Internal Parasites?

Zoe · 08-31-02, 11:43 AM

Hey!
Could a mite-free boa exibiting these symptons over 2 days at most have internal parasites? :
Lying stretched out (not all muscles strained, but jsut not curled up like a normal snake would be); dehydrated-looking with dry wrinkly skin; when picked up, it just dangles with it's mouth wide open; followed by death. Very little movement, the snake never throws it's head about or has spasms.

If it's not parasites, what else could it be?

Any insight would be appreciated,
Thanks
Zoe

hip · 09-01-02, 07:45 AM

a vet trip is in order and in a hurry it sounds quite serious best of luk hip

Zoe · 09-01-02, 10:42 AM

Yes I know, but the vet won't find out much about internal parasites with an external examination, will he?
I am awaiting test results (I send the dead one in to be analyzed).
And anyway, I wasn't asking what I should do, I was asking what it was.

Thanks anyway
Zoe

hip · 09-01-02, 05:54 PM

sorry i miss read your post could be I B D or a numer of things how long have you had the snakes? in order to find out about I B D you will need a necropsy(spelling) and they will do a tissue stain (blue)check out these pages for symptoms of I B D http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html The key words being flacid paralasis (limpness) best of luck hip

Zoe · 09-02-02, 03:16 PM

Yeah I looked up IBD and it's not at all the same... as far as I can tell, IBD takes longer to kill the animal (starting from when the animal shows symptons), and it apparently shows up in pythons before boas, and the snake that died was a boa. Also, there was no throwing about of heads, as IBD is said to cause.

Thanks,
Zoe