Crypto????

[drewlowe]

I have a question to ask all the breeders and keepers.

What would you do if somehow (even with strick cleaning) crypto got into your breeding collection. Would you wipe out everything in that room (meaning putting your reptiles to sleep) and take a devistating loss and start completly over. Or would you get each one individually tested and go from there. Or would you keep everything you have and try to keep everything as clean as possible and continue breeding.

thanks everyone

[Bartman]

if that ever happened to me i would probably try my hardest to keep the quarentined and as healthy as i could until they died and if they didnt then i saved some snakes...im guessing crypto is a disease of some sort..right?

[jaybox_reptiles]

i agree with bartman

[drewlowe]

Crypto is one of the worst diseases if not the worst disease reptiles can get. There is no cure and it can jump from one reptile to another very easy. The best way to describe it from what i've been told is it's like aids in reptiles. No cures either. Well there is one drug it doesn't cure them but it does help to take the crypto down in numbers. they can get crypto from several different places.

[eyespy]

If they are not in obvious distress, I'd choose lifelong quarantine and never expose them to any other reptile or bird for the remainder of their days.

[Bartman]

How is it transferred from rep to rep. If you hold the diseased one and touch another rep will it get it?

[reverendsterlin]

destroy them all and hope that a good bleach cleaning and several months of no reptiles destroys the problem for good.

[drewlowe]

eyespy how would your quarantine be??? would they have their own room along with the obvious thier own supplies??? or just make sure they do not come in contact with any other herp or other supplies. And how easy is it for another herp to catch. example one cage with one species that has crypto and another cage with another species that doesn't have it. if they don't come in contact with one another and don't use the same supplies how easy would it be for the non infected species to pick up crypto.

Thanks for any info

[TheRedDragon]

I would quarentine all my reptiles to further prevent any spread of the disease. If all else fails, then I'd wipe out my entire collection and start over again after a few months.

[eyespy]

Crypto is an intestinal parasite that follows the fecal/oral route of exposure. The animals must actually ingest a small amount of infected fecal matter or oocysts that came from feces transferred to another surface.

This can be as easy as handling an animal, scratching an itchy nose, and then scratching that same itch later on before handling another animal, though that's a pretty extreme example. Even with careful handwashing it is possible to infect something in your home and then reinfect your hands at a later date. You have to be hyperaware of your behavior. Working in operating rooms for 17 years gave me some experience with this, but it can be tough. Never touch any surface that is not the animal, its furniture, dishes, supplies, etc. once you are gloved. Not even the cage door! If you do, immediately toss gloves, rescrub, glove again, and disinfect what you just touched. Then deglove, rescrub, and reglove. That is true sterile technique.

Definitely a separate room, separate dishes, utensils, furniture, etc. Disposable non-latex gloves worn during all feeding, handling, cleaning, etc. and immediately discarded. Latex allergy is what caused me to become disabled and herps can develop the allergy as well as humans so consider never using latex and avoiding that whole mess.

I don't personally take in known infectious animals and test for almost everything when I bring in rehabs. Almost all of mine are recent post-ops so it's critical they not be exposed to anything, not even common bacteria like staph and strep. But I would still not destroy an animal unless it's in distress. I'd just empty another closet, buy a new HEPA filter to avoid airborne contaminants (not that crypto is airborne but they often get secondary infections) or find somebody I trust to do the same.

[Pia]

As long as the herp/s still had a good quality of life, I would isolate them, but I only have a few. I'm not sure what I would do if I had a breeding operation.