Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home - Experts Forum at VenomousReptiles.org

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by AquaHerp on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
Here's the reason. I strongly suspect where it originated, very strongly. However, and this is where the professionalism comes in, I can't say I am 100% positive. The first snakes that died showed symptoms of OPMV but were not tested via a lab. It was not until others began to drop that OPMV was confirmed. I do know that OPMV was an issue not long afterwards with this dealer and others who brought it into their collections. It was discussed on this forum before, and another individual gave a name. It is nobody that is a regular here and certainly not anyone here who regularly moves snakes hither and yon. Zu- I can only speak for my own experiences. Out of all the collections I have managed in different facilities, perhaps .001% have ever come in the door with an issue that I was not aware of beforehand. Keep in mind that I don't deal with a whole lot of "breeders". Fish naturally have a high incident rate. Most of this is stress related and these are usually minor enough to be corrected via temperature, salinity changes or minor medication. Birds are the same deal. There are some like penguins that may pop up with asper due to the stress of moving or species like prairie chickens that carry a retrovirus that I strongly suspect kicks in after stress as well. Herps fare better and mammals, especially the mega-vertebrates do the best with transport. DH

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by AquaHerp on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
especially the mega-vertebrates do the best with transport. <<<< Except hippos. If you need to ship a hippo, don't call me :) DH

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by tigers9 on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
Hey Doug, the mysterious dealer, do they have venomous only or other herps? I don’t rely have plans to own any hot snakes, removing speckled and possibly Mohaves form my big cat cages is more excitement than I really need, but I might buy more non venomous snakes/herps in the future and would like to avoid bad dealers. I don’t read all the posts here, so if the name was mentioned before, I didn’t see it Z PS: And I don't want fish, but love penguins, But I guess my statement was correct, captive bred animals and quarantien might be an over rated issue;-) I am not saying don't do it, I woudl try to educate the bad dealers and try to help the mfix the problem,industry self regulation, if it doesn't work, then I woudl likely expose them to warn others.

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by BGF on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
>But I guess my statement was correct, captive bred animals and quarantien might be an over rated issue;-) No. This statement is still totally false. The importance of quarantine cannot be over-stated.

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by tigers9 on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
BGF (others), I have few questions as this is an interesting subject. -how do u feel about feeding wild caught versus farm raised crickets, (raw) fish, any animals... This might an issue for people with outdoor encloures where some wild creatures will get in... -how do u feel about human quarantine when traveling from continent to continent, especially involving 3rd world countries?

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by BGF on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
>how do u feel about feeding wild caught versus farm raised crickets, (raw) fish, any animals... Insects aren't a big issue but feeding vertebrates to other vertebrates is. Farm raised fish are often loaded with parasites. I now freeze all such feeders for a couple weeks after once losing a trio of crocs to bad fish. >This might an issue for people with outdoor encloures where some wild creatures will get in... Indeed it is an issue. >how do u feel about human quarantine when traveling from continent to continent, especially involving 3rd world countries? Should be done but a political landmine. Cheers B

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by tigers9 on January 24, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
One of the reasons I am asking all these feeder questions is because I feed my lizards/chelonians wild caught Nevada insects, and we r in the middle of butchering another horse today. My fingers are bloody as I type this, i just come in to warm up and go back outside. Since US banned slaughtering of horses for human consumption, we get many free horses to butcher and feed our animals. Usually old, lame, but we don’t take any that have been on antibiotics, only drug free, we take them and fed them. No quarantine to see if they had anything contagious. These are local horses, we usually know the people, etc...horse meat is greet to feed, closest to lean wild game like deer...not sure if there is a reason to be paranoid abut anything... So our big cat meat is not USDA inspected, but it is fresh, we have a chance to meet most horses alive to see there is nothing funky/sickly (on the outside), ... Anyway, time to go back outside to play with knives Z

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by AquaHerp on January 25, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
Zu- Insects , like Bryan said, I don't worry too much about. I still check all animals regularly for parasites. Mice, rats, chicks and such I freeze for a couple of weeks first. Horses. goats, pigs and the like used for fresh meat (carcass feeds) for big cats, hyena et. al, I do the same. Except these are frozen for a minimum of 30 days and I have to know and trust where they came from. DH

RE: Vegas Viper Stunt: Don't Try This at Home	Reply
by tigers9 on January 25, 2010	Mail this to a friend!
What are the reasons against quarantine of humans? On this one I agree with you, unlike animlas who are in cages and can not therefore infect the whole world, sick humans can move freely across the globe and infect MANY humans and animals. Z <<>how do u feel about human quarantine when traveling from continent to continent, especially involving 3rd world countries? Should be done but a political landmine

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