Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everybody
I wonder if any of you guys ever have encountered a zonata with that horrible disease and can tell me something about it? I keep five agalmas and a single male L. zonata multifasciata.

My agalmas are from 3 different breeders. I have one old male born 1999, a trio from Thomas Steffen in Germany born 2005 and a female bred by Eric Stoops in the U.S. probably in 2003. The male coastal is also a 1999 born from the U.S.

Now, my 2003 female has been showing signs of illness for a couple of weeks. She seems very sluggish and her body is kind of slack. She seems to have very little control over her tail and about half of her body and she somtimes turn her hind part upside down. However, she has not got the "alligator skin" descibed as an early symtom with this particular disease and her eyes are clear. She seems to have pretty good control over her front half and head. Any ideas or suggestions?

regards
/Peter

My condolences. Those are classic symtoms of zonata disease without the skin problem. No known cure as far as I know.
Juarez Wonders

I hate to say it but the current most recommended action is to euthanize it and dispose of the cage and furniture in the cage. There is no cure and it is said to be VERY contagious to other zonata, perhaps even airborn.
That said you could try a strict quarentine and hope it gets better. Sometimes they improve enough to where they can even breed, although they still have balance problems. Also some people think they possibly can carry the disease dormant for a long time and it manifests due to low humidity and/or constant high temperatures.
As far as I know the disease has not contagious to any other species.

Thanks for the reply. Well, I have moved the snake away from the house, but I really can't just kill it. Since it seems to not have all the serious symtoms I hope that it maight pull thru, even if I'm aware of the very slim chances of this.

I have heard that this disease also can infect Boa constrictor and that other Lampropeltis can carry it without developing any symtoms.

I checked on the snake this morning and it gives a dead impression up to the point where the head becomes visible. Then she looks pretty normal, no roughness on skin or eyes.

As for humidity and temperature, I know that agalmas (and possibly any mountain king) hates temperature over 27° Celsius, and she has not been exposed to that more than on short periods last summer when temps outside rose above 35° C for several weeks and I had problems lovering temps inside the house. I always spray down the tank once or twice a week and humidity levels are kept in the range of 45 to 60 % constantly.

There's also the age-factor. It is said that this disease is caused by a virus and that all Lampropeltis carries it at some extent, but that only very few ever developes the disease, and when they do, it usually takes place at the age of 2 to 3 years of age. This snake is at least 4, maybe 5 since she was so big when I bought her from Bay State Reptiles in feb 2006. Steve at BSR then said that the breeder Eric Stoops claimed her to be 2 years of age, but the size of her suggested that she had to be at least 3 at that time.

Well, I only hope that I can save all my other agalmas from this. I've spent vast amounts of money and time to get this far.

/Peter

I have recently been informed that my snake probably does not have the zonata disease since she lacks the skin condition known as alligatorskin, wich should be one of the first symtoms visible.

Instead it has been suggested that this might be Paramoxyvirus. This is by no means any better, the disease is still fatal and even worse is that all snakes can be infected.

Any of you guys have any information on this or perhaps personal experience?

My female agalma is getting better. She still has some problems but no more upsidedown and backing of head and neck. Probably not paramoxyvirus, must be something not quite so bad after all.

Just my opinion, which you can accept or reject as you like: I would euthanize the snakes if they become symptomatic. I only ever had a couple of animals with zonata disease, but it's not worth jeopardizing the health of others in the collection (I had caught most of my own z.; not so easy to replace...) due to sentimental reasons. Good luck, in any case.

Over here, leading veterinarians now suggest that this might be IBD (Inclusion Body Disease), since symtoms do not fit the zonata disease profile. Obviously even colubrids can be infected with this disease, however little is known if and/or how the symtoms differ from boid IBD.

I'm now discussing how to perform a liver biopsy to determine wether she carries IBD or not.

Well, it seems like my large female agalma is back to normal, so obviously she did not have the feared zonata disease, and probably this was not a virus related problem at all. Most people that I have discussed my snake with, suggest fungus or bacteria infection, maybe from water or food.
I'll try to put a pic in here for you all to see, but I'm not sure if it'll work.
http://www.repti.net/reptile_picture/Lampropeltis zonata_55066.jpg

Very interesting. I'm glad she is back to normal and thank you for sharing your experience.