Posted by:
epidemic
at Wed Apr 19 15:12:26 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by epidemic ]
This reminds me of a quote I once read; "Life is a cruel teacher, as she first dispenses the test, then the lesson."
I am not going to expound upon the need for quarantine, as I believe you will know better in the future, but I will say that a single fecal, as was mentioned within an earlier post, will not suffice in providing an accurate description regarding internal parasite loads. One should not be satisfied, until at least three clean fecal exams are reported over a 90 day period.
Unfortunately, snakes are not inclined to demonstrate clinical symptoms of a pathogen, until such time it is too late for intervention. This is why keepers must become keen at picking up on the smallest changes in behavior and appearance of specimens in their care, as early intervention such as adjustments to the captive environment, are often ll that is required to to correct health issues before they become clinical.
Only a necropsy could indicate exactly what occurred within your captive collection, as there are several pathogens which could have caused such a swift and widespread demise of your collection, Cryptosporidium serpentis sticks out foremost in my mind, but I do not have any empirical evidence to support this.
Also, as Sonya has pointed out, communal housing of the specimens within your charge is a haphazard practice and often results in what you have been unfortunate enough to experience.
Should you lose any further specimens, I suggest you contact a veterinarian regarding a necropsy and not delay in doing so…
Sorry to hear of your loss,
Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947
[ Hide Replies ]
- Help - Vomiting, paralysis, death - thesamuraigeisha, Wed Apr 19 09:30:03 2006
- RE: Help - Vomiting, paralysis, death - AJCrader, Wed Apr 19 10:27:07 2006
- RE: Help - Vomiting, paralysis, death - Sonya, Wed Apr 19 11:28:50 2006
- Sorry to hear your bad news - BobS, Wed Apr 19 20:53:15 2006
- RE: Help - Vomiting, paralysis, death - housesnakes, Thu Apr 20 22:02:21 2006
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RE: Sorry to hear of this... - epidemic, Wed Apr 19 15:12:26 2006
