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Always using hand sanitizer/salmonella?

juliebot

juliebot

New member
Ok, I'm familiar with the fact that people use salmonella to scare people away from reptiles. I've tried to search the archives and I see some people say that "some" reptiles carry salmonella and some people say "all" reptiles carry salmonella as a form of natural flora in their digestive system. All seem to agree that the actual cases of reptile to human salmonella cases are very low.

So here's my question: Does everyone in this forum wash their hands or use hand sanitizer EVERY single time after handling your snakes? I usually wash my hands before I handle mine, just to make sure I don't smell like a ham sandwich or something, but I don't often wash my hands after.

I'm not terribly paranoid about catching it, after all, one of my kids (adopted from Africa) came home with salmonella and continues to have it 1 and 1/2 years later (asymptomatic) without having passed it on to anyone else in the family.

I understand everyone says we "should" wash our hands after handling our snakes. I just want to know if everyone really does that.
 
I do get a bit obsessional about it, using an anti-bacterial liquid soap, but mainly because I work as a nurse on a gastro ward, it's generally known I keep reptiles, I'm seen as 'weird' for doing so and just 1 single case of a patient being infected and traced back to me would be disastrous!
Realistically, I'm more likely to get infections from work, so I worry more about hand hygiene there for my own health :)
 
I wash my hands with soap before and after; the "before" bit is for the snakes' benefit and the "after" bit is for my benefit.

Bear in mind that although you might not be affected by any bugs on your hands after handling, they can be transmitted by touch and you could make other people ill. Although the risk is minute, frail elderly people or very young children can be badly harmed by salmonella.

In the real world, there's far more risk of catching salmonella from a cheap supermarket chicken. But it's better to be safe than sorry.
 
I don't. I wash everything like crazy after handling dead mice and raw chicken, though. And I wipe down the counters and the scale with antibacterial wipes.

At shows, though, I use hand sanitizer in between touching anything- for their protection.

I wash my hands in between handling the quarantined snakes, and after handling Maizey since he has the history of regurges of unknown origin.
 
I generally use purell hand sanitizer after handling my animals due to the fact I have a young daughter.
 
We keep hand sanitizer in the snake room and I advise visiters espceially children to use it after handling. I wash after I've been working with the snakes like cleaning or feeding, but I'm not a finatic about it.

Somebody above said this already but you are in a lot more danger from chicken eggs and other meats than from your snake.

Most of the reptile related cases of salmonella in people came from iguanas and turtles.
 
wade said:
Somebody above said this already but you are in a lot more danger from chicken eggs and other meats than from your snake.
Click to expand...
. . . and cats, don't forget cats!

D80

PS. To answer the OP, I'm not a fanatic about hand-washing to begin with (I think as a society we're too germaphobic to begin with, but that's an entirely different topice!!), but will wash after feeding and handling mice especially.
 
I always wash my hands after touching any of the reptiles, and even the stuff in their vivs, but I have a mild form of OCD and wash my hands way too much anyway. I do realise that the risk of catching something from my snakes is very low.
 
Thanks so much for all the replies and feedback. I'm paranoid when it comes to dealing with raw chicken and even handling the mice that I even use disposable gloves, but I didn't know so many of you actually do disinfect after handling your snakes too. And one of you brought up the good point that while I might be fine, I could make my children sick. (which I obviously don't want to do). I was just curious as to how much was "recommended" vs. how much people actually do, in regards to hand sanitation.
 
i do i use detol lol im a bit obbsesed cus if im ill or one of my family is she said she will gt rid of the snake
 
I wash my hands and/or use hand sanitizer. I buy those HUGE bottles of Germ-X.

Am I particularly worried about getting it? No. But if I did (or anyone else did), even if it was from another source, my reptiles would be blamed and it would just be more ammo for the anti-herp fire.
 
Wasn't there a thread a while ago where someone admitted to licking their snake? I took a trip to stats canada a while ago, deaths from salmonella range from zero to 10 a year. For all of Canada. HUSU estimated 6% of all salmonella cases are from reptiles. Other sites, like the CDC say most people recover from salmonella without treatment, it mostly affect people with bad immune systems (babies, elderly, the sick).

So no, I'm pretty lax. One time I wasn't thinking and ate..I can't remember, a pickle or something - after cleaning snake poo and forgetting to wash my hands. Ya, gross I know, I would never suggest anyone do it. My point I didn't get sick.

After handling a snake, no I don't wash. Unless it's late at night and time brush and floss (to much hand-mouth contact, I'd rather be safe). After cleaning poo, I always wash. If I know I'm going to be hanging out with babies after hanging out with my snake, I'd probably wash (that situation hasn't ever come up). Sometimes I'll eat while handling my boys. *shrug* I think it's overblown.
 
Ok I didn't read all the posts in this thread because most seemed to be very similar and theres a pretty good consensus that it's a good idea to wash your hand after handling.

Truth is... I am obsessive not because I've ever seen or heard of cases but just because it only takes 30 seconds under hot/warm water with an anti-bacterial soap in your kitchen or bathroom and you're done. To me it's a safety precaution that is so easy to do that it's not bothersome. It's basically pretty easy and we have all heard it... "better safe than sorry".

Plus we wouldn't wanna transmit this stuff to children and or friends/family. It's good for everybody. And if you have kids you wanna teach them about taking care of reptiles and proper handling from the get go so they exhibit the same behavior in the future.
 
RedRaydin said:
anti-bacterial soap in your kitchen or bathroom and you're done. To me it's a safety precaution that is so easy to do that it's not bothersome.
Click to expand...

I'd just like to point out anti-bacterial soap has gotten some bad press lately, the theory being it does kill most of the bacteria, but what you have left is now resistant to anti-bacterials.
I googled it and this was the first result
http://www.livescience.com/health/060328_bad_bacterial.html
but there's more info out there for anyone who wants to do their own research. Personally, I stay away from it and as many harsh cleaners as I can (baking soda FTW!!). My place is clean, but I'll use the harsh stuff if I need to.

I'm with Drizzt80, I think our germ phobia is doing more harm than good.
 
It's the same with medicine in general across the board. Unfortunately our society as a whole has gotten so used to using these medicines for every tiny little head cold or every situation that overtime super bugs and viruses have become accustomed and resistant to the normal drugs. Hence why science in general and money for finding additional and new drugs and treatment is so important for our future and upcoming generations. Penicilin or any similar drugs follow the same results as this.

Its just a matter of what people wanna be more paranoid of. Either way medicine needs to keep evolving and we need to fund research if we all ultimately wanna stay healthy or preserve future society the same solutions we live with now.

Discovery health and science is great :)
 
Oh I forgot. My sister was lucky enough to get hired at St. Jude's Research Hospital in Tennesseee after doing her pre graduate work at Radford University in southern Virginia. She has been there for almost a year and a half and is doing fantastic things for finding cancer cures. My parents fund research there and we also are very involved with donating to diabetes organizations fixed to finding cures because it runs in our family. Not trying to hijack or go off post but I just think we should all thank places like this and these people for the work they do to help us as a society live better and healthier life styles.

Her first published document (as a group research project) will be out in the upcoming months. While I won't know what the heck they are talking about it is cool to know she's a part of it.
 
v_various said:
I'd just like to point out anti-bacterial soap has gotten some bad press lately, the theory being it does kill most of the bacteria, but what you have left is now resistant to anti-bacterials.
Click to expand...

I just read this in the New York Times today (which has the BEST science section...)

E. coli’s quirks can be a matter of life and death for us, as well. Some strains cause infections in the gut, the bladder, the blood and even the brain. In many cases, doctors try to kill the bacteria with antibiotics, which jam up the normal workings of their genes and proteins. In a susceptible colony of E. coli, a strong antibiotic will kill most of the bacteria, but not all of them. Some will survive.

The survivors escape death because they are trapped in a strange twilight existence called persistence. They make hardly any new proteins and grow barely, if at all. Antibiotics can’t kill persisters because there’s nothing in them to attack. The difference between normal cells and persisters cannot be found in their DNA. After persister cells survive an attack of antibiotics, some of their offspring switch back to normal growth and rebuild the colony. Most of their descendants will be normal E. coli. But some will be persisters. The colony remains the same motley crew of clones.

***************

Here's the whole article, "Expressing Our Individuality: the Way E. Coli Do"

http://tinyurl.com/3h25g5
 
I use Purell hand sanitizer after I handle any of my snakes! Mainly b/c I have a phobia about throwing up...AND I have a 3yr old and a 2yr old here at home!
 
Salmonella Shalmonella. All of it's a lie made up by PETA.

Nah, just kidding.

Judging from all of the raw meat/fish/cookie dough with raw eggs in it I have eaten, salmonella has yet to get me. I do wash my hands before and after holding my snake, but that more out of respect for the snake.
 
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