Yellow Fungus Disease (YFD)/Nannizziopsiosis

*Note – this is written from the perspective of bearded dragons as being the main species affected by YFD.  However, there are other documented cases of iguanas, crocodiles, and other species contracted this condition.

Background:

In my experience, yellow fungus disease is an aggressive, highly infectious, and flesh-eating fungal disease that has a high fatality rate.  Baby beardies appear to have less chance of recovery than their juvenile and adult counterparts as they have not built up enough strength in their bodies and immune systems yet.   I have found that symptoms of YFD can affect an entire clutch within the same week, although each individual may display symptoms at different rates during that first week.

When I purchased Flo from a well-known pet store in the USA in 2008, I noticed that several of his cage-mates appeared lethargic.  I did not know about YFD at this time.  However, when I phoned the store back and explained what was happening to Flo, I was told it affected the entire clutch and that many of them were undergoing treatment.  Further, after my vet discovered that it was YFD (even though I already knew it after some brief research), she noted that many pet stores were bringing in entire clutches that had the disease within that same month.  Because of this, I believe that conditions at large-scale breeders at this time may have been a reason why so many  pet store beardies contracted this disease.

Without the presence of symptoms, it would be very difficult to know whether or not your bearded dragon has yellow fungus.

Symptoms:

• Yellow, patchy spots on the skin (these will start to appear all over the body if left untreated)
• Lethargy
• Loss of appetite
• Necrotic or swollen appendages (such as a black-colored and swollen toe)
• Blister-like spots on the body (this is when the skin where the yellow, patchy spots are turn to dead skin and become moist and from thick and dry with adhered dead skin to moist and blister-like in appearance.)
• Blister-like spots begin to slough off or become necrotic

Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to take pictures of Flo’s yellow patches and blisters.  I did, however, get pictures of some of his necrosis.

Flo's Tail and Toe Necrosis (a Yellow Fungus Disease Symptom)

Flo's Necrotic Tail (a Symptom of Yellow Fungus Disease)

Flo's Necrotic Toe Tip (a Yellow Fungus Disease Symptom)

Treatment:

 

If your bearded dragon ever exhibits any symptoms of YFD, take him or her to the vet immediately.  As mentioned above, this is a highly contagious and aggressive condition that often results in fatality.  It can be treated in a vet’s care with oral medicine such as itraconazole (this medicine can cause liver toxicity so be cautious while using it) and applying topical antifungals to blisters and necrotic or swollen spots.  Furthermore, given that your beardie will likely be lethargic and have loss of appetite by this time, you will need to feed Oxbow Critical Care/Carnivore Care as prescribed by your vet.

 

Be sure that your vet has the proper experience with bearded dragons to diagnose YFD.  Antibiotics are known to exacerbate the condition.  In my experience with my bearded dragon, Flo, the vet thought that he had an infection despite my suggestions that it was YFD.  She prescribed an oral antibiotic and admitted when she realized, later, that it was YFD that it actually worsened Flo’s condition. 

(By Ash on behalf of Reptile-Parrots Forum and Chris and Ash’s Explorations of Exotic Species and Average House Cats wordpress blog )

Things I Wish I Had Known About Reptiles Before Entering the Hobby

***Note: Any and all product recommendations below are made solely for the benefit of your animals.  I do not receive any benefit from the companies mentioned below.  I am just trying to help fellow reptile lovers entering the hobby.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

1) Many reptiles require UVA and UVB (mostly lizards although there has been debate about whether or not snakes benefit from UVB, most notably mentioned in the xxx issue of Reptiles Magazine).  The amounts and intensity may vary among species.  Some nocturnal species do not require UVB.  When I purchased my first bearded dragon, I was told by the employee at PetSmart that they do not need UVB!  Obviously, she was incorrect and this sort of improper information is often disseminated by inexperienced pet shop employees.

• Recommended Products:
• Reptisun 10.0, 5.0, and 2.0 tube lights
• Not Recommended Without Your Own Additional Research To See If Problems Have Been Rectified:
• Mercury vapor bulbs (if you do not have a Solarmeter – see #2, below)
• Reptiglo tube lights – many believe these to provide harmful UV rays.  For example, see these accounts: RepticZone Reptiglo Thread
• Compact Lights – Same issue as Reptiglo.  See this study, for example: UV Guide Study on Compact Lights

 2) Solarmeters are well worth the investment and one of the most useful tools if you have any type of lizard that requires UVB.  I personally own this one: Solarmeter 6.2

These allow you to measure the UVB output of any light at any given distance.  After purchasing this item, I discovered that my mercury vapor bulbs (MVBs) were not putting out UVB at all!  This caused me to do additional research and I discovered that many companies that manufacture MVBs had malfunctioning lights.  This could be a very dangerous situation if you think that your MVB will last a year, never test it, and never know that your lizard is not getting the UVB it requires to flourish.  Since then (this occurred in 2009), I have purchased every brand of MVB and they have been hit or miss.  I have stopped using MVBs but have also heard that some of the problems have been rectified with certain brands such as MegaRay.  I do intend to get more and do more research into this matter.

When you own a Solarmeter, all you need to do is research the amount of UVB (in uw/cm2) that your animal receives in the wild, the duration, the hour of day, etc, and then you know the appropriate range you should be providing.  It’s a lifesaver.

3) Temp guns are extremely useful to have on hand.  They give you a more accurate reading of spot and ambient temperature than those cheapo stick-ons that you can buy at the pet store and/or any sort of digital thermometer.  I personally have the Pro-Exotics PE-1 Temp Gun.

This is our PE-1 Temp Gun

4) Now, I might get hell for this, but I’m gonna say it: most substrates sold for reptiles are BAD.  The best substrate, in my honest opinion, is paper towels.  I have never had so many problems as when I bought certain reptibark and other related substrate products formulated for reptile use.

• First, they trap bacteria and hide poop.  I had this experience with some of my snakes that would burrow into the bark substrate.  Despite spot cleaning regularly, it never failed that I would miss a
  poop or two because it matched the color of the substrate, even after digging around and doing thorough searches.  One time, I even saw mold growing in one of their cages.  Now note, this is spot cleaning but I did change the entire cage out once to twice a month.
• Second, it can be ingested.  Tegus are known to burrow as it makes them feel safe.  Well, my tegu, Lucky, became impacted twice by eating the bark substrate!  Now I provide him blankets and pillows and he seems to like them even more than he likes the natural feeling of the earthy bark.

• Third, there is a risk that if snakes are fed in their enclosures they could ingest some of the substrate and become impacted as well.  However, feeding within ones enclosure is not recommended anyway as it could cause cage aggression.

5)  Go with your gut; if you feel your animal has something, it probably does.  Vets do not know everything and they are not in tune to your animal as much as you are because they do not witness their every day behavior.  Be persistent!  Read my story about Flo, my first baby beardie, here: My First Bearded Dragon Experience: Flo the Baby Beardie

6)  Each species has their own set of high-risk diseases.  For example, beardies can have Yellow Fungus Disease that spreads like wildfire.  The fatality rate is high as well.  Therefore, please learn of these diseases and choose carefully when purchasing an animal.  Look for signs of sickness from the beginning and spare yourself the hurt later.  Again, see my story of Flo, here:  My First Bearded Dragon Experience: Flo the Baby Beardie

 …to be continued…this is going to be a running list so please check back regularly…

My First Bearded Dragon Experience: Flo, the Baby Beardie

Flo, Taken From Us Way To Early in July 2008

Back in June 2008, I purchased my first bearded dragon.  I have always been fascinated by reptiles but I had never had the opportunity to explore or research them.  When I was a child, I asked my parents if I could have a snake but they said “no” and pointed out that I could do anything I wanted when I moved out.  Finally, 18 came and left and I was preoccupied with college and guys.  When I was 19,  I met Chris, my current fiance, and although  we moved in together and took on cats, chinchillas, and even ferrets, it still  did not come across my mind that reptiles could actually be great pets.  I had heard stories of people having reptiles  before and of they dying from x, y, or z, or that they need all this complicated lighting and heating.  I truly thought you had to be some sort of specialist to have one!  I was in the dark, my familiarity only in keeping fuzzy pets.

[Side note: I am greatly disappointed that my parents stifled my explorations with reptiles.  If they had encouraged it, I would be in a different career with a different lifestyle.  I didn’t know WHO I  was until recently, and I feel like I would have known much sooner had they encouraged me.  But that’s a story for
another post and another day but a piece of my heart that I want my readers to know.]

Time came and went.  Then, in July 2008, I was 22, had started experiencing life a bit, completed my
undergraduate education, already had a half-year of professional work experience under my belt, and I had a significant change in thought process.  I had been on vacation to Cancun and Punta Cana within that year and had a lot of exposure to reptiles in the wild.  In Punta Cana, I had a special experience where we essentially bribed (shh!) the zookeeper to take us into the Rhino Iguana den.  It was a big, rocky area with at least 50-100 iguanas running around, whizzing past me.  I even held one of them but was very frightened and couldn’t understand why.  I actually have a few videos of this on YouTube.  Here is one and you can link to the others on my YouTube Channel: My Girlfriend in a Rhino Iguana Den.

A month after I came back from Punta Cana, I was beginning to realize that this fear that I had of them was mostly from my parents making me think that they were something to be feared.  The fascination in me told me I wanted more.  During this month, I sat by a pool with my fiance, and randomly said, “can we go to PetSmart and get a lizard?”  Of course, he seemed to think I was joking.  Then, when he realized I wasn’t,  he said the smart thing, “Why don’t we research it a little more this week and then go get one next weekend?”

“No, I want it now,” I responded like the brat I am.

We stopped at the store and I picked out a cute baby bearded dragon.  Still, I had NO idea what he
needed.  Looking back, I wish I had listened to Chris.  –but, I am stubborn.  At the store, I had to rely on
the information provided to me by an inexperienced clerk who worked in the reptile section.  She said we would need a hide box, a heat light, a night light, a water dish, substrate, etc.  She neglected to mention the UVB, the most ESSENTIAL part of a lizard’s setup!  I passed by the UVB tube lights and I asked her about them and she said, “no, you do not need those.”

I forgot how it first came up but my gut told me that something was amiss.  I asked Chris to
take the new beardie, now named Flo (because of his easy-going attitude), to the exotic vet in NYC a few days later just to be 100% sure that we had the setup right and we weren’t missing anything.  He was eating fine and everything but I just wasn’t sure.  I also noticed that he had some odd spots on  him that were yellowish.

Chris reported back from the vet that the Flo, and most other lizard species for that matter, NEED UVB!
It is 100% essential for processing food properly.  Good thing we went to the vet that soon.

Regarding the spots, the inexperienced vet said, “oh, they look like they just might be burns or blisters.  Put this cream on them and he will be fine.”

I didn’t think this seemed normal so I started researching online and came across a wonderful forum dedicated to bearded dragons:  Bearded Dragon.org. That is when I first learned of the infamous Yellow Fungus Disease that can spread like rapid fire, especially in pet stores.  Little beardies that get infected with this sadly do not make it in most cases.  Beardies that are a bit bigger seem to have a better chance of recovery.  Anyway, so I thought this could be what it is and had Chris take Flo back to the vet.

The vet STILL insisted that it wasn’t Yellow Fungus.  The fact of the matter is, she was just out of vet school and had no f-ing idea what she was doing, in most cases.  My memory is a little hazy around this period of time because I was so overcome with grief, I think I blacked part of it out.  She thought that at most it was an infection and gave him some sort of antibiotic…

During this period of time we had to go to New Mexico because we had a pre-planned trip.  I missed Flo that whole time and yearned to be with him just in case something went wrong.  He was staying with the same vet in medical boarding.  When I got back from New Mexico, I hurried to the vet to see Flo and thought that he would be better by then.  Well, he looked sicker than ever before, lethargic, and it saddened me.  The vet spoke with us and informed us that she thought he had Yellow Fungus and she had a few others come in with it during that week.  Also, the pet stores that bring beardies to her were facing an outbreak at the time.  As a result, she gave us another medicine to give him and instructed that we force feed him.  My heart was broken.  Nothing like “I told you so!”  If she had treated him a week earlier when I initially suggested this, he would have had a better chance of making it.  She even said that
the last medicine she gave him can exacerbate Yellow Fungus!

Never did she say “sorry” or “I made a mistake.”

We took him home that night and followed through with the medicine and tried to get him to eat.  I just knew this was NOT good.  He would not eat no matter what I did.  It almost looked like he was falling into a comatose state. He was just such a small, little baby beardie who deserved a chance at life.  He didn’t do anything wrong and was plagued by inexperienced handlers all the way through, from the breeders who mixed him with other sick beardies and then sold him to a petstore, to me and the store clerk, to the vet who made the mistake, he had a raw deal.  If I had more experience, I would not have purchased him as I would have seen the signs.  Although, then he would have never experienced love.  At least he had someone who tried and cared about him.  (And yes, I do believe reptiles know when you love them.)

My heart still hurts over this experience and just breaks.  I am STILL mad at that vet.  Would he still be here if she had trusted the petowner that something is wrong?  To all the vets out there, take heed when a petowner tells you something because they know their own pets better than you do.  Don’t discount them just because they didn’t go to school for veterinary medicine, they can still be intelligent people.

I don’t think I need to go further than to say that the next day I just knew that he would not be there in life by the time I got home from work.  It was one of the most difficult nights of my life.  I never would want to
relive that.

Because of this experience, I am going to share with you everything I wished I knew before becoming a mother to reptiles.  I now had the basics down after my experience with Flo but it has been a learning experience all the way through.  I am going to condense the most important things that I learned in my near 4-years of experience with many different types of reptiles (tegus, beardies, iguanas, snakes) into my next blog entry: Things I Wish I had Known About Reptile Care From The Beginning.

This is for Flo.  R.I.P., my love.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

To read more about how the symptoms and treatment of Yellow Fungus Disease, please view our post: Yellow Fungus Disease (YFD)/Nannizziopsiosis

Snake Septicemia: How Our Experience With Elaphe Carinata Can Help You

If you are reading this because you think your snake has septicemia (aka sepsis) symptoms, please just drop what you are doing and go to the vet now.  Even if it is late night, find your closest ER vet.  Once a snake has septicemia, it is a life-threatening, aggressive, severe disease with high potential for fatality if it has progressed enough.  –And, “progressed enough” can be defined as seeing the smallest of symptoms.  Take it from me, I lost my favorite snake to this disease.  I didn’t even have a chance to name him!  (We always just called him “Mean Snake” because he was an aggressive snake and that fit as a nickname until we could think of something better.)

If you are still reading because you don’t know the basics of septicemia and are still unsure about the possibility that your snake may have it, let me provide you with a basic description of some symptoms for now:

• Red patchiness/discoloration under the scales (My experience: his underbelly was a faint pinkish coloration and turned to bright red within a day.  It was all over his entire body.)
• Necrosis or darkening of the scales  (My experience: I initially noticed a very small discoloration at the very tip of his tail)
• Swelling or pussiness anywhere on the body/under the scales & vent abnormalities.  (Mean snake initially appeared swollen around his vent and within a day his belly appeared slightly enlarged.  Also, it appeared that he had yellowish puss underneath the swollen areas and around the vent.)
• Scales peeling off or turning white & fluid leaking from under the scales (These symptoms appeared hand-in-hand for mean snake.  This was after treatment was started!)
• Vomiting up food (not eating is not necessarily indicative of septicemia although could be a symptom.  However, often times if the infection has become serious in the snake, he will not be able to hold down his food.  This happened with Mean Snake.)
• Green/black coloring to the stools
• CAVEAT: THE SNAKE NEED NOT BE LETHARGIC TO BE SERIOUSLY ILL WITH THIS CONDITION (Mean snake was a fighter and extremely active.  Snakes have a natural defense mechanism not to appear weak.  In the wild, a sign of weakness could get them killed by a predator).

Now that you know of some of the most prominent symptoms, and if, based on these, you believe your snake to have septicemia, PLEASE get him or her to the vet immediately! Stop reading this and just go!  Again, this disease progresses rapidly and without an aggressive treatment plan, your snake has no chance of making it.  Even with an aggressive treatment, as my snake went through, he still did not make it.  We had euthanize him because he continued to lose skin and scales throughout the treatment to the point where one night I came home and internal tissue was coming out of his stomach.  Even if we had sewed the snake up, it would have been cruel to put the snake through this when there was little chances of him surviving.

The vet informed me that he had snake septicemia.  She was not a reptile specialist (ER vets, gotta take what you can get!) but was familiar with the condition.  She said that she had seen snakes recover in about 50% of cases that hadn’t progressed too much, but only with an aggressive treatment.  He was put on injections and she said that I should bring him back to the reptile specialist as soon as possible.

Before I brought him to the specialist, I went online to research snake septicemia.  To my dismay, there seemed to be very little information about this topic online.  There was a brief summary of details, and not much information on treatment and results, and certainly not many photos to compare my snake to.  This sort of information would have been very helpful in making the decisions that I would have to make throughout the course of his treatment.  Also, in general, if I knew more about septicemia to begin with, the red patchiness would have been more evident and I would have brought him to the vet much sooner.  In turn, his chances of survival would have increased.

To continue with discussion of his treatment, I brought Mean Snake back in to see the specialist.  The specialist stated that he had seen many snakes live after an aggressive treatment, and he’s also seen snakes perish.  However, he did say that if the internal organs have already been destroyed, game over.  The vent was an area of high concern to him.  He never truly elaborated on why but I think it had to do with indicating that the infection was likely already affecting his internal organs.  He did say that he was still optimistic that my snake could make it and recommended to continue with the Baytril injections.  In addition, he prescribed an oral anti-inflammatory and another type of antibiotic, Ceftazideme, to inject in addition to the Baytril.  The vet also advised that I soak the snake in warm water/Povodone Iodine solution on a daily basis and apply Silvadene ointment topically to infected areas where the skin was darkening or falling off.

After a few days of treatment, the snake actually began to look in most ways except for some for some peeling skin on his belly that gave way to hardened, blackened scabbing.  It seemed that he had tissue damage or was losing tissue.  Yet, again, at the same time, everything else looked to be improving.

That’s when I brought him back to the specialist again who seemed started by the appearance of his belly.  He still stated that it may not be too late, it depended on what was underneath the scab.  He said that he recommended surgery to debride the scab, assess the tissue, and to sew it up in a way that would encourage healthy skin and tissue growth.  I should add that he said to wait another few days before having a surgery to make sure that his condition does not get worse.  The only reason he would have to debride the tissue is if the condition had stabilized (there was still pink above the belly on the scales that were still intact) so that it wouldn’t be done more than once nor would it be a lost cause.  Moreover, he stated that if the snake ate a mouse it would be a really good sign.

I really thought he was going to make it as his coloring was improving as he took a mouse and also, he looked as if his condition had stabilized.  However, what was really happening was that his outer scales where getting ready to peel off and that is why one could not see the pink underneath (they turned a pale color).  Furthermore, he defecated a few days later and it was a moldy green color.  To me, that indicates that while he may have been able to eat and absorb some food, his digestive system was already failing.

A day later I got home from work really late (throughout this all it was my work’s busy season and I was working from 9 a.m. to midnight every day) and put him in his bath, as I did every night, hoping for the best.  While he was in the bath, I noticed something odd on his stomach.  I picked him up to get a clearer look, and there it was, the tissue was coming out of his belly…game over.  I said my goodbyes and my fiance brought him to the ER that night.  I just couldn’t go…:(

If I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I might have made different decisions.  I was relying on the information provided to me by the vets as well as the internet.  My snake appeared to be looking better for the most part, and his activity levels were high.  He seemed to WANT to fight the disease.  If he had been older when this disease occurred, he just might have made it but he was still just a baby.

With my snake’s story now told, there is nothing that I can do to change the fact that my favorite snake with the most personality was taken from me long before he should have been.  He did not get to live a long, fulfilled life and I never got to see the adult snake that he would grow into.  All the adventures that I planned to have with him in the future did not come into fruition.  Rather than feel sorry for my snake and for myself, I am trying to get over the pain and to let his legacy help snakes in the future.  I shared with you our account so that you may have that much-needed niformation sooner in case something similar happens to your snake.  Maybe then, your snake will receive treatment soon enough to survive.  Or maybe, you will better be able to make the decision whether or not your snake has the possibility to survive at your current stage in the disease.  I hope this helped.

For more information, also see Chris’ post, On the Edge of Life and Death.

***Pictures below the housekeeping section below****

_____________________________________________________

A few unrelated housekeeping notes:

1. We are trying to create a blog that is both fun and informative.  We are new at this so bear with us!  If you like this blog, please recommend it to your friends and family!  Also, please email subscribe! (see the right side box where you can input your email)
2. Please leave comments!
3. Please let us know how we are doing.  What would you change?  What would you like to see?
4. Don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel at the following link: ChueyChuey’s YouTube Channel
5. Note, we have some pictures up (go to the link at the top) and plan to get more of our own animals and other herping trips.  Please check them out!

Thank you!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Late stage septicemia – scales turned white, some fell off, and scar tissue is exposed. Notice that there seems to be considerable swelling as well.

Scale Tips Appear Discolored on the Belly

Pinkish-Red Discoloration Under Scales on Snake Belly

Pinkish-Red Discoloration Under Stomach Scales

Late stage septicemia is evidenced by aggressive symptoms. Scales fell off exposing significant scar tissue. Additionally, the tail necrosis spiraled out of control. Also notice the swelling around the vent.

The necrosis became very aggressive in the tail after a very short period of time.

Close Up Tail Necrosis

On the edge of life and death…

Sorry that it has been so long since our last post. Its been a difficult few months.  Ash is in her busy season at the accounting firm working 50-60+ hours a week. And I have been pulling in normal to heavy hours myself. On top of this we live in the suburbs of NJ, so my daily commute is roughly 3 to 3.5 hours a day. This takes a toll on us in particular times when you have to care for: feed/clean/provide out time for your animals. This is not even mentioning time to just socialize with your pets, if such a thing exists with reptiles. Similar to our cats most of our reptiles could care less, but then again, just sometimes…there’s a strange glimmer of awareness that we are who were are as humans and they are ok with that.

Looking into the eyes and third eyes of our animals sometimes feels like looking into a whole other dimension.

With this said working our hours makes it even worse when we have a sick animal on hand, even worse is a gravely sick animal.  One of our shelter cats (he’s the smaller white one in my avatar) had a bad case of allergies or a resp. infection and the doctor treated him with ten days of antibiotics.  It cleared up Cali’s wheeze in three days. We will finish the dosage of antibiotics though. This happens almost every winter with that one.

Our King Rat Snake Elaphe Carinata was diagnosed with septicemia and is/was gravely ill.  We are roughly into our 5th week of daily treatment. This has been hard since Ash has late hours, we treat the snake for up to an hour a day and as of current we are doing this at odd hours like 11PM – midnight every day.

At first all it looked like was red blotches lightly pink and barely noticeable (I’m describing coloration changes on the snakes belly and tail end), then it turned into a dark brick red from the snake’s tail all the way up to halfway up the snakes bottom.

That brick red was infection. The sepsis / septicemia is a blood born infection. The body fights it by swelling up cells in its tissue, this has a bad side effect of cutting off the circulation ergo oxygen supply to tissue and organs and that part of the body dies on the snake leading ultimately to death. When nature is merciful septicemia kills in days not weeks and a few weeks at most if left untreated. The treatment for sepsis / septicemia is very aggresive and not for the feint of heart. Monetarily we have spent close to $1,00o on drugs minor surgery to cut off a tail and rechecks at the vet  and other treatment thus far.

The snakes skin is peeling off

The picture that I am including is of the snakes scales and skin falling off literally and this is what the doctor said looked like a huge improvement over the black dead tissue that is on other parts of the snake right now. I’m going to post a sepsis / septicemia post at another time as well as a sequential picture progression of the disease no matter what the outcome is with our King Rat. I think its important  for others to be able to recognize this disease which would never have happened if we were more vigilant with its care and husbrandry. I will explain more about this later. With snakes, temp, cleanliness and food and water have almost everything to do with its health.

For the King Rat Snake, half of his body looked awful, the brick red color on the underbelly of his body turned to black. The black tissue then became yellow and clear puslike both  swollen and shrunken at the same time if that is even possible.  This is in the areas where the tissue was in the process of dying and drying up. This dead tissue will need to be removed ultimately.  In cases such as this, left untreated a snake can catch sepsis and then die in under two weeks. It’s a fast and aggressive ailment.

I would say in nearly all cases it was due to poor husbandry. This fact was/is particularly hard to swallow for Ash and myself – being animal lovers.  It was our fault and ours alone that this snake is dying.  To this end I am starting to catalog the sequence of events since there is not nearly enough information about reptile septicemia and more importantly pictures so that owners can recognize the symptoms. I am at a conference in California right now and can’t post the pics but I will soon.  I think the reason that there aren’t more pics are many: people don’t care enough, they feel too guilty that it was their fault, they were too shaken up over the death of their pet, the disease lays waste and a path of destruction so quickly that no one is thinking about how the pics may help others in the same situation.

Where we went wrong was in the snakes husbandry. For winter we were checking his temps above his heat pad and they were proper but the overall ambient temp of the cage must have been in ‘the low to mid 70s and dropped further into the 60s at night. I had read that sometimes a cool down period is ok for snakes around wintertime and a must for reptiles when they will breed in the spring. So I didn’t think much that the ambient temps were cooler than the 88-90 degree heat spot that it had.  For a sub tropical snake though,  these ambient temps were too low for him to digest properly.  Also we switched his bedding from aspen to cypress mulch which looked better in the cage.

The problem with cypress mulch is that it is pricey and its dark like the color of fecal waste. Often times it makes it impossible for you to tell where and if the snake pooped and urated  this is the worst since the snakes cage is dirty and you don’t know it. Right now he is on just plain paper towels. Clean and easy and quick to replace out. I wish that we never switched him to cypress mulch and put a heat bulb over his cage during the winter months. These two things are what led to him getting sepsis I’m almost certain.  I had noticed that our jungle carpet python (JCP) had a wheeze and some scale rot on his underside around the same time. I immediately upped his ceramic heat bulb and put in some flex watt on the wall of his cage in addition to a fogger. The JCP was as good as new two weeks later after a clean shed.

We brought the snake into the doctor as soon as Ashe’s “sick pet spidey  sense” went off as it normally does when one of ours is sick – the doctor confirmedthe problem as sepsis.  This was 5 weeks ago. The doctor gave us an oral pain killer to administer  daily,  a first line of defense broad spectrum antibiotic (baytril) and a second broad spectrum antibiotic (ceftazideme) that specifically fights pseudomomonas aeruginosa as well.  Pseudomonas is often the cause of sepsis in reptiles. The broad spectrum antibiotics fight both gram negative and gram positive bacteria. In this case the doctor said it was useless to do a bloodwork / culture on the snake as it would be dead before the results came back. Which is why he used the two broad spectrum antibiotics to cover all bases.

The treatment is very aggressive and both antibiotics require subcutaneous injections every other day and every third day for the second line antibiotic. This is coupled with 20 minute soaks in warm water and a second soak in povodone  iodine  wash (diluted with water to a light tea color) , this is finished with a coating of silver sulfadine (silvadene) topical antibiotic on the afflicted skin. We’ve seen the doctor almost weekly for rechecks and he said the snakes condition waxes and wanes like the tides. He didn’t know if the snake would make it but that if we follow this guideline and treatment it would give the snake the best fighting chance at survival.

Two weeks ago the snake seemed lifeless, his shrivelled damaged skin mangled black and discolored, his anus opening pussing, then a week ago he ate a mouse and managed to poop. Btw the weeks prior to the snake taking a mouse, we gave him carnovore care mixture which comes from oxbow to make sure he had calories to keep going.  Last night the snakes skin began to peel. We have been waiting for the pink to go away so that the doctor can debride the dead tissue this is the process of surgically  removing the dead tissue from the snakes body.

Last night the snakes dead tissue began to debride itself and Ash panicked. The reason she panicked was because if the skin debrides and is peeled off, in some cases the tissue damage near the stomach cavity is so severe all the muscle tissue is destroyed as well. When this happens if you debride a snake the contents of its stomach cavity will fall out.  Its skin in that area can be sewn up if there is enough tissue, if there isn’t enough skin, the only humane procedure would be to not wake the snake up from surgery and put it down. When the skin begin to debride itself, I think that thought passed through Ashes mind and she panicked.

It was midnight when she came home from work and I was in California. She called me. I called the doctor and his reception person said he wasn’t available. I told her what was happening and she spoke with the doctor and he said to bring him in anytime. This is Dr. Boren from Oradell Animal Hospital in NJ. Dr. Boren is the doctor for the Bergen County Zoo as well. http://oradell.com/services-staff/ Dr. Siracuse-Parker is the other exotic vet and she is equally good. I think a great majority of vets suck. But I don’t think that about these folks.

This morning the snake went to see the doctor and the doctor said he was really surprised. The snake looked much better and he is much more optimistic about its survival. And was really shocked at the recovery.

Truth be told it was our fault and we just wanted to let you know that if your animal is sick but has a sheer will to live, if you give it a fighting chance, even when on the edge of life and death, sometimes, just sometimes the fates may throw you a bone and let your pet live.

We’re not out of the woods yet but are ever hopeful that the King Rat Snake which remains nameless right now might make a full recovery.  It was a lesson learned the hard way.

________________________________________________________________________________________

For an update and more photos on this story, see R.I.P Mean Snake and Snake Septicemia: How Our Experience with Elaphe Carinata Can Help You

17 Pets and the Morning Rush

A lot of the tree huggers out there often wonder and admittedly look at us and wonder if we are animal abusers since we have so many pets. A lot of regular folk out there wonder the same thing.  I’d like to say that maintaining the health and happiness of all these animals in captivity and in one’s own personal home I may add is a daunting task.

The short answer is we take fantastic care of our animals. I have not tallied our annual vet bill, but it does run in the thousands. Our animals get regular visits to the vet and not just when we think they are sick.  Besides this, Ash for whatever reason has a sickness radar and has been correct 9.5 out of 10 times whenever she thinks one of our pets may be sick and needed to go to the vet.

The other 0.5 time just makes me mad as it usually $150 dollars on average of money wasted. Still with those types of stats in her favor, one can’t fault her. She’s suspected and caught everything from parasites to yellow fungus and tapeworms and an oft never heard of hyper extended back in one of our psychotic chinchillas who had no reservations whatsoever in flinging himself off a dining room table in thinking that he could jump Superman style (that is to say prostrate with legs splayed out) across the air to a futon 5 feet away and landing flat on his stomach on the floor after.

That said here is my normal routine Monday – Friday. We take turns in caring for our pets. I have the morning shift while Ash has the evenings shift. Maybe Ash will find some time to share what she does when she gets home.

5:50AM – The alarm sounds and I mope around and rub my feet until I have enough circulation going in my creaky 35 year old body to start my day.

6:05 AM – In the shower I go

6:20 AM – I am dried and half dressed in my boxer shorts and white undershirt, where I proceed to head to the kitchen downstairs

6:25 AM – I grind some whole coffee beans, usually Starbucks though it’s hardly my favorite. 4 tablespoons for four cups of coffee and into the coffee maker it goes with 4 cups of water set to on “brew strong”

6:30 AM – I stick my face into the refrigerator and grab the collard greens which is our go to mainstay green vege and a supplement like turnip greens or dandelions greens, cactus pads which we get from the Latin supermarket near our house, carrots or squash and sometimes a fruit such as cactus pears, or berries. We chop everything up in an 80/20 mix of dark leafy green to other type of vegetable/fruit proportion usually. Although I do cheat often and sometimes add a little more squash as that is a favored treat for one of the bearded dragons that we have.  Read more about how I make the lizard salads on my post What We Feed Our Lizards – 7 Days A Week/365 Days Per Year.

The entire mix then gets put into a tupperware container, sometimes I make enough for two days but 8 out of 10 times I make it the day of in the AM. I grab the coffee and stick it into a to go thermos for Ash. She drives to work and to be honest isn’t always awake until she has coffee in her system. I worry about that so I usually always brew her coffee in the AM. I also bring her up a small cup of Joe as well as she will be getting out of the shower by this time. Her wake up is around 6:15 AM and she usually needs about an hour to get ready.

I check to see if the cats have food in their bowls and if they need their litter boxes cleaned.  I clean the litter at least once every 2 days. We have 5 cats and 5 litter boxes. They eat a mix of dry and wet food. The wet food they only get every two days though except for our oldest cat magic who has hyperthyroid issues. She gets wet food everyday. Anyhoo this sometimes changes my schedule by 5 or 10 minutes depending on if I have done this task the night before or not. With so many cats I save myself aggravation by making sure I always change the litter at least every two days, otherwise the bad things happen. Like walking on my carpet and suddenly squishing a cat turd between my toes. Which means that we have to break out the power steamer to get the stain out at some point.

6:40 AM – I walk the mixture over to the dining room where we have our Cuban Rock Iguana Iggie. I turn on his UVB flourescent light  tube as well as his heat source/ mercury vapor bulb. I open the top of his open air cage and grab his old plate with any leftover food that he did not eat and clean and throw out the old stuff. I grab a measured handful of the fresh greens and fruit and place it back onto his plate with a small dousing of Calcium without D3.  I put the bowl back in his cage and change his water for fresh in case he has fouled it. He doesn’t function too well in the AM so I give him a scruff on his dewlap to wake him up and then proceed to close his cage. Iggie then wakes up and walks to his heat and UVB spot where he basks for a spell. I close his cage and move on.

I usually never see him eat as I am off to tend to the others by this time.

6:43 AM – I grab Ashes cup of coffee and the mixed greens and walk everything upstairs. Ash is sometimes in the shower or not at this time and I place her coffee down.

I proceed to the spare bedroom where we have our Chuckwallas’s Boamaster cage. Its a 4′ X 4′ X 2′ cage.  We got it used for $100 (read more about our reptile caging at Reptile Caging Options: Still Waiting for Perfection). I shut off his night heat lamp and put on his mercury vapor bulbs.

***Side note: The bulbs are $40 bucks unless we order them from R&T Pet Supply. Russ is a really great guy and we recommend everyone to shop here. Just call him rather than look at his website. He will make a list and get you whatever you need, most times his prices are at or nearly just above cost. He and his wife have a giant heart and they also run a dog shelter, they save a lot of pit bulls amongst other breeds from being put down at overcrowded shelters.   http://www.randtpetsupply.com/

Russ also exhibits at the White Plains Reptile Show regularly. The other vendors hate him because in this recession he dropped his prices in order for those who would otherwise not be able to take care of their reptiles. The other vendors were then forced to drop their prices. Just call and ask for Russ or email them with a list of what you need. In some cases he can’t go down in price for some products because his costs are fixed. But in areas where he can drop his prices you will save 30% as compared to going to a Petco or something. His store is in Queens, NY should you want to physically pick up your merchandise.  Just tell him that Chris and Ash sent you.

I feed Chuck his portion and then go to the “animal room.” I turn out the night lights for the two bearded dragons and our Argentinian Blue Tegu which is really a Black and White Tegu. They’re still trying to figure out how to class a Blue Tegu though. We’ll talk more about him at a later time.

Once their daytime lights are on, they each have a mercury vapor bulb, I usually open the Tegu’s door. We let him free roam at will since we trust him. More often than not he holds in his pee or poop until we let him out where he then proceeds to walk to the tiled bathroom floor to do his business. We don’t  like that he holds it in so more often than not we just leave the door open.  You can see more about Lucky being potty trained at our post “Some Lizards Are Pretty Darn Bright“.

I then proceed to feed the beards their portion of greens. The remainder if there is any either goes back to the fridge or is fed to our two containers of giant Dubia roaches. At the same time I make sure the Dubias either have dry cat food, carrots or water crystals so that they don’t croak. The Dubias are our feeder insects and you can read more about them on our post “Feeder Roaches Debunked/Demystified“.

Once the beards have their greens in their greens bowls, I them grab the superworm container and give each beard anywhere from 6-20 worms depending on what time of year it is. They tend to eat less in the winter.

Once this is done I check on the ferret and three chinchillas to make sure they have water, food pellets and timothy hay. We get all of our pellets from Oxbow and we buy the stuff in bulk 50LB bags believe it or not. Their food is of very high quality.

7:00 AM – I start to get dressed for work. I say hello to Ash as she is brushing her teeth or doing her makeup and then I bolt for the door.

7:23 AM –  I am on the train to Newark sleeping away, where I then proceed to get on the train into NYC, and then yet another train to midtown. I hit my office around 8:45 AM but not before getting some coffee myself or an oatmeal.

This is my morning Monday through Fridays.