Why I've been gone...

[Holbeird]

So as some of you may have noticed I've been gone for the past couple of months and I didn't really post and let anyone know I've been gone. Well the reason I've been gone is that between the Daytona and Raleigh show I picked up about 20 female ball pythons, most babies, a few sub adults, and 4 ready to breed females. All were home in my qt rack and I get a call from a friend of mine. He worked out a trade with a local breeder that he had purchased numerous snakes from before, part of the trade included a female albino red tail. He knew I had been in the market and passed it along to me for a fair price. Now thanks to being burned before when I got a snake from a breeder I trusted and spreading mites into my collection, I knew better. Strict QT weather it's from joe-shmo or Ralph Davis. So while in qt I started to notice a few of the pythons acting funny, not too long after I noticed the boa stargazing. I went to the vet right away with all of my new pythons and the red tail. After numerous expensive blood test, we found that 16 of the pythons and the boa were infected with IBD. We had them euthanized. The vet said to bee safe she'd like to keep the other 4 for observation and re-testing over the next few weeks. Two weeks later I get a call that three more have tested positive and needed to be put down, a week later the last remaining baby developed mouth rot and when tested ibd was positive. I was devastated. Not only did I feel horrible for allowing this snake to even come into my collection and in doing so killing all my new pythons in my qt, but also I had put out a substantial amount of money in getting these new snakes and now they were gone. I spent the next few months talking about getting out of snakes except maybe two or three that I enjoy most. Hell I even sold off two or three of my yearling females. In early November my stepfather died. At his funeral his son gave a eulogy about his father and how great of a man he was, in this eulogy he talked about how his father relentlessly pursued his dreams and wouldn't let anything stand in his way and as cheesy as it sounds it got me thinking and I decided after talking with my wife that I wasn't going to sell of my collection and I was going to continue with our current breeding plans, now the last month has been crazy the holidays, work being busy, spending time with my mom to make sure she's doing ok, my daughters first birthday this past week, and preparing for Christmas.

I have started breeding, although a bit late and I've seen two locks so far. I hope to start posting more often on here although until the busy holiday season is through I don't see my posting returning to normal. Either way I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on and say I hope everyone else is doing well and enjoying their holidays and the breeding season.

[Montessa Python]

Kudos to you for preservering. I am sorry this happened to you, and the loss of your beloved pets/future breeding projects.
I wish you the best of luck. AND am sorry for the loss of your step father.
Congrats on the first birthday of your daughter and count your blessings.
I can't wait to see what you produce this year.

[jkobylka]

So sorry to hear of the loss all these animals. IBD is very real and it sucks. I applaud you for dealing with it in a decisive manner.

Lessons learned and many good years ahead for you I'm sure.

Justin

[ballpythonluvr]

I am so sorry for the loss of your snakes and your father. Better luck to you.

[Laooda]

I'm SO sorry that you went through that... BUT! It could have been so much worse... what if you hadn't been using a quarantine area? What if you just threw the new snakes in with your collection? You wouldn't of had to worry about maybe selling your snakes and getting out of the hobby... you would have been! I also applaud you for being responsible. As hard as it must have been to have them put down... I'm glad you decided to stick with it... and again, be thankful that you were using quarantine procedures!

[Holbeird]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. Hopefully this season breeding season will go smoothly after all of this. I'm having to rethink all of my breeding plans now but I'm just glad that I kept everything in QT. Glad to be back and I hope that if nothing else some people read this and realize just how important QT can be. I'd hate to imagine if I had moved them straight into my rack as I used to do when I first got into the buisness, I don't think I'd be able to come back from loosing my entire collection, including my first snake ever. Anyways, thanks everyone for the kind words.

[Melicious]

I sympathize with your loss, hon. I hope you'll keep hanging out here, though.

[Patrick Long]

I am very sorry for you loss.

I am not tryin to offend here, this is purely for my knowledge, but I thought that IBD could only be determined through necropsy, no?

[snakelady]

How horrible!
Glad your still with us here at bp.

[Holbeird]

I am very sorry for you loss.

I am not tryin to offend here, this is purely for my knowledge, but I thought that IBD could only be determined through necropsy, no?

It can be determined through blood testing as well. Here is some info on the topic.

Q: Can the disease be diagnosed in live snakes?

A: Yes...through blood testing ("For hematologic and plasma biochemical determinations, 0.6 ml of blood was placed in each of three microtainer tubes containing lithium heparin. All samples were submitted for hematological and plasma biochemical determinations within 30 min after collection. Whole blood examination included RBC, WBC, differential WBC, and determination of PCV, and Hb concentrations. Plasma biochemical analyses included determination of concentrations of sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, calcium, glucose, phosphorus, total bilirubin, cholesterol, uric acid, total protein, albumin, globulin, alkaline phosphatase, SGOT, SGPT. For comparative purposes, clinically affected boa constrictors were arbitrarily categorized as either acutely affected (<2 months following onset of signs) or chronically affected (>2 months following onset).

Acutely affected snakes had leukocytosis, relative lymphocytosis, lower total protein and globulin values, and significantly higher SGOT values than did chronically affected snakes.

To determine the actual presence or absence of inclusion bodies requires biopsies of organ tissue for analysis.