do you guys wash your hands after handling your snake

[FitnessFreak]

hey my mom always tells me every time i touch the snake i need to wash my hands

i was wondering-is this really neccessary or just paranoia or something??

plz answer quick im leaving in 20mins

[FitnessFreak]

any1 have any answer?

[Stefan-A]

It's necessary to prevent diseases from spreading. Salmonella isn't fun and the risk is always present. You should probably wash your hands before you handle a snake too, especially if you have more than one terrarium.

My opinion. Others might disagree.

[FitnessFreak]

It's necessary to prevent diseases from spreading. Salmonella isn't fun and the risk is always present. You should probably wash your hands before you handle a snake too, especially if you have more than one terrarium.

My opinion. Others might disagree.

thanks-is that hand sanetizer good too, where u dont wash it off u just rub it into ur hands?

[Stefan-A]

I believe so, depending on how it works.

[adamanteus]

I always wash my hands before and after handling snakes.

[reptileparadise]

I always wash my hands after handling snakes. I also use alcohol gel.
It has become a standard thing, after leaving my reptile room, I wash my hands, even when I havent touched anything (like crickets or something)

[Serpentine99]

Although I don't usually wash my hands when handling snakes in the wild (mostly because by the time I get back to my house I forget), but I've heard from experienced snake collectors and zoo keepers that It's important for keepers of any animal to wash your hands after handling them. Not only for the person but for the animal as well. It's also preferred for people with a collection of animals to wash your hands before handling them too.

[KITKAT]

I notice that some of you use alcohol gel.

Just remember that alcohol gel does not kill 100% of the bacteria on your hands, and the bacteria that survive are the strongest ones, which may reproduce and become a strain of bacteria that are resistant to alcohol gel.:eek:

Washing is also a less than 100% kill of bacteria, but is apparently not as likely to create resistant strains.

So, I use the gel when I am in a hurry or when I am in the field (or at the local herp show), but I try to wash with soap and hot water :rolleyes: whenever possible.

[Cindy]

I wash my hands before and after I handle the snake because I don't want to get sick
Cindy

[drache]

I wash my hands before, after, and between certain snakes

[salzar]

me as well
they can smell very good,
and mine has reacted to the smell of lemon oil,and the kind of soap I use , he als does not always readily know it is me if my hair is up. heee to funny... bye salzar :D

[Thamnophis]

After handling a snake you should wash your hands with water that is at least 45 °Celsius. Use a normal soap and rub your hands with soap for at least ten seconds. Then rinse them off with the warm water.
The soap makes that bacteria, wormeggs, etc. are removed from your hands.

[Stefan-A]

Soap and water is all I use.

I've noticed that after washing my hands, my snakes don't initially seem to know how to react to my hand. :) Obviously masks the normal smell.

[Cazador]

Hey Mike,

Your mom's right. You should wash your hands before handling your snakes to prevent spreading pathogens to them and afterward for your own health. Even their digestive flora (like ours) can be harmful and/or irritating to you if you digest it or get it in a mucous membrane.

To answer your question, I wash my hands most of the time, but I should be better about it. With new or sick snakes, I ALWAYS wash my hands before and after handling them or cleaning their enclosures. It's a good practice with your snakes, and there aren't many good reasons why NOT to do it.

Rick

[drache]

Hey Mike,
It's a good practice with your snakes, and there aren't many good reasons why NOT to do it.

Rick

well actually . . .
being a health practitioner, I get to wash my hands a lot when I'm not handling snakes, and I get dry skin from it
I do actually try to plan things in order to minimize the necessity of hand washing, because I can't handle snakes with moisturizer on my hands
by the way - that sanitizer stuff does nothing
soap and water and being thorough is where it's at

[adamanteus]

Yeah, soap and water for me too!

[infernalis]

A good topic to bring back out...

I wash before and after, for the reasons already stated.

[katach]

I wash my hands before, between , and after with soap and water. I don't know how the gel sanitizer may or may not effect the snakes, and I'd rather just play it safe.

[infernalis]

May sound funny, but I keep a bottle of dawn dish soap by the bathroom sink, it kills germs and removes virtually everything.

I scrub out my feed boxes and water bowls with it too. rinses away without residue.

[EasternGirl]

Yep...me too...I'm kind of a fanatic about it because I am very susceptible to stomach viruses and samonella...I had it once and it is not something that you want to have...believe me! I am in nursing school and the little trick we have is to wash hands up to the elbows while singing happy birthday twice...that is supposed to be the amount of time it takes to kill all of the germs. I do believe that the sanitizers work too, as we have them all over school, in all of the labs, and in the hospital. But I always wash my hands with soap and hot water after handling the snakes.

[chris-uk]

We keep a bottle of sanitising gel next to the vivs and I tend to wash with soap after as well. The snakes initially didn't like our hands smelling of the sanitiser, but seem to have got accustomed to it now - we'd better not change brands.

[infernalis]

Yep...me too...I'm kind of a fanatic about it because I am very susceptible to stomach viruses and samonella.

I rarely get sick at all, I worry more about contaminating the poor snakes, or their food with MY germs.

[indigoman]

Good thread and good advice!

[dieselbaby]

I too wash my hands before handling the snakes food, and after, as well as the snakes themselves as i have other reptiles as well and do the same with them as well as use feeding tongs on for snakes, or gecko i dont use the gecko tongs on the snakes etc. and i wash them between feedings as well. That way when one gets sick such as our baby red eared slider recently caught pneumonia, with hand washing before and after even if it can be passed to the others im doing all i can to prevent this from happening.. Its just a really good habit to get into.. Im not sure if our rhinovirus etc can be passed to them but i would just as soon not take the chance.

[guidofatherof5]

My hand washing is more out of self preservation. I might be feeding one group then visiting another.
Although the group being visited knows the others are being fed they are less likely to go into full feeding mode if my hands don't smell like food.
I'm more in line with Wayne's response. I don't want them to catch human germs.:D

[Mommy2many]

I try and remember to do that when I handle them, though I will admit, I am not always on top of that. I really do it more for my snakes well being though. I hate the sanitizer stuff, so it's soap and water around here and very hot water at that. I do wash in between handling and feedings of all my different snakes, so as not to spread anything.

[EasternGirl]

I must say something in defense of the snakes here though...if there is a stomach virus in a 50 mile radius...I will catch it...if there is the tiniest bit of bacteria in food...I will get sick, because I have a stomach condition in which I cannot fight off the bacteria/virus. But, I have never become ill from one of my snakes.

I got salmonella from Taco Bell once...never from a garter snake...lol.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Salmonella is not fun at all.... And it can do more than just affect the digestive tract. I had it like 3 years ago, I started out with some mild digestive symptoms that did not last but in my case it migrated through the bloodstream and instead infected my kidneys and urinary tract. Let's just say, it was not fun. The department of health even called us to let us know it was salmonella and to ask what I have eaten recently... I always wash my hands after handling herps to be safe and i sure as heck dont eat snake poo! but I do not think I got it from them... The risk of getting salmonella from something you bought at the grocery store or ate at a restaurant is astronomically higher. It wreaked havoc on me that's for sure... To this day I know exactly where my kidneys are because I remember feeling them burning with pain!!

[EasternGirl]

Yep...we studied it in nursing school...it's a nasty one once it gets into your bloodstream and goes systemic...you could have died easily from that...and it can leave permanent damage. So in short....since reptiles do carry salmonella, it's best to be diligent about hygiene...but yeah, the chances of getting it from food are probably higher....especially since you are ingesting the food...like you said, I don't think any of us are eating snake poop. But since we do touch our hands to our mouths often...it's just good sense to wash our hands often.

[ConcinusMan]

Like Shannon was saying, the risk of contracting something from just handling your snakes is astronomically low. Much lower than the risk of just eating raw vegetables from the store. However, if you do have some salmonella on your hands it can contaminate food. Then, once the salmonella has had a chance to reproduce and increase in numbers, then you eat the food, watch out. Garter feces do contain salmonella. Small numbers of the bacteria won't make you sick. What happens is, if enough of them multiply in food or water, it's their waste products that make you sick, rather than the salmonella itself. Therefore, swallowing a few of them won't do any harm. I think what happened to Shannon is that her kidneys were overwhelmed by the toxins excreted by the Salmonella, rather than the salmonella actually attacking her kidneys. Salmonella doesn't actually infect us. We just get sick from the toxins they excrete. This is why, even if you heat the contaminated food, and kill ALL the salmonella, the food will still make you sick. The toxins are still there.

One should wash their hands before AND after handling your snakes. And it's pretty much common sense to wash them before eating or handling food. That applies regardless of what you have handled.

[EasternGirl]

That's good Richard...exactly what I learned in nursing school. Bravo...endotoxins and exotoxins are the scary things..not so much the bacteria and viruses themselves. It's when those endotoxins and exotoxins get released into the bloodstream that you really have trouble.

[ConcinusMan]

I got extremely ill from salmonella once myself. Yeah, once in the blood, the toxins can do damage to organs, especially the kidneys. Luckily that didn't happen to me like it did to shannon. I apparently vomited (or otherwise evacuated violently) it all up before it could get into my bloodstream. Still, a downright horrible experience. It was years before I could bring myself to eat potato salad again.

[EasternGirl]

Yup...me too...Taco Bell...but like you it didn't go into the bloodstream. I actually got staphylococcus aureus food poisoning last year from seafood (for my birthday)...that was actually way worse than the salmonella that I had...I had to be rushed by ambulance to the ER...puking violently and the worst stomach pain I have ever felt...if someone had put a gun in my hand, I probably would have shot myself to end the misery.

[guidofatherof5]

Yup...me too...Taco Bell...but like you it didn't go into the bloodstream. I actually got staphylococcus aureus food poisoning last year from seafood (for my birthday)...that was actually way worse than the salmonella that I had...I had to be rushed by ambulance to the ER...puking violently and the worst stomach pain I have ever felt...if someone had put a gun in my hand, I probably would have shot myself to end the misery.

We are all glad no firearms were available.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks :). It was really horrible though...the worst I have ever felt. Don't want to ever go through that again. I imagine it is what hell must be like.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Ever since that happened to me I have been much more Susceptible to UTI's. So much in fact that at one point I got three within 2 months and ended up having to see specialists and all kinds of crap. They could not figure out why i kept getting them and it wasnt even the same infection that kept coming back. They ultrasounded my kidneys... They looked in my bladder, they found nothing (at least i know i am healthy in those areas!) They had to put me on a 6 month long low dose of daily antibiotics to stop it from recurring... That did seem to help my body regain it's strength to fight things off... Still though especially with this pregnancy, I have to watch.... Luckily I know the earliest warning signs and all the preventatives and can usually fend one off before it actually sets in. Thank you salmonella for your contribution to my life!!! -.- not.I will say this much. Once, while field herping, I flipped a tired and discovered a pile of 5 huge gravid female garters all together. Wanting to have them all for a quick photo, I dove and managed to grab all of them. When I picked them up they of course all flipped out and all of them having fed heavily and being huge and gravid, flailed their tails around and literally flung poo EVERYWHERE and then it rained back down on me... Some even got into my mouth. I wasn't thrilled about that part but I came out of that incident unscathed. Eddie could not understand why I insisted he take pictures before I jumped into the shower of me covered in snake poop rain... I told him it's because it was a once in a lifetime event and yOu know you had a good day herping when you catch so many snakes it's rains poo!!!!

[zendragondrew]

Usually I wash my hands (my wife sounds like your mom, always making me wash my hands with the snake), but sometimes I don't. I don't wash my hands every time I pet the cat. Sort of a double standard, don't you think? The cat plays with its poop in the litter box and it's not necessary to wash my hands 100% of the time, but oh no if I touch the "slimy" snake :p

[EasternGirl]

Well the difference is the cat poop doesn't carry Salmonella...it carries toxoplasmosis...which isn't going to do anything to you but give you a little cold unless you have a compromised immune system or you're pregnant. You really don't want salmonella...read back a few posts. Better to be on the safe side and wash your hands after handling the snakes.

Funny story about the raining snake poo!

[PINJOHN]

Ever since that happened to me I have been much more Susceptible to UTI's. So much in fact that at one point I got three within 2 months and ended up having to see specialists and all kinds of crap. They could not figure out why i kept getting them and it wasnt even the same infection that kept coming back. They ultrasounded my kidneys... They looked in my bladder, they found nothing (at least i know i am healthy in those areas!) They had to put me on a 6 month long low dose of daily antibiotics to stop it from recurring... That did seem to help my body regain it's strength to fight things off... Still though especially with this pregnancy, I have to watch.... Luckily I know the earliest warning signs and all the preventatives and can usually fend one off before it actually sets in. Thank you salmonella for your contribution to my life!!! -.- not.I will say this much. Once, while field herping, I flipped a tired and discovered a pile of 5 huge gravid female garters all together. Wanting to have them all for a quick photo, I dove and managed to grab all of them. When I picked them up they of course all flipped out and all of them having fed heavily and being huge and gravid, flailed their tails around and literally flung poo EVERYWHERE and then it rained back down on me... Some even got into my mouth. I wasn't thrilled about that part but I came out of that incident unscathed. Eddie could not understand why I insisted he take pictures before I jumped into the shower of me covered in snake poop rain... I told him it's because it was a once in a lifetime event and yOu know you had a good day herping when you catch so many snakes it's rains poo!!!!

that's the lousiest excuse for having bad breath i have ever heard

[EasternGirl]

Oh John...lol...

[Kantar]

I usually wash my hands before and after feeding. If I was just handing I don't

hand sanitizer destroys the skin on my hand. When I went to go buy a snake, I was forced to use that stuff, it was my first time using it so I didn't know, within hours my hands were destroyed. Cracks all through and bleeding and for a month afterward they nonstop hurt.

[ConcinusMan]

We are all glad no firearms were available.

Who needs 'em. There was enough shooting going on. From both ends.:eek:

[RedSidedSPR]

I never wash my hands i just never think about it... I'm not worried about MY health through my snakes so I'm not worrying about it. I do wash sometimes before handling them for THEIR health but only if they need washing...

Don't follow my example though if it's really a problem.:rolleyes:

[infernalis]

Don't follow my example though if it's really a problem.:rolleyes:

No worries Jesse.. I won't

[EasternGirl]

Who needs 'em. There was enough shooting going on. From both ends.:eek: Ha ha ha ha...

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...I don't know...the people who don't wash their hands before or after handling the snakes... I just wouldn't recommend that. Some people are going to be naturally less susceptible to illness...but some people are going to be naturally more susceptible to illness and it's just better to be safe than sorry...especially if you do not know ahead of time if you are susceptible to salmonella. I certainly understand if hand sanitizer tears up your hands...good old fashioned soap and water is fine. I'm not telling anyone what to do of course...just my opinion.

[RedSidedSPR]

No worries Jesse.. I won't

I didn't know my healthy snakes posed a threat though so i'll start doing it.

If i remember.:rolleyes:

[EasternGirl]

I think like Shannon and many people said the chances of getting Salmonella from a snake are much less than getting it from say...going out to eat at a restaurant and picking it up there. It's carried in the feces. But if your snake has just slithered through some feces and you handle your snake and then you go and touch food and transfer it to the food and the toxins get released like Richard was explaining a few posts back...you could actually get pretty sick...so it's just a good precaution.

[Stefan-A]

I think like Shannon and many people said the chances of getting Salmonella from a snake are much less than getting it from say...going out to eat at a restaurant and picking it up there.
I may be wrong, but I think that claim is based on statistics concerning what the source was in X number of cases where people contracted salmonella.

Statistics like that say absolutely nothing about which source is more likely to give you salmonella, because the number of people who own snakes is natually far lower than the number of people who go to restaurants and much lower than the number of restaurants and restaurant visits. So if in a fictive scenario 90% get it from restaurants and 10% from reptiles, that doesn't mean that you are less likely to get it from a reptile, than from a restaurant. If the percentage of people interacting with reptiles is low enough, reptiles may even be overrepresented in the statistics, at 10%.

[EasternGirl]

Good point.

[kibakiba]

Well, I can say I've gotten salmonella from food a lot more often than I have from my snakes.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...actually I can say that too...

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

I am sure there will be plenty of "Shame on you" thoughts, but no sense in lying. I almost never wash my hands after I handle my snakes. I also don't after petting my cat. I do wash my hands :) I'm not filthy :o I just do not wash them specificly because I have been holding my snakes. I do make Piper wash her hands after she has been playing with them though. She's only 5 so I figure she hasn't built up the same immunities.

[EasternGirl]

I don't think it's necessary to wash your hands after petting your cat. The only thing you have to worry about with cats is not to handle their litter if you are pregnant or immune compromised because the feces carries toxoplasmosis... it is only dangerous to growing fetuses and immune compromised people. I guess some people are less susceptible to salmonella in snake feces. I have to be super careful because I am very susceptible to salmonella.

[d_virginiana]

I only wash my hands before and after dealing with my frog... But that's because they can get sick if you have anything on your hands when you handle them and because one of my snakes got sick from eating a pinkie that had touched the frog once, so I'm paranoid about exposing my other animals to anything that could hurt them. IMO you'd either have to be really immune compromised or get pooped on to have a high chance of getting salmonella from snakes. I mean, you'd be surprised how many harmful bacteria are commonly found in soil. They're not as uncommon as you'd think.

Ha, with seven cats, four dogs, two snakes, two goldfish, a frog, and a millipede I would have a $2,000 a year budget for handsoap and germ-ex if I washed my hands every time I handled something!