. Did you ever handle his snake or the inside of its enclosure and then come into contact with any of your snakes? For future reference, keep some unscented hand sanitizer where you keep your enclosures. It is a life saver...literally.

Now that you mention it...I read a few articles way back on a different forum for Boas. Apparently there is a big stink over the Green Burms. I guess a lot of them are dying in just the way you mentioned, but it isn't IBD...it's something in their genes. A lot of Burm lovers are urging to stop breeding the morphs. Did your friend get a necropsy done? I believe IBD can only be 100% confirmed through a necropsy.

I know it is mean, but hope that it was a genetic thing and not IBD. I'm not allowed to post the link to the forums on here, but if you PM me I can direct you to the thread. Good luck.

It's been called burm disease.
It's something genetically wrong with green burms according to what I have read on the subject. Very few live past their third year. From what I gather it's not contagious but it appears that a large percentage of green burms die.
RTB.net is a good source of info on burm disease.
It has not been proven, or disproven if this actually exists, but it makes you think when it's tied to one type of burm mutation and they appear to die out of the blue.
If anything, it is an interesting topic.

[JLC]

... I'm not allowed to post the link to the forums on here, but if you PM me I can direct you to the thread. Good luck.

Kelly...actually, it's fine to post links to other forums if the information being pointed to is not available at this site, and/or for the purpose of constructive, on-topic discussion. We just don't allow recruiting to other forums.

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Ok, I just didn't want to get in trouble lol Thanks!