Posted by:
amro
at Wed Mar 9 16:21:52 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by amro ]
hi - just saw your post and wanted to respond to this.
any long time herper has at some point had to deal with the loss of a favorite herp. it is alays a huge bummer. sorry about that.
with regard to crypto, i just want to chime in with my opinion. there are lots of pathogens that can do in a young snake - especially if it immunocompromised by some sort of environmental stress. one common cause of stomach infections can be food items that are not completely thawed.
sometimes the cause of death can be even more esoteric. i once lost an albino honduran milksnake and i suspect it simply suffocated trying to eat too big a meal!
the most common sign of an intestinal infection of is swelling. so crypto is often confused with these sorts of infections (bacterial). i haven't studied this thread carefully so my apologies if you said this already but unless you have a positive diagnosis of crypto i wouldn't jump to conclusions. often snakes with crypto have positively massive mid-body swellings which i didn't notice in the pic you posted.
if you need a vet, make sure you find a one with herp experience - some of the nationally known vets can analyse stool samples you send to them. unfortunately i can't think of any but you might be able to find somebody by looking up and contacting UC Davis Veterinary Hospital. This is a very good institution that has trained many herp vets - keep in mind, services are not cheap...
the husbandry recommendations others have made (clean water, no moving things around cages) are good practice even with healthy snakes. the other aspect is to look carefully at environmental conditions and make sure temps are kept at the right level, that snakes can thermoregulate by moving to a different part of the cage, and that there hide areas, etc.
anyway the silver lining to this story is that i'm sure you will have sharpened your husbandry and this should benefit your snakes in the future.
good luck and keep us posted on your other cool hondurans...
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: Dealing with loss - amro, Wed Mar 9 16:21:52 2005