• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Samonella and babies

A

Ariel

New member
Hey!
I have a 9 year old corn snake and a 6 month old baby. I just read that reptiles can infect babies (who are more susceptible) with samonella and it advised geting rid of any reptile pets. I am very attached to my snake but do not want my son's healh in jeopardy.
I always clean my snake's poo right away and wash my hands after handling her but she has been allowed to freely roam our condo at certain times and she sometimes poos on the wooden or tile floors. I am really scared now that my son can be at risk as he crawls on these floors. I talked to a vet who said the risk is there but does anyone know how great this risk is?
Should I be looking for a new home for my beloved snake??
Thanks for any info
//Ariel
 
Salmonella

I know there are a lot of people who have young kids and Cornsnakes. I am not sure how it is for babies. But I will say this...if in the end you decide to find a home for your snake, I would be the first to voluteer to adopt her. (or buy her for the right price) I am ready to grow my collection of snakes to 16-20 from 4 and so now it is a matter of getting the snakes. But, in my opinion, if you wash your hands, and decide not to let your snake out where it will poop on the floor, I doubt it would be a problem. I am sure if the snake did poop, Lysol would probably kill the bacteria. Anyway...thats just my two cents. -Don
 
OOPS....SWEDEN!!

I just noticed that you are in Sweden. It would probably be impossible to ship to the U.S. If you decide to get rid of the snake, I hope you find a good home for it. -Don
 
I'm no expert...

but I think the key is cleanliness! Just keep the cage clean, wash your hands after handling the snake, and don't handle the snake where your children will be (keep the snake out of the kid's room, the kitchen, the bathroom, anywhere the baby is, etc.).

There is definitely a slight risk of contamination, but if you keep everything clean I really don't think you will have much of a problem.

It is my belief that the whole salmonella scare it just that, a scare brought on by certain "animal rights" groups. You can get just a hurt and sick from dogs and cats!

Like I said, I'm no expert,
Brian Miller
BC Reptiles
 
Any Microbiologists lurking around??

I agree with Brian. Isn't there just as great of a risk of salmonella contamination from certain food items?
 
Salmonella hysteria...Dangers are "overblown"...

slight risk of contamination
Click to expand...

More danger from the bacteria on the bottom of ones shoes tracking germs into the house, rather than from a snake, realistically speaking.
Bleach works well to control any potentially harmful bacterias such as Salmonella that may be on that floor.
No snakes cruising around for awhile till the kids is somewhat older may be a good cautionary approach.
Some hospitals are using Grapefruit Seed Extract to disinfect Carpets and furniture.
Segregate the two of them for awhile and you can be confident that your a good momma for considering such things. :)

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5647&highlight=salmonella
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=608&highlight=salmonella
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5826&highlight=salmonella

Keep it clean.
If that Corn Snake, by chance, were to have Salmonella, its all about "cross-Transference".
The Salmonella bacteria actually has to make its way into an infants mouth, one way or another.
Incidences of infants getting sick (from reptile "vectored" salmonella) and passing are quite rare.
The chicken just bought at the grocery store is way much more likely, statistically, to cause health problems to ones family from the possible, unadvertised, on-board salmonella content.
:) imho
 
Last edited:
That is a great post CowBoyWay.

Not that you are doing this, Ariel, but it makes me sad to see people freak out and get rid of their reptiles when they become pregnant.

The dangers of getting salmonella ARE higher from what you track in on your shoes then from reptiles. I saw a show recently that showed how dilligent one mother was in keeping her house clean yet she let her family wear their shoes in the house, and then the baby would crawl on the floor. I believe they stated that just taking your shoes off not only keeps bacteria out, but it reduces your lead exposure by like 30%

And yeah how often do you *actually* hear about someone getting salmonella from a snake? Now think about how often you hear of someone getting food poisoning, or salmonella from a fast food place, their home, and resturant.

Its blown so far out of porportion when it comes to reptiles.

That's not to say avoid proper methods. You MUST wash your hands after holding a snake. What I do is keep a couple bottles of Purel (that no water hand sanitizer) around. One in the herp room so after I hold a snake I can immediatly sterilize my hands. If I need to keep working in the herp room I can know my hands are clean before getting a chance to actually wash them in the sink when I am all done in the herp room for the day.

bmm
 
If you're really paranoid you can occasionally feed your snake some grapefruit seed extract in the water (weak levels), and dust food with acidophillus. The acidophillus given enough of it, will take root in the snake's GI tract and pretty much eliminate most of the salmonella through competition (also good for the snake's digestion).

Most people will argue (especially vets) that salmonella is part of the normal gut flora of reptiles, but I'm one who believes against that. I think reptiles have an immunity to the toxins in the byproducts of the salmonella bacteria (which is what makes you sick) since they would need such a resistance in the wild to survive instead of requiring the presence of the bacteria in the gut to digest properly. But that's just my opinion until proven right or wrong, and thus far no study has been done to prove this right or wrong. (However, the sellers if benebac? say that they've done a study with iguanas where they've fed a healthy amount of probiotic supplements to iguanas and found that the probiotics pretty much wiped out the salmonella in their gut and the end result was a healthy iguana that did not shed salmonella with millions? of colony producing acidophillus units per some unit area in the gut). I'll try to find the link to their site and post later (hungry! need food!:) )

Also, occasionally after a bacterial culture, some of my snakes will turn up negative for salmonella (only once is not a good indicator, since salmonella is only occasionally shed in the feces), and I think one or two does so consistently, and those animals seem the healthiest out of my snakes. Just something to think about I guess...

-13mur 6
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top