Alys Has Coccidia (A Western Hognose Video)

With all that has been going on it's taken me a long time to get this video out.

Since recording the sequences for this video I have had all 13 of my hognose snakes fecal tested and 2 additional hognose snakes came back positive for coccidia. Coccidia by itself would have been bad enough, but my vet also found indicators for the presence of mites in 3 of the fecal samples and one of the snakes had both Coccidia and indicators for mites which can spread the disease from snake to snake.

Coccidia is a family of parasites that are usually species specific. Before this diagnosis I was unaware that Crypto is in the coccidia family. I have yet to send out a fecal sample to a lab to test for Crypto but Alys did previously come back negative on 2 previous tests. If this infection is a recent one, and I suspect it is, this could indeed be Crypto which would possibly mean an end to all of my snakes who are not in quarantine.

What time I haven't spent working has been spent stripping down the racks and enclosures to treat for mites. There is no effective treatment for Coccidia which is not also toxic to the living environment. The only solution for me is soap and water as well as baking the decorations that can take the heat at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Everything porous that cannot be baked has been thrown away.

Alys is still gaining weight, although very slowly, and is in a hospital tub separate from everyone else. She has been given Panacur to deal with her pinworms and 5% Albon to hopefully clear up the Coccidia infection. If she does have Crypto though, no known medication will be able to clear the disease and she will most likely pass away if left alone. There are labs performing tests on live Crypto infected colubrids so I may donate her if she and the other 2 test positive in the coming weeks. It would be devastating for me though after the loss of Klatuu.

I wish I knew the source of the coccidia but after recording the video and having a spare moment to think I came up with several more possibilities that may be the source. First, the nearly raw tilapia is a possibility, since coccidia is originally a water bourn parasite that, while not able to infect the fish, can use them as a vector for transmission to their intended hosts. I also baby sat a bearded dragon last winter that later tested positive for both Coccidia and Pinworms in the spring. Unfortunately I didn't connect the dots and left the temporary tank that she was housed inside in my room and I do know that Alys in particular came into contact with it at least once before I removed it. Another possibility is from yet another baby sat pet, this time a Blue Tongued Skink. I let her owner convince me to let her run around my room while her tank was cleaned and she proceeded to crap all the way around the outside of the room while dragging her belly though it. I did clean it all up and vacuumed the room, but coccidia cannot be killed with most chemicals. Only 10% ammonia and Steam above 200 degrees Fahrenheit can kill the parasite and its oocysts which can remain in the environment for up to a year. Ammonia is deadly to inhale at 10% and turns into a vapor after a while so it should only be used in well ventilated areas, which my room is not. Cheap steam cleaners rarely get up to the temperature necessary to kill coccidia and the ones that do work start at upwards of $1500.

This is going to be a long process so I'm not sure when more videos will follow. Maybe I'll ditch the intensive post processing and just upload raw video for a while.

#coccidiosis #westernhognose #hognose #sick