Sudden onset neurological problem

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I have never heard of ibd in garter snakes! Has your garter been in contact with a boa or a python? Ibd is a disease that infects boas and pythons and i find it very unlikely that a garter would have ibd.

[Invisible Snake]

I highly doubt it is IBD.

[hissies]

Neither have I! I haven't been around the garter scene for long, but the few articles I read on it months ago implied that it was python-specific. Vet did say it can affect all snakes.

However, when he was living at my friend's house, she got a Dumeril's boa that he was sharing close quarters with (she mentioned splitting a heat source between the two.) They weren't in the same cage and I don't imagine she would have had them both out at the same time, but I don't know if that matters. I know she got the boa from a reptile show. She also has a carpet python that she's had for over a year, and several of her friend's snakes have been in and out of her apartment.

[chris-uk]

This is an interesting development, I've read a little about IBD but not a lot because (like others) I was under the impression that it didn't affect garters.

Please keep us informed, because if IBD can affect garters it turns a whole lot of assumptions around. I wouldn't like to ask you to go to the expense of the test the vet mentioned, however it would really serve the garter community if you had the test done and it turns out positive. Would it be the first confirmed case of IBD in a garter?

[guidofatherof5]

Please keep us posted on this situation. Best of luck.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

It can affect other snakes, but it's very unlikely. It is a disease that is usually spread from snake to snake by mites and through the years i have known several boa and python breeders that lost almost their whole collection due to this disease, but none of their colubrids were ever infected.

[d_virginiana]

Hopefully it isn't IBD and the shot helps him. I don't keep boas, so I've never heard of that disease.

Best of luck, and keep us updated on his condition.

[chris-uk]

Identification, Characterization, and In Vitro Culture of Highly Divergent Arenaviruses from Boa Constrictors and Annulated Tree Boas: Candidate Etiological Agents for Snake Inclusion Body Disease

Useful article from Aug 2012 if anyone else is wanting to read more about IBD.

[guidofatherof5]

Identification, Characterization, and In Vitro Culture of Highly Divergent Arenaviruses from Boa Constrictors and Annulated Tree Boas: Candidate Etiological Agents for Snake Inclusion Body Disease

Useful article from Aug 2012 if anyone else is wanting to read more about IBD.

Here's another article on this subject. Thanks Steve Schmidt for the link.

http://labs.vetmed.ufl.edu/files/201...JexoticPet.pdf

[guidofatherof5]

Great link Chris. Thanks.