Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was looking at my bp last night an notice it was looking straight up in the air.....like at the heat lamp....and i was reading some site on ibd and it said they stargaze for hours....so does that mean even if u bother it like opening the cage it would be stuck in that position.....im kinda worry but im thinking it's just my imagination.....thanx for looking....

IBD is the aids of the reptile world. The purpose of the snake looking up is that its trying to breathe. The snakes lung will begin to fill with mucos. IBD cant be treated. Also it is an air bourne disease which can infect any other animal you may have. Has your BP inflated his throat to try to force the mucos out of his system? Im not sure if all snakes with IBD do this, but when my burmese got it, it was trying push everything in its lungs up and out.

P.S. I hope this helps you

Sincerely, Matthew Cox

well i wasnt sure if it was....if there is mucus involved then i dont think my bp has it.....it was looking up for like a few mins.....he was prolly looking for food.....do u know wat precautions to take for future reference.....just the regular quaritine?

IBD is FATAL in pythons. He'd be dead relatively quickly if it was indeed IBD. They don't get inclusion body disease and then miraculously ercover from it. It kills them. Fast.

How fast from exposure to dead ball python is typical?

Also, has it really been documented airborne? I know there was a really really old document that mentioned this as a possibility but last I heard I thought it was just body fluid contact (usually mites or breeding).

At least none that I've heard of. Man, that would be SCARY though. Scary enough to make me switch to colubrids! LOL!

>>At least none that I've heard of. Man, that would be SCARY though. Scary enough to make me switch to colubrids! LOL!

Well, I recall reading about a case found in a California Kingsnake! It may not be true, and I cannot recall where I read that, sorry. But, if that's the case then you better switch to turtles or tortoises.

Try this: http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/sacs/wildlife/IBDINFO.html

The page has not been updated from what I can tell in some time, but it's probably the best page for info about IBD. There are also some folks that don't believe IBD exists at all (IBD being a label 'catch all' for a number of diseases that cannot be accurately described). But, that's another issue all together...

Matt
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"Change what you cannot accept... do not accept what you can't change!"

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One of my BP's passed away from an IBD in early February. Its not so much that they sit up and stare at something (as thats rather healthy and IBD affected snakes tend to lose some muscle control early on) its that they can be found on their backs.

I found my girl on her back one morning on the cool side of her tank and thought she was dead then, so limp, but I put her under a heat lamp and warm bath alternating, and while she came to, it was quite obvious that something was wrong with her lower half.

The mouth rot and respitory problems were so bad that when she passed away and was picked up it ran from her like water from a pipe. It was unexpected and at the time I had known little about IBD's and thus never gave her the proper care she should have had (i.e. an early euthanization)

I think your snake peering at the heat lamp isn't much of a problem (unless he just wishes he could be closer to it to bask) most of the signs you'd notice if you spend a lot of time with your BP like increased lethargicness and a dull appearance.
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