Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ive read alot about it and it makes me realy paranoid and i just want to know how common it is, have any of you ever had a snake die of it?or is it fairly uncommon

Both of my boas had it, and it was a rather awful ordeal.

First the female started showing signs... not eating, stargazer's (menengitis) and then loss of balance and able to keep her body upright. The vet was sure it wasn't IBD, but I just knew it was.

Two years later, the male did the same exact thing. I had a biopsy done, and it was IBD for sure. I don't know for sure how it happened. It could have been mites, in their food or exposure to another snake (burmese python). It scared me off of boids for a good 5-6 years, though I have yet to meet anyone else (in person) that experinced it.

thanks for making me more paranoid! lol. what exactly is stargazing? sometimes my balls lift there heads up about an inch from the ground and sometimes when being handled they lift their heads straight up in the air and fall backwards, are those things stargazing? and what exactly would over exadurated reflexes be? because i only have over 6 months expierience owning boids (and snakes in general) so i dont exactly know whats normal and what isnt

if the snakes tail shakes sometimes is that bad? ive heard thats a sign, and if a snake is showing syptoms does that mean it does have ibd or does it mean it could have ibd. sorry for all the questions but i just cant stop worring about it and to make matters worse i just got a new baby ball a few weeks ago and didnt quarentine as well as i thought i could so all i ever think about is ibd (as you can see by all my posts with questions asking if things they do are normal) so any info on how common ibd is and definitions of the symptoms.

Sorry to make you paranoid, I don't know the cure for that, either. Stargazing is when they raise (roughly) the first 1/5 or so of their body up at a 90 degree angle for extended periods of time. From what I understand, the meneges (a lining of the brain) swells, and this postion relieves it. I managed to relieve that symptom with flagyl tablets, and the gazing stopped.

I think all snakes strike a bizarre pose now and then, so I wouldn't worry unless you're seeing it happen a lot. From what I hear, IBD rarley shows itself with young snakes, so you're probably just seeing common activity in your young BP.

Sorry, I don't have answers for your other questions.

Is your BP eating? That's a good sign. My female boa went off feed for a year before she passed.

As a slight comfort (relatively), I recently learned here that IBD progresses quickly with pythons. It's less suffering with the disease, and it makes quarrantining more effective.

both my bps eat very well, but i pretty much didnt quarentine the new snake( three weeks)