Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just read the thread......and both parties involved are quality guys....i 've had experience with this condition and just dont keep "zones"......that being sai.....a few yeras ago....i get a call from a "friend" offering a trio of zonata at a wholesale price....this was the week before a hamburg show....so we met ....and without inspection i bought the snakes and dropped off at a friend's house to transport to the show......at the show .....the trio was sold to a person who transported tem to friend of mine......who later called me and onformed me of several concerns......snakes were quickly exchanged....when i recieved them....i was angry with myself for my trust in my "friend".....whom ive not spoken to since......the snakes were put down......

WOW......excuse my typos......

I tried to PM you back but your email address is bad. You got another one?
Juarez Wonders

Hi Bob,

I had firsthand experience with this insidious disease. I had a small colony of agalmas back in the early 90s when I was in my early 20s. At some point I added a new animal into my colony that I noticed was crawling on its side a little. I said to myself that this doesn't look right. Mind you it didn't have any symptoms of a skin disorder and at the time no one really had heard about this disease/syndrome. As weeks went past, one by one all my agalmas caught some form of the disease. As I recall I had just hatched out a few babies and they caught the disease. They died very fast as they didn't have much size and energy to fight off the disease. Their skin became like sandpaper and they just withered away. It was so sad. All the while the few adults I had also had contracted the disease by now. Their skin looked exactly like the pictures of Stu's animals and they were constantly going into a shed one right after the other. One particular adult male had his skin clear up after numerous sheds, but the disease had affected his nervous system and he would forever crawl on his side or back for locomotion until I euthanized him a few months later.

So my entire colony was wiped out and I was bummed. It wasn't until about five years later that I got back into agalmas because I love them so much. I now make sure that if I bring any new animals into the colony from an outside source that they are quarantined to make sure there are no skin issues or neurological issues. I haven't had a problem since I started back into them in the late 90s.

I hope that helps

Allan Bartlett
Juarez Wonders

bassetto@verizon.net.....this should work