Reptile & Amphibian Forums

please help! is there any thing i can give it to make my snake better? what causes it?

please reply!!
thanks
Alex Oliver

First of all, why do you believe that your snake has IBD--symptoms, behavior? If your spotted in staring straight up, you may be worrying prematurely. I have a childreni who does this and is fine. She's just a bit nervous and assumes this posture when she's out of her hide--ready to take on whatever enters her cage space (such as my hand). Please supply some additional info.
Regards,
Althea

i will hold her and she will just look up and start moving strate up like their's a branch above her but their isn't. she also does the same thing in her cage. i don't know what to do can it spred to the rest of my collection?

The snake is just hoping that there is a branch above it. My carpet pythons do that constantly. In fact, that's all they do.
Star gazing is when the snake sits looking up for hours because it can't help it. Because its muscles are frozen.
But still quarantine . My vet enjoys telling me that any of my snakes could have IBD this very minute. But the odds of one of your snakes getting IBD is very very low.
I'm attaching a pic of a living snake that was an IBD suspect. Start worrying if your snake looks like THIS.
(There are a lot of other things this snake could have had, and he was never necropsied).
Scarily Sick Snake

ibd is transmited thru direct fluid contact, aka, a snake, (its primarily boids that are effected and also a couple of pit vipers), with ibd would have to have an external parasite like mites (any blood feeding parasite could POSSIBLY transmit the disease)that travel from one animal to another. its also possible that mating can spread ibd. there is no cure for inculsion body disease, as far as i know (ive done alot of homework on this) inclusion body disease is fatal, either on its own or due to keepers putting their animals down. it doesnt just happen, there is always a method of transfer. this is why people write articles about keeping your collection clean and quarentining ALL new arrivals. ive actually had first hand exp. with ibd, i lost a pair of true colombian Boa constrictor constrictor to ibd, which they got from mites (i cant think of any other way since it was a closed collection and i fed them live rats....goes to show it only takes once). and star gazing is NOT exclusive to ibd, snakes with a severe uri will often times "star gaze", so will snakes with other central nervous system ailments. there are tests for ibd, a liver biopsy is a common one. this is when the age old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" comes into play. ibd is easily preventable, and honestly not very common. and wont my professors love my when i go back to school this fall to start work on becoming a vet! i would recommend doing a ton more research on snakes and ibd, as well as all of the other possible ailments. information/knowledge are power!

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

i forgot to mention that the pet shop i bought those rats at had a small ibd problem around the time my snakes contracted it. and that my snakes were mite free before their only live meal in my care. needless to say i only feed frozen now.
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

>>please help! is there any thing i can give it to make my snake better? what causes it?
>>
>>please reply!!
>>thanks
>>Alex Oliver

because i don't have a camera! sorry

from Alex

If you really want to know for sure and want a 100% correct answer from anyone here, we're gonna need to see what behavior your animal is doing. Try to hunt down a camera. Or better yet, buy one from Best Buy, snap a few pics, post them, then return the camera. I've done this a few times. Good luck,
Josh

>>because i don't have a camera! sorry
>>
>>from Alex