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I took my Argentine female to the vet last night for what I thought was a respiratory infection but could have been mouth rot. Turns out she had a repiratory infection and possible pneumonia. She had been kept with two other boas. The vet said there shouldn't be any reason to worry about the other two as she was probably not contagious.

Please ease my mind...

Can a respiratory infection spread to other animals?

I've had an animal get a resp. infection & the animal caged with the sick animal also got sick. The same germ that causes mouth rot also causes resp. infections. A boa can get it's mouth in defication,this sets up mouth rot. If left untreated,it'll lead to a resp. infection. Also, cold temps & drafts will cause resp infections and if you feed live & the rodent bites or scratches the snakes mouth,it'll set up mouth rot sometimes that can turn to a resp infection. What antibiotic did your Vet say they were going to use on your animal. Just my opinions only.
Good Luck,
Dave @ East TN Reptiles
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Dave @ East TN Reptiles

Thank you.

I have enough anitbiotic to treat all three. I haven't seen any symptoms in the other two. Of course, they are separated now. I have enough antibiotic to treat all 3. I will keep an eye on the others.

ooops...thought I cut that part out.

These are the three. Normal female and Pastel male.

Dave is correct in that the same bacteria species which cause stomatitis (mouth rot) can also cause respiratory problems. However, the vet is correct in that the other boas caged with this boa are not necessarily at risk. It has been shown that a very large percentage of captive boids carry or are exposed to these bacteria and never become sick. These bacteria, mostly gram negative species, are opportunistic pathogens and generally only develop illness in compromised individuals. Stress is probably the largest determining factor when it comes to a captive boids susceptibility to bacterial infection. Sub-optimal temps, lack of seclusion sites, frequent disturbances, etc., can all stress certain individuals to differing degrees, lowering the immune system response in some of them to the point where they are open to possible infection. We have all seen boids with rodent bites to the mouth or short term exposure to very cool temps that never became symptomatic, or if they did, recovered without the use of any medications. These snakes were probably well acclimated, not stressed by their captive environment, and had a good immune response. In a captive environment, if several snakes in the same enclosure or collection came down with R.I. or stomatitis, I would be looking for a common stress factor that compromised them. Also curious as to what antibiotic was prescribed by your vet. Thanks,

Kelly

I agree with the above. Esp. Kelly H's response. The only concern your other boas have is that they are probably subjected to whatever environmental factor that lead to your sick boa. As always, look to improve your husbandry in any way you can.