Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, here's the situation, recently I lost a chameleon do causes unknown, but were likely due to flooding that occured which most likely allowed for some form of bacteria, etc to grow. I cleaned out that enclosure, sterilized it and everything, unfortunately it appears that this didn't get it, as less than an hour ago I found my bull snake dead, unlike the chameleon though the bull snake didn't seem to lose his appetite at all, my question is, in a situation in which something like this is being passed around in the room, first off, what's the best way to sterilize the room again, and more importantly, what are the odds that I myself am in any danger? Keep in mind I spend upwards of 6 hours a day in this room, as for now all enclosures in the house are being stripped down and sterilize, as is the rest of the house.

You mentioned flooding. Have you checked your walls and such for mold? Airborne spores could possibly be a suspect.
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Jenea

1:3 Eastern Hognose
0:0:1 Florida Redbelly Snake
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

the flooding was in the chameleon's enclosure while I was on vacation, the person I had left in charge pretty much took all my instructions as a "what not to do" list and ended up overwatering the chameleon and failing to drain the water for about a week. So the flood wasn't actualy in the room or anything, infact the room's on the 2nd story and is uphill from the nearest body of water.

Without any hard evidence of symptoms it would be very difficult to diagnose your problem. The price of finding out could be very expensive.

Snakes are susceptible to a variety of infectious diseases. Snakes / reptiles in captivity have reduced immunities. This has caused partial and total wipe outs of captive collections. In zoo also! (Not enough money for reptile disease research)

Mixed viral infection along with bacterial infection (mites cause a lot of transmission problems) have accounted for many sudden and unexplained deaths.

I wish you well and hope this problem does not reduce your collection further. I would separate you reptiles (by rooms) until this episode has stopped. Hopefully it has.

Good luck…..Dann

What disinfectant(s) did you use? Some, like Ly-Sol, are toxic and will kill reptiles.

Paul Hollander

I'm using watered down bleach and then rinsing VERY thoroughly with hot water.