Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have recently aquired a pair of dh snow boas, they are about 4 - 5 feet long, we have had them for about a month or so, and up untill now everything was great, they were eating very good, shedding, drinking and defecating just fine. now the female has just regurgitated her last meal, and seems to have a real problem, she will often do a steve wonder impresion, then fliping the first half of her bodie upside down, and almost have little spasms. we have been keeping boas for a while now, and have never had this happen before. any help and info would be greatly appreciated, we already have a vet appointment for tuesday, but if there is something that we can do in the meantime, that would be great.

thanks
Ryan

This is classic IBD (Inclusion Body Disease) symptoms. I would suggest IMMEDIATELY segregating her from the rest of the animals. If she has been sharing a cage with them it may be too late already. It may not be IBD, but there's no point in taking unecessary risks with the rest of your animals.

The vet can do a test for IBD, unfortunately if that's what it is it will likely be post-mortem. Once the symptoms start to manifest in this manner, it usually doesn't take long before death occurs.

In the meantime, you should be investigating other possibilities. There are other things that can cause these symptoms as well, such as temperatures way out of range, exposure to certain chemicals, etc. What are you using to disinfect your cages? Have you treated recently for mites?

Thanks for your reply, we haven't had a problem with mites for years now, so we haven't had to treat for them, and the second i noticed these simptoms i removed her from the snake room completely, she was housed with 2 others. we use a very mild bleach soulution for the cleaning of the cages, which we have been using for years without any problem. and heat isn't an issue, we are pretty anal about that, we make sure to keep them at the optimal temps required for the species, we even have thermostats for our thermostats. We took her into the vet today, and she took some blood and a fecal test, i will know more tomorrow or the next day. she say's that the snake is stargazing?? i have never heard of this perticular term, but it almost seems that she has lost her ballance, and can't tell which way is up or down, she tips her head from side to side, and then upsidedown. and she isn't eating. anyway, thanks for the post, and i just hope that whatever she has, the others don't get it.

thanks
Ryan