Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is is possible? My vet says there is a possibility my new Cal King has it, though, even she doubts it. He's very floppy sometimes, but his righting reflex is ok, eats, poops and sheds just fine. He's very calm and quiet and relaxed all the time.

Anyone know anything about it?

FireDrake

That there was one documented case of IBD in a kingsnake. This was 6 or 7 years ago that I read that though, there may have been more, and there's always the chance that it was a misdiagnosis.

From what I understand IBD manifests itself with twitching and other neurological problems like seizures. How old is this Cal King ? Ive found that older animals start to lose some muscle tone and become quite floppy. Its not always the case but ive seen it more than once. If he eats and does averything else normal I wouldnt worry about it. You can try and get him some more excercise. Its sounds funny but Ive gotten snakes in the past that were very unmuscular and I would work with them and get them moving instead of sitting in their hides waiting for a dead mouse to land by the mouth. IO Once I purchased a large parrot toy that was a wooden ladder. I would let the snake crawl up and down it and he in fact gained some muscle mass. This was a younder snake though I dont know how it would work if its a very old snake as it may just be its natural progression into old age. Geriatric snakes gotta love that ! LOL

Keith
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I really highly doubt it... from your description the snake isn't even ACTING sick.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

I've read about a similar disease in Corns. I don't know if that means it's possible in kings though? Here's a link that hazes over it a bit.
Link

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Ace

When I lost the Terminator the vet. thought that he may have had IBD but he wasn't aware of a case in Colubrids; as it turned out the Terminator was terminated by some other funky virus - but some of the symptoms were the same, i.e. convulsions, upchucking, flopping over, etc. but he was active, could still constrict and didn't lose too much weight; and he only really lost his ability to right himself the last day.

Like the others say, if he's acting fine otherwise he should be OK - but if he starts to go down with something with symptoms like IBD I'd euthanisize the snake unless the vet can treat it; I watched my prize snake go down over the course of a month from some wierd virus and it was awful - if I ever come across a situation like that again I'll put a snake down even if he could live another month or so because it's just prolongs the suffering of an animal that's going to die anyway.

Hope things work out for your snake and he appears healthy in the pic. After you keep kings for a while it doesn't take much to notice the smallest changes in their behavior.

-John