Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i recently got a group of zonata both pulchra 2.2, and 1.2 multifasciati one of the pulchra has this disorder/disease whatever it is, from what i can see it does eat,poop,shed just fine but motor skills are all off(no body control)neorological disorder like,very stange the person who i got them from had said he thought it(MKS)was kinda like polio(he theorized) at any rate none of the others in group appear to have any symptoms,at all,i have them all housed in seperate tubs, and my ? is any info on this disorder at all,how its transmitted air,direct contact?anything? thanks for any responses, ive searched and cant find any info?
peace
thomas davis

Hi Thomas,
First of all, it is very contagious, spreads through zonatas easily. But so far it has been only known to affect zonatas. I lost 2.2 adults this year from it. 1.1 I had for years, I got an anerythristic female and a male that came with her, I hibernated both pairs together and a couple weeks after hibernation one of them was very wrinkled looking-(they shed alot when they have it), and one couldnt move straight, just to the right. And as of now there is no cure for it. I ended up freezing them-(they can live with it for a long time from what i hear..?) but i didnt want to take any chances with them. Good luck with it, and you should probally not want to keep them around any other snakes you have.-(even though it hasnt affected any other snake species yet its probally a good idea still),
Jeff Teel

Bob Applegate as he has a ton of history with this type of snake. I don't know for sure if he's ever experienced it but he is extremely knowledgable about zonata and can surely offer you some insight/understanding.

Jeff's explanation is right on track too. I lost one a few years ago and like Jeff I froze mine quickly. Never thought I'd throw a 300$ snake in the freezer so fast Since then I've not kept any mountain king snake.

Best of luck...it always sucks when we have to give up on a snake.
Russ

I read that a pyromelana that was in the same collection with some zonatas that had it also showed symptoms. That's all the information I have as I cannot find the article and it was several years ago. Try contacting Rick Staub.

Nothing much to add, but just my experiences.
I was given an adult female L. zonata agalma that had it but I didn't know what was wrong. She would feed but would flip over often and the skin was dry and wrinkled. Treatment with Batryil didn't help. Over a period of about a year the disease spread to my male and 2 young although they had no direct contact. At that point I froze them. I have another adult female and 4 young that have not shown symptoms yet. I keep calkings, alterna, mexicana, pyro pyro, and knoblochi but none seem affected. I do not intend to buy any more zonata unless directly from the breeder.
Shin Sugiyama