Vomiting/Regurging Questions

[Roman]

Hi Sandy,

an additional information about diagnostics of cryptosporidiosis. I don’t know about the US, here in Germany you can buy a test set (basically just a small tube where you put some fecal material and an envelope) which you can send to a test laboratory. They do some standard parasitological tests and an IFT (immune fluorescence test) to find cryptosporidium. This test shows if there are cryptosporidium present, but it is not possible to identify them with this test.

For identification you need to do a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). One of my snakes showed cryptosporidium, so I had to look for a laboratory which would do this test and found the veterinary medical institute of the university Vienna in Austria. They did this test and found no cryptosporidium, so in this case it was just some cryptosporidium the snake got with its last food item but no infection of the snake itself. If there had been cryptosporidium present they could have identified them.

Roman

[Chu'Wuti]

Interesting! I haven't seen anything about commercially available cryptosporidium test kits in my research so far, though I've obtained a lot of information about diagnosis and treatment. I want to take the time to read it carefully before I post any information, as I want to be sure to post ACCURATE information when I post what I find. However, just briefly, a few points:

1) Cryptosporidium exists all over the world
2) There are multiple species, many of which are host-specific to mammals while others are host-specific to other animals such as various reptiles
3) It appears (I stress APPEARS--I am looking for reliable statistics) that a significant proportion of captive snakes are infected, at least in some areas. Some zoos have lost whole populations.
4) It can take, sometimes/often, 3 fecal analyses to correctly diagnose cryptosporidiosis, because a single sample may not show oocysts even though the snake is actually infected--presence of oocysts in the feces is dependent upon the life stage of the cryptosporidium at the time of sampling.
5) No single treatment is fully effective.
6) Some combined treatments have been fairly efficacious in reducing the protozoan load but NO treatments so far have presented a complete cure.

My friend who has the snake is still working with the snake in hopes of helping it; I have not heard anything about him taking a fecal sample to a vet (or even multiple samples). I'm saddened by that . . .

I will post more information as soon as I can--I got interrupted by another snake rescue, because our herp society is partnered with the local animal shelters to help with herps. Never a dull moment!

Thanks for your patience!