Hey Mark,.. First off, sorry to hear about your sick burm. You'll want to get many opinions on this before you decide what is best for your guy there. Here is mine: Over the years, and most especially in the late 80's and into the early 90's I have seen a good share of serious respitory infections. Back then I believed in the "magic pill" cure existing in antibiotics. But this was blind faith based on what I had seen in terms of what antibiotics have done for us mammals. Nothing I ever tried seemed to work. Everything still died. (One female blood cured after being given Baytril and is alive today, but we're talkin burmese, right?) The only burmese I have ever seen have an RI and cure up and live on were two individuals that I chose to NOT treat with antibiotics. I left them alone, kept them in very high humidity, at approximately 90 degrees. They cleared up in about 3 weeks, if I remember correctly. For the record, they were not seriously ill. Their respitory infections were very mild. I caught them early. Plus, these were young females, approximately 1 year old and about 8 feet. I think this is all relevant. But the overal point I want to stress is that I have had conclusive positive results from strictly homeopathic methods of treatment. I personally feel that the powerful antibiotics available or mass-prescribed are very detremental on the sick burmese's system and take their own toll on the snake, making it weaker and more susceptible to death in the long run. I think that EXTENSIVE research needs to be done to actually create a milder antibiotic more suited to treating cold blooded animal's ailments. I mean,. it says on my Baytril bottles, "For canine use only!" and my vet gives them to me like candy at Halloween. I don't use the stuff anymore. But I hold on to it for the "just in case of an emergency" purposes.
I don't think there is any connection between burmese disease and inclusion body disease. I think that the latter is a neurological, viral condition prone to boas, and I think that burmese disease is really probably just the burmese's extreme susceptibility to ri caused by the common low humidity found in captive populations. Until I hear more it sounds like the perfect scapegoat for pisspoor husbandry related deaths.
>>I just read online somewhere about “Burmese Disease (BD) or Burmese RI”, which stated that it is a highly contagious infection that cannot be cured. I have a couple of questions about this for anyone who might have some answers.
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>>First, is this “Burmese Disease (BD) or Burmese RI” the same thing as IBD (inclusion body disease)? It sounds similar, so I'm wondering if it's just common terminology.
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>>Recently (past two or three months) my burm has had on again/off again symptoms of a respiratory infection. I brought him to the vet not long ago, at which time he was given a broad spectrum antibiotic. This seemed to help initially, though the symptoms are now coming back. The problem is that the vet did not find any signs of infection from the results of his cultures and cytology. Could this mean that my burm has this 'Burmese Disease' or IBD? And if so, what, if anything, can I do for him?
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>>Any info is greatly appreciated,
>>- Mark
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores." Mia Miselfani
