Ibd??

[GYMRAT2B]

I accidentally posted this in the General Python forum. Since I own BP's, I'll repost here just in case...

How do you recognize the first signs of IBD and what can you do to prevent it? I have some CH babies and just lost the third. Granted, some were finicky eaters and I thought I killed one by force feeding it and thought the rat pinky rotted inside them. I did note that prior to their death, they did seem as though they were off balance and flip back onto themselves. Their enclosures were cleaned constantly, temperatures were up and I didn't notice any little black dots on their faces or jaws to signify mites. I also didn't notice any white dots on their bodies. On one of them, I did notice that there seemed to be scrapes on the lower jaw (possibly from the rocks or log in their cage?). The other two did not have any of this. I never noticed any of them lying in the water dish at all.

If it weren't for the BP book, I wouldn't have suspected something like IBD. The "screwing" movements of the head is what tipped me off. If the shipment of these CH babies came with a guarantee and I've had them in good health for the first two months. Could mites have been in the logs that I got as hides for them? I figured, if I purchased those logs at Petco, they would have been treated and therefore safe. Any help/advise would be appreciated.

[Linds]

If they were in good health for the first 2 months, and proper quarantine procedures were practiced, IBD is not your culprit. Pythons are VERY poor carriers of the disease, and die even within days of being infected. It is very sudden with pythons, unlike boas, who can carry it for a very long period of time. It is also believed that boas can even be simply carriers of the disease, not affected by it but they can pass it on to others.

Here's a good page for starters.......

http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html