Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Three months ago I purchased an adult female ball python. I isolated her as a matter of course, she has been feeding fine too upto about two weeks ago. Last week I put her in the bottom of my rack. This morning when cleaning I took her out(last to be cleaned) and as I put her back into the rack she flinched back and her head ended up upside down. She righted herself no problem. I took her back out and she did the same thing. I immeadiately thought IBD. Am I unduly worried or should I act fast. She is now back in isolation. Is it possible she could have infected any of the other snakes. I dont have a mite problem.
Many thanks

If it is IBD, then separating her from the others is all you can do, frustratingly. If she truly has it, it ought to become fairly obvious soon. The key is the ability to right themselves. I had two boas die of IBD and they couldn't, they were absolutely helpless.

I suppose with a rack systme it might be harder to observe whether they are displaying stargazer's or not?

Best of luck, I know this can be heartbreaking!

Ball Pythons die pretty quick from IBD. It usaully doesn't sit and maifest like it does in Boas. IBD is alot more common in Boas than in Ball Pythons. If you are feeding her live prey if she is striking the prey and connecting on first try then that is a good sign. Too much heat can also cause those symptoms. Hopefully you dont have anything to worry about.

Mike

what is IBD? where does it come from and how can a ball get it? how do you treat it? any info would be great.
thank you
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IBD is Inclusion Body Disease, it is VERY rare in captive collections and originates from boas.

I did a LOT of research on the information available about IBD when I thought one of my burmese pythons might have it after she died, but an autopsy proved it was nothing of the sort.

In boas, they can get it and carry/spread it for up to 3 years, usually through mites or direct contact. It can be passed to pythons the same way but in a python is spreads so fast that it will cause death within 2-3 months of catching it.

It sounds awful, but some boa keepers have a ball python in their boa room just in case.... cuz if the ball python dies from IBD, they know their collection is infected.

Like I said, it's VERY RARE, but people tend to jump to IBD whenever the ball python seems to be looking up more than usual.

IF (and it's a big if) your ball has IBD, and is showing signs which includes the extreme star gazing all the time, not being able to right herself at all, and she will regurge any meal she has taken recently. If all these signs exsist, you have a very short time before she passes away (less than 2 weeks). The only way to tell if she actually had it, would be to get an autopsy done on the body. There is no way to test while she is alive.

Put her back into quarantine, make sure to wash your hands every time coming into contact with her. Since you've had her for more than 2 months though, if she seems to improve at all over the next few weeks, you are in the clear.

It doesn't sound like you should be worried though ballboy69.... keep us updated!!!!
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