Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, got a nasty surprize this morning. My extreme hypo who has been a subborn feeder from the get - go has decided to stop living on me. He ate every 2 days from the 2nd of Feb till the 16th, and then quit eating altogether. I tried live pinks, f/t, scented with an anole, brained and scented, brained, even as a last ditch tried a live small anole, but could never get him to eat again. Part of me wanted to find someone that could "pump" a few pinks into him to keep him alive, but then the other part believes that there just might have been something wrong with the little guy and force feeding him would have only prolonged the suffering. Either way the project I started to relieve some of the suffering I am going through with my divorce has decided to bite me in the butt. I guess that's the risk you take with these guys, you can't really ask them what they need or if anything is bothering them. It just sucks, that's all.

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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

Sorry for your loss. Great looking snake.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

That really sucks,but it truly does happen to the best of us sooner or later. Sorry to hear about it though. Tom Stevens

There was definately something wrong with him,there isn't much that will make a snake that was feeding every 2 days quit eating and die after 2 weeks.I feed my baby snakes every 3 or 4 days,and they are fat and growing fast.They could easily go a whole month with no food and be ok.It sounds like cryptosporidia to me,I'm not saying it is,but it sounds like it.It is about the nastiest thing your snake can get,it always kills,and it can spread to your whole snake collection.I had my experience with it back in the early 90s,when I used to get alot of snakes from pet stores.They would quit eating,get skinny really fast,and die within about 3 weeks.There would usually be a slight swelling just above the cloaca in the last week or two,like they had a small egg in them.If you still have any stool samples,or the dead snake,I'd take them to the vet and get them checked out.If it is crypto,throw out everything that was in contact with the snake,cage,water bowl,everything.Thats what I did,I've heard bleach doesn't even kill it.It is very serious if you have any other snakes,it can spread to them too,I would really wash my hands good between snake cages,and never ever allow a water bowl used by one snake to go to another snakes cage,keep track of them and make sure they dont get mixed up in cleaning them.I think thats how it spread with mine.Sorry to hear about your honduran.

How do I find a vet that deals with herps local? I kept the snake and froze it to try and find out what happened to make it go downhill so fast.

I do plan on using the tank again for another snake in the next couple of months, what do I need to do to make sure it's clean and able to be used again? Fill it with a strong bleach / water solution and let it sit for a week or so?

I guess the first step would be to rule out or to make for certain that it did / did not have crypto.

If it did have crypto, how does it spread? Does it have to be by contamination via using a contaminated dish or hide, or can it spread via the air in the snake room? I guess what I am asking is do you physically have to transfer the bacteria via contact with a contaminated snake / bowl / hide or by handling one snake and then another without washing your hands first. I don't handle my snakes very much unless required so there is slim and none chance that I would have spread it that way. I don't share items / food from one tank to another either, if they don't eat it goes in the trash can.

Thanks for the reply,

Dan.
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"Colubrid-aphilia", adj; An inordinate love of Colubrids.

Hey,about finding a vet,good luck,I had to get out the phone book and call almost all of them before I found one.Out of about 20-30 local vets I managed to find 1 that would work with snakes.With crypto,it is in the feces,so water bowls are the usual way it gets around.You know where a snakes favorite place to poop is.I wouldn't trust any cage items.You can wash the bowls and they will still be contaminated.I used to wash all the bowls and didn't keep track of them,it took a couple of snakes to figure what it was,and by then,most of them had it.I don't think it can spread through air,just contaminated items or handling them.If you want to reuse the tank,clean it with bleach several times,and anything else you have,and this sounds sort of bad,but I would keep something on the cheaper side in it for awhile,and quarantine it,just in case.I sure wouldn't put any high end snakes in that tank,no matter how many times I cleaned it,but I guess I'm a little paranoid about it now,after what happened to my snakes back then.

hi - just saw your post and wanted to respond to this.

any long time herper has at some point had to deal with the loss of a favorite herp. it is alays a huge bummer. sorry about that.

with regard to crypto, i just want to chime in with my opinion. there are lots of pathogens that can do in a young snake - especially if it immunocompromised by some sort of environmental stress. one common cause of stomach infections can be food items that are not completely thawed.

sometimes the cause of death can be even more esoteric. i once lost an albino honduran milksnake and i suspect it simply suffocated trying to eat too big a meal!

the most common sign of an intestinal infection of is swelling. so crypto is often confused with these sorts of infections (bacterial). i haven't studied this thread carefully so my apologies if you said this already but unless you have a positive diagnosis of crypto i wouldn't jump to conclusions. often snakes with crypto have positively massive mid-body swellings which i didn't notice in the pic you posted.

if you need a vet, make sure you find a one with herp experience - some of the nationally known vets can analyse stool samples you send to them. unfortunately i can't think of any but you might be able to find somebody by looking up and contacting UC Davis Veterinary Hospital. This is a very good institution that has trained many herp vets - keep in mind, services are not cheap...

the husbandry recommendations others have made (clean water, no moving things around cages) are good practice even with healthy snakes. the other aspect is to look carefully at environmental conditions and make sure temps are kept at the right level, that snakes can thermoregulate by moving to a different part of the cage, and that there hide areas, etc.

anyway the silver lining to this story is that i'm sure you will have sharpened your husbandry and this should benefit your snakes in the future.

good luck and keep us posted on your other cool hondurans...