I have a Honduran fire belly that is currently exhibiting signs of IBD. Several being, inability to right itself from a coil, loss of appetite, muscular atrophy and other neurological issues. It has not eaten for seven months which is how long the symptoms have been observed. Up until that time the snake, a male, was copulating with a female aggressively for three months and was eating great prior to breeding season.
Now the interesting part.
I have owned this snake since 2006 but in 2009 he regurged a large rat and became ill exhibiting slight symptoms of IBD with the exception that he was still taking rats (I changed to small rats while he was sick) every other week. It was a slow recovery but after 2 years he had regained all his motor skills and was putting on weight. He exhibited no signs of any illness.
Looking back I should not have bred him at all but hindsight is 20/20.
So what's going on?
Did his vigorous breeding lower his immune system to where the symptoms manifested themselves again( assuming that it's some type of virus)?
Did he just get sick again?
Is it contagious? I have 20 boas in my collection. None of which have yet to show any signs of illness related to this.
The snake has been quarantined and unfortunately my vet has no personal experience with IBD. Other than a regiment of baytril no medications have been administered
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Russ
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Surviving IBD!
Replies (3)
you could try to find a vet that could send off biopsy samples, this could determine if it is IBD or not, from what I have learned once a snake has it its pretty much gone, I would not have it near any others, and for sure not breeding! I hope you can find a good vet and it is something else, but IBD is nothing to mess with!
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Well I found a herp vet and luckely it was not IBD. What he found was several arthritic fused vertebra pinching some nerves causing partial paralysis. How that was missed by the first vet I'm not sure. I now know where to go for all my reptile vet needs.
glad you found a good herp vet, most private practice vets that have not truly studied exotics will jump to IBD pretty as a Dx, its one of the few things they learned in school. stick with the new vet, sounds smart!
As an RVT with a passion for herps, what is he doing for your snake?
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