|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Time on April 30, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I read this a day late.
Yesterday I was inspected by a Texas Parks & Wildlife Game Warden as a final step to acquiring a Zoological Permit. Fortunately, Game Wardens rarely come in contact with reptile collections here because of the lax permit system not requiring inspections for Exotic Snake Permits.
Having walked through many zoo back rooms and foot baths, I used to consider them overkill. Not anymore, that's for sure.
Does anyone know what is being used in the foot bath?
The thought of mites entering my collection has always been my greatest fear up until recently with virus's being what they are.
I know how I feel when I lose one long-term animal let alone a whole collection.
Paul, I feel for you and anyone else going through this.
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Adamanteus70 on April 30, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I am using 50/50 bleach and water solution on everything, and throwing away anything that is not important or is easily replaceable. Wood material is being "painted with the solution and allowed to dry and absorb the bleach into it, then set in the sun for a week of UV exposure. Maybe overkill, but hell, what could it hurt? The damage is already of great magnitude, so I am not skimping on anything.
I too would like to know about the other person Al so we could compare notes, I would use complete descretion of course with their name. You can email me in private. However, if there is a link between these cases like Andy suggests, I would like some compensation(and will go down that avenue) after I took a blow of a substantial amount including the profits of my future offspring I was expecting from these animals this summer.
Paul
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by lanceheads on April 30, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Tim,
At every zoo I have worked at, we have used Roccal-D for a footbath. Mix accordingly.
Randal
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Rob_Carmichael on April 30, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Hey Paul,
If there's anything we can do to help just say the word - that's a tough pill to swallow but as others have mentioned, we've all gone through similar things and I personally experienced it a long time ago. There's much we don't know about viruses and diseases and hopefully, things like this can provide info to help us find some sort of treatment, or, vaccine against these things...we're a long way off.
I know of several collections wiped out by OPV in the past month so something is going on and everyone should be on guard.
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by JHarrison on April 30, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
1. Paul, sorry about your snakes. It really really sucks to hear that.
2. FYI, (directed at everyone) in my experience OPV doesn't live for very long outside of a snake. I actually think it might be less than a minute, but I would in no way bet on that, of course. This is not to say it is impossible another person could have carried it in, but I think it is very unlikely, especially since said person would have walked outside in between collections, and sunlight does kill OPV also.
3. We use bleach as well for disinfectant, and Roccal doesn't kill enough for us (doesn't get OPV, for example.)
4. Quarantine minimum is 6 months. OPV can sit around and do nothing for perhaps even longer than that, then suddenly BOOM. Also, that's 6 months from the date the last snake came in-- if you get a new animal the time starts over. We also bleed and culture for OPV before releasing anything from QT.
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Phobos on May 1, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
This is what I use and happy with the product. 4 gallons $100 lasts a very long time ~ a year. Small investment to save a collection. I use it because of it's killing ability and lower toxicity than Roccal-D. Since it's a hospital approved disinfectant it has more test data on what it does to back it up. I'm not saying this is one you have to get or buy from this vendor, just an example.
http://www.1stmedicalsupplies.com/detail.asp?product_id=B026
Al
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by FSB on May 1, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Paul, that is a horrific loss, on the order of a house fire. I hope you will be able to recover and rebuild with time. At least your experience, like your collection, can still be of great benefit to the entire reptile community. I was very curious to know more about how long the virus can remain viable outside of a host, so thanks to Jim for giving an answer to that. There seems to be so little information available about this virus, and I was under the impression that no diagnostic test comparable to what is used to detect parvo in dogs is available. We also use bleach as our primary disinfectant, though I believe it is not so effective on wood and is deactivated by organic matter. For a variety of reasons I am not crazy about using it on my hands either, and prefer hand sanitizer when soap and water isn't readily available. When actually cleaning cages, especially in quarantined or suspect animals, I use fresh surgical gloves and employ rubber boots which are left soaking in a bleach bath. Like Al says, any dropped or uneaten rodents go in the trash and food animals should never be touched with the hands. What I meant earlier was that I seriously doubt that fresh, frozen rodents from a supplier such as Rodent Pro, which have not been exposed to reptiles, could be the source of any disease. How the rodents are handled after arriving is another matter.
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Adamanteus70 on May 2, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Thanks for all the heart felt replies and I appreciate all of your compassion.
Jim, I have a question, Dr. Jacobson tells me the OPV virus can be transmitted around and spread like Parvo in dogs. That leads me to believe it can live outside the host for a longer period of time. He agreed that the virus being walked in like that is also possible. Considering my time frames of human visits and animals coming into the collection. The OPV virus is also most active in cold temperatures such as during brumation, when the temps are in the 30's, with peaks of outbreaks being the time period of January through May...also the virus can survive for 6 months before it may die off. Now as of yet he has not determined exactly what virus my animals had, so what do you know about REO virus'? I know it is also a respiratory related disease, but do you have any experience with encountering that type of virus?
Thanks,
Paul
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by Adamanteus70 on May 3, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Some excellent reading materials on the subjects in question...
All written or co-written by Dr. Elliot Jacobson...
This one pertains specifically to the Eastern Diamondback...http://www.jstor.org/pss/20095233
another link
http://www.eaza.net/activities/tdfactsheets/047%20Paramyxovirus%20Infection%20(Ophidian).doc.pdf
another link
http://jvdi.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/1/72
and another link
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T32-3W0FCYG-7&_user=10&_coverDate=07%2F31%2F1996&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=dcf4351422a1782f109fc2f0f39f128a
Maybe this will help with any questions some of you may have about the studeis done on this virus family.
Paul
|
| |
|
RE: Out there waiting to strike your collection
|
Reply
|
|
by jay72 on May 3, 2010
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
A very good friend of mine is going through this exact same thing right now. Every time I speak with him he is loosing snakes. This has been happening on a weekly basis for a few months now.
I understand with OMPV, there can be carrier snakes and snakes that survived the virus that are not carriers, but still show signs of antibodies in the blood tests.
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
