Seizures

[katach]

So one of my female ordinoides (Mocha) has had 3 seizures in the span of an hour. She has stopped for now and is in isolation resting. While her mouth was open, and attached to Bills finger to keep her from biting too hard and making herself bleed, I dropped a couple drops of a vitamin/water mix. I'm not sure what has caused it. All of the snakes are on the same diet and the female snakes are all in the same enclosure. We have taken some drastic measures here. We cleaned out all the aspen thinking that we may have gotten a bad batch. We scrubbed the tank completely, took all the toys and plants out. Right now they are on a sheet and have water. The sheet is kind of bunched up in places for hides. They all got a bath and I added vitamin powder to the water. Mocha is a wild caught and from her size and facial structure looks older than most of our snakes, so we weren't sure if age had something to do with or not. I'm at a loss here. I just don't know why this is happening. We just lost Ghost and he was in an entirely different enclosure in a different room.

[ConcinusMan]

You do have WC. Unfortunately in situations like these, there's a lot of pathogens that can spread to your other species and they may have little or no immunity whereas the wild northwesterns or pugets may be immune or have great resistance. It even happens by population. One population could be immune, but another, not immune. Same goes for immunity to newt/toad toxins.

Remember what happened when Europeans brought flu and small pox to America? It's like that. It didn't wipe out all of the natives, and the ones that are left are now immune, but not before a lot of them died.

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry to hear Mocha is having trouble. It's been a tough couple weeks for you. Please keep us posted on this situation.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I don't know if anyone has ever witnessed this before, but i have a snake that will have seizures if i feed her tilapia. I have had her for four years and she has been fed nothing but nightcrawlers and mice now and has had no more seizures since. It took me a while to figure it out. She would eat mice and worms and do just fine and as soon as i fed her tilapia she would have seizures and it was not a bad batch of fish because it never bothered any of my other snakes. I assumed this is some type of allergy with my snake so i started feeding her mice and worms only and she has not had a seizure in over three years. My first thought was vitamin b deficiency but it was strange how she would have seizures right after eating tilapia. I guess what im trying to say is that we don't know what causes these type of seizures, but if you can figure out what triggers these seizures maybe you can prevent them. I hope you can find out whats causing this.

[paulh]

What cleaner was used on the snake cages? Ly-sol and Pine-sol are snake killers. Bleach (active ingredient = sodium hypochlorite) is good if diluted. There are other good ones.

[ConcinusMan]

There are some parasite species that will sometimes burrow into the spine/brain as well. Any number of things can be causing this.

[katach]

Unfortunately Mocha did not make it through the night. She had another seizure around 1:00am Bill and I were both there holding her and comforting her as she passed. She was a beautiful girl and will be missed.

The rude and unhelpful comment was not appreciated on my thread.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Sorry for your loss.

[RedSidedSPR]

Unfortunately Mocha did not make it through the night. She had another seizure around 1:00am Bill and I were both there holding her and comforting her as she passed. She was a beautiful girl and will be missed.

.

Sorry for your loss

[Stefan-A]

It seems Festivus came early this year. The Airing of Grievances will continue over here: http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/site-feedback-suggestions-questions/11710-dont-listen-what-anybody-says-forum.html

[thamneil]

Tilapia is a thiaminase free fish correct? Do you think other contaminants in the fish were involved? I remember someone else having issues with tilapia but cant remember the exact situation.

[ConcinusMan]

No thiaminase, and one of the cleanest fish you can find as far as contaminants go. It's all farmed, and the fish is fed a vegetarian diet. That cuts way down on heavy metals. It's also rather low in fat. But tilapia fillet isn't really complete nutrition. should only be used as part of a diet that includes whole fish and/or rodents.

[kueluck]

Kat, so sorry to read about Mocha, she was a cutie. :(

[infernalis]

Tilapia is a thiaminase free fish correct? Do you think other contaminants in the fish were involved? I remember someone else having issues with tilapia but cant remember the exact situation.

Yes, it's Thiaminase free, but MOST prepackaged Tilapia from a supermarket/grocer freezer section is treated with Sodium Tripolyphosphate "to retain moisture and appearance"

When I was feeding this to my snakes, I had similar losses, the snakes would convulse and often bite themselves in the side while dying.

As soon as I switched to organic (Chemical free) rainbow trout, This stopped completely.

Remember, live prey is preservative free, so wild animals (by logic) are not going to have any resistance to the chemical's effects.

[paulh]

Unfortunately Mocha did not make it through the night.
Sorry to hear that. :(

[ConcinusMan]

Yes, it's Thiaminase free, but MOST prepackaged Tilapia from a supermarket/grocer freezer section is treated with Sodium Tripolyphosphate "to retain moisture and appearance"

I've been saying it wrong. I've been calling it "trisodium phosphate" Not sure if that's correct. I just remember seeing something like that added "to retain moisture and appearance" also. All the tilapia at walmart has it. I get mine from a store chain owned by Kroger. (Known as "Fred Meyer's" in the northwest). Their vacuum sealed frozen, and fresh tilapia is just that. Nothing added. I've not had any problems.