Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious how seriously everyone really takes pre-screening of new animals. I've been reading up a lot lately since Eva died and some of the stuff I've read has basically scared the crap out of me. IBD is probably one of the big ones that worries me and then of course Crypto is no small problem either. I followed basic quarantine practices with all of my snakes and although the snakes are all in the same room now, I still follow them as far as hand washing and cleaning tools between use on snakes etc., but I never had any screenings, blood tests etc... My actual "collection" of bp's only consists of 8 adult bp's and 4 babies, but I have close to 24 farm babies that I got in two lots last spring that I am raising up. I would hope that everyone would be free and clean after having them for this long with no problems, but now I'm starting to worry and wonder if I shouldn't go ahead and have them all screened.

Does anyone here have any experience with IBD or Crypto screening? I'm having blood tests and fecals done on my boas (which I house on a completely separate floor from the BP's, because I'm parnoid they could all be asymptomatic carriers of IBD), but I'm wondering if it is necessary or even conclusive enough to warrent doing on all of the bp's. I'm at the point where I'm paranoid enough to run everyone's butt to the vet and get every blood test, stained slide, fecal float, etc... run.

Experience or thoughts from the peanut gallery???

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Amber

Boas
1.1.0 Colombian (Austin & Ava)
1.0.0 Suriname (Aloysius)
1.1.0 Albino (Bo & Daisy)
Balls:
1.27.0 Normal (Tucker, Taylor,and lil' girls - RIP Eva)
1.1.0 Pastel
1.2.0 100% Het Pied
1.0.0 100% Het Albino (Bubba)
0.1.0 66% Poss. Het Albino
Corns:
1.1.0 Amber
1.1.0 Butter Motley
1.1.0 Crimson
1.1.0 Ghost
1.1.0 Hypo
0.0.1 Normal
1.1.0 Okeetee
1.0.1 Snow (Aiden)
1.1.0 Sunglow Motley
Milks:
1.1.0 Hypo Honduran (Damien & Lucy)
0.1.0 Pueblan (Marishka)
1.1.0 Sinaloan
Other:
2.1.0 Dachshunds - Dakota, Montana, & Cheyenne
2.0.0 Ferrets - Bailey & Keyta

I may be wrong - but my understanding is:

1. IBD can only be detected in those that exhibit the symptoms of the disease - in pythons they become sick and die quick enough that testing would be unnecessary.

2. There are too many false negaties of Crypto test for it to be reliable.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

Thank you for the info Tosha, that is exactly what I was wondering - what the integrity of the testing was.

What got me started on all of this was when I took Eva to the vet and he asked me what screening I do on new snakes. He looked at me like I had been living on the moon when I told him I hadn't been doing any screening for IBD or Crypto. I told him that I had been quarantining in separate rooms and keeping a close eye on everyone for up to 6 months, but he seemed to think any "responsible" breeder would have had everyone screened for IBD and Crypto, etc... Made me feel like a moron. He also told me I should be deworming even though no one is showing any signs of worms. There is so much conflicting info. out there, that I guess you just have to learn for yourself through experience what is right to do for your snakes.

Just as a side note, I never claimed to be a "breeder", I told him up front that we were new to breeding and this was our first season even trying to breed (the snakes) . Give me 5 or 10 years of breeding successfully and then maybe I'd claim to actually be a breeder with a vet.

>>I may be wrong - but my understanding is:
>>
>>1. IBD can only be detected in those that exhibit the symptoms of the disease - in pythons they become sick and die quick enough that testing would be unnecessary.
>>
>>2. There are too many false negaties of Crypto test for it to be reliable.
>>-----
>>Tosha
>>
>>"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"
>>
>>
>>
>>6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
>>1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
>>0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
>>0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
>>0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
>>0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
>>2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
>>0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
>>0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

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Amber

Boas
1.1.0 Colombian (Austin & Ava)
1.0.0 Suriname (Aloysius)
1.1.0 Albino (Bo & Daisy)
Balls:
1.27.0 Normal (Tucker, Taylor,and lil' girls - RIP Eva)
1.1.0 Pastel
1.2.0 100% Het Pied
1.0.0 100% Het Albino (Bubba)
0.1.0 66% Poss. Het Albino
Corns:
1.1.0 Amber
1.1.0 Butter Motley
1.1.0 Crimson
1.1.0 Ghost
1.1.0 Hypo
0.0.1 Normal
1.1.0 Okeetee
1.0.1 Snow (Aiden)
1.1.0 Sunglow Motley
Milks:
1.1.0 Hypo Honduran (Damien & Lucy)
0.1.0 Pueblan (Marishka)
1.1.0 Sinaloan
Other:
2.1.0 Dachshunds - Dakota, Montana, & Cheyenne
2.0.0 Ferrets - Bailey & Keyta

LOL - In all honesty maybe I am wrong - maybe now they do have tests that can determine these things but from what I know about these two illnesses (and I'm far from being an expert) - I don't think you can accurately detect Crypto in balls by the usual testing methods - it's my understanding that you need to be able to look at tissue and internal organs (which can't be done on a live snake) to accurately determine if the snake has Crypto. And the tests for IBD would catch an already sick animal (I beleive it looks for high levels of certain things in the blood and various byproducts as a result of the disease) but for balls the illness is so progressive that a 3 month quarantine would most likely be long enough for the sick snake to show signs and if it were just a carrier then there wouldn't be any "byproduct" to look for. It's been a few years since I looked into this so maybe we've found new and better ways to do things, if so I would love to hear how/if other have handled it.

As for worming - no I don't do it unless the snake shows the need to. Yes they can pick up worms from their feeders and other sources, but again - if they don't show signs then there is no need to pump drugs into them Just to be on the safe side (IMO).

The best thing you can do is to follow the proper quarantine procedures (especially if you are unfamiliar with where the animal came from) and proper hygene when handling the animals.

Anyway - enough rambling - I hope all goes well with the rest of your collection!
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin