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Ball Python/parasite ?'s

M

Malkingray

Certified Vet Tech
Back in July I purchased 2 "breeder holdback" female ball pythons on Reptibid. The smaller of the 2 females died within a week, leaving me with approx. $600 in vet bills. The other was treated for a respiratory infection and dewormed. "Hanna" was about 60 grams (have to double check the exact weight) when she arrived and I was told about 2 months old. She ate ok for me - about every 2-3 weeks for me, usually a rat pink, but other times she would prefer 2-3 mouse fuzzies. She only shed once for me in Oct. She had been doing fairly well (my male from Hellfire is doing excellent - was 80 grams when he hatched and 183g by Sept). I had her up to about 85 grams.

I had to go away for about 2 weeks due to a funeral and my friend who has several Ball Pythons and a few corns took care of my snakes for me. Hanna ate for her and other than being so much smaller than Hank she said seemed otherwise normal. I noticed when about 2 days after being home that she was soaking in her water dish a lot. I was hoping she was getting ready to shed again. She seemed fine. Then about 2-3 days after that she was in half in her hide and half out. She didn't look quite right and I checked her weight and she was down to about 75 grams. I called the vet and made an appointment for the next day at 9am (he had no openings that night). Up until then she really did not look like anything was wrong with her.

When I got up that morning about 7am I went to check on her and she was dead. Her stomach had a 1.5 inch slit in it and there was a 3-4 in dark brown segmented worm in the cage! :puke01: I have NEVER seen anything like it before! I have studied parasitology (had the highest grade in my class) and never did I see any intestinal worm like that before. I did not disturb anything (both the snake and dead worm were left as I found them) and took the whole thing to the vet.

My vet had never seen anything like it either. He was at a loss. He did a necropsy - his only comment was that she smelled like she had been dead for days and not hours and said her GI tract was a mess. He has insisted since I got her she was an imported snake and feels that this is the proof.

Since I got this snake, I have ALWAYS kept her in another room away from all the other snakes and handled, feed and cleaned her last. I even bought a separate scale for her. My vet has assured me that none of my other snakes could possibly have what Hanna had. He feels this was something she got before coming to the U.S. and there is no way she picked it up from eating live mice/rats here. He also says there is no way it could be an environment problem either due to the condition of the cage (I do my best to keep them as clean and spotless as possible and use dilute bleach regularly).

Has anyone heard or seen anything like this before? :shrugs: I keep looking through books hoping to find info. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
 
Since it was a segmented worm, it could have been some kind of tape worm. The "normal" dewormers do not typically get rid of tapeworms so it would make sense that it could have survived even if other parasites didn't.

I'll see what I can find out tomorrow when I am at work.
 
Did it look anything like this?

I'm not sure that this is a species that can be found in reptiles, but I can try to find out.
 
I didn't take pictires as it made me horribly ill to even look at it. I am going to check with my vet and see if he did. It didn't look like the pic in the previous post. I have honestly NEVER seen anything like it before - not in large or small animal medicine. I have to check my records - I know she was dewormed with 2 different medicines over a period of several weeks last July/Aug and early Sept.
I will see if I can find a picture of something that remotely resmebles it and see if I can post it.
 
Whatever that worm was - it looked like it came right out of a Sci-Fi movie. I have been looking at pictures of every known intestinal parasite of snakes today that I could find and NONE of them look anything like it.

Over 10 years working in veterinary medicine and there is always something that keeps you learning.
 
well hey if you're lucky it could be a new speicies and they might name it after you :grin01:

but yeah that was horrible, i'd hate to have something like that happen to any of my babies ;_;
i hope you can have some legal action taken on that "breeder"
 
I have already tried to deal with the breeder and get things resolved. She refused emails from weeks so she could claim I never contacted her, etc, etc. I have in my search found many others who purchased clutch mates of these two - some arrived dead and most were dead within a week or two. I even came across someone who never recieved their snakes because "they died before they could be shipped". Hanna may have lived the longest. She refuses to see documention of their health, refuses to reimburse me for the cost of the snakes (Just what I paid for them, not shipping or any of the vet bills). Hey she couldn't even send them in an insulated box with proper padding! I can only imagine how painful a death that must have been to have something eat its way out of her body. Makes me sick.
 
Guh. I've never known worms to eat their way out of an animal before in such a manner. Her death must have been horrendously painful. =(

Do Bot Flies attack reptiles?

Your description sounds like a bot fly larvae I saw at Indiana University. A bio professor actually incubated it in his leg and then it came out and was preserved.

There are human, horse, rabbit, rodent bot flies. Dunno if they could cause this sort of problem in a reptile or not if an infected rodent was ingested.

As for the seller, sounds like your right to post to the BOI and maybe small claims court. I have a hard time letting issues in which I was wronged get by. If she doesn't want to talk to you, she can talk to the judge instead. Just make sure you have all of your i's dotted and t's crossed when you get in there. Have copies of all of your e-mails and the dates, the medical records, phone calls (if any), etc.

Just one of the many reasons I will never buy an import of any kind.
 
ok never look at parisite pics while eating :puke01:
that was the most discusting maggot i have ever seen
 
I spoke to a lawyer in November, maybe Oct., when I was finally able to get a response out of her. He said it was really not worth the time and money and I would probably end up paying him the equivalent of several well bred visual morphs of female ball python (apparently he is the proud owner of 3 ball pythons) and it just wasn't worth it for an imported "bargin" snake.

I have not posted on the BOI for multiple reasons - the biggest is she has A LOT of friends that will back her, support her and bash anyone who would ever even suggest that she is not the greatest thing that has happened in the reptile world. I have already had to deal with some of the wrath and most of the people who have had problems were so bashed and beaten down when they did post I chose just not to bother. She has a lot of positive feedback on reptibid and fauna and she can get downright nasty when confronted. When I finally was able to get a hold of her she was probably the meanest and most incredibly rude person I have ever had to deal with.

As far as the type of worm - I have seen many variety of bot flies in various life stages when I was working at the University of PA large animal hospital. While there was some similar characteristics, I am still not 100% sure that this worm would be classified as a bot. I am determined to figure out what it is though.
 
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