Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I purchased a snake for a local breeder maybe 6 days ago. Its a female young adult Spider Ball Python. Anyway first few days she wouldnt eat but then finally out of no where she wanted small rat after small rat. Well she ate and I thought my worries were over. Tonight I noticed in her tub she deficated. As I was cleaning out her tub I noticed clinging to her defication what looked like tape worms! Has anyone ever heard of this? How in the world would a snake catch them? Maybe feeders?

Anyway because I spent my lifes saving on a few different snakes, a rack & supplies a VET visit is breaking my heart & wallet. (If she has to go she has to go) My question is ...is there something the reptile world sells I can buy to do it my self? Please let me know....thanks to all who reply.

I am lucky to have good relationships with many local vets (have my aas in veterinary technology, but was laid off-as many of us have in these hard times) if I found myself in this situation, I would get a vet to run a fecal and be SURE what type of parasite I was dealing with, and get a dewormer from the vet, I know we did this with cats/dogs (w/o an office visit) all the time b/c so many dewormers can be bought over the counter, but I trust stuff from a vet more then a pet shop.
some vets may require an office visit to watch their own behinds, but thats what the phone is for, call around.
as for the snake itself, double, then triple check your husbandry, a parasite in an otherwise healthy animal can be bad, but if there is anything else wrong it can be DEVASTATING
on a personal note, I would contact the breeder, and I don't want to sound like a mom, but "if ya can't afford the vet, ya cant afford the pet" But as you seem that you are VERY dedicated to breeding, best of luck!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

As po stated, take a fresh stool sample to the vet and have a fecal analysis run to verify what you have seen. If it is tapes, they have indirect life cycles and cannot be transmitted to any of your other snakes. Treatment is simple and cheap with Droncit (praziquantel) being the drug of choice. Because an intermediate host is required, it is extremely unusual to see tapes in captive raised reptiles.

Kelly

As Kelly mentioned, it is quite rare to see tape worms in captivity. They can come from feeders, but only wild ones. Have you, or the breeder ever fed wild caught feeders, or ones found in mouse traps etc?

Ian