salmonella

[Stefan-A]

I would be shocked if 90% of reptiles carried salmonella. I would like to know where you got that statistic. Far more people who have reptiles would get salmonella.

I got it from the CDC. Salmonella is really common, you could even say that it's normal for reptiles to carry it.

[MoJo]

I'd like to know where they got it from then. I really find it hard to believe that since I think a lot more people would be sick. Most people don't wash their hands and if they do they do not do it properly.

Joanna

[Stefan-A]

I don't know anybody who doesn't was their hands (soap and water) after handling reptiles or anything that has been in the terrarium. People are kind of paranoid about salmonella here.

Again, I admit I could be wrong, but it's spread with the feces and has to be ingested.

[MoJo]

You are correct that it is spread by ingesting the feces. However since snakes will slither through their substrate there is a good chance they could have salmonella all over their bodies. By the same reasoning any surface they slither on could have salmonella on it - your hands, your clothes, the carpet, the floor, the counter, your chair... Touch a surface and put your hand near or in your mouth and voila you can be infected. There would be far more cases of salmonella if 90% of our pets carried it.

You might be paranoid about salmonella but I think the vast majority of people do not really understand what truly proper hand hygiene means. The next time you wash your hands sing Happy Birthday twice, as has already been mentioned, and then let me know if that is how long you usually wash your hands for. Then think about whether or not you were wearing rings, did you scrub under them, did you scrub the tips of your fingers, in between your fingers.....It is not enough to get soap on the majority of your hands or even to have your entire hand be wet!

Joanna

[Charlet_2007]

People have told me about my snakes having salmonella. I've obviously took into account their words of wisdom and threw all my snakes in the garbage.

I seriously hope your kidding? right?

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have read that salmonella is a normal gut bacteria...

[Stefan-A]

I have read that salmonella is a normal gut bacteria...

Norma (asymptomatic at least) for reptiles and only becomes a problem if they develop some kind of imbalance. Salmonellosis can for example occur due to too low temperatures or stress.

[drache]

didn't have that root beer flavour though, huh?
and a bit more crunch I imagine

[Stefan-A]

They don't look that crunchy to me.


We are talking about James' pinky eating, right?

[drache]

pinkies have got more bones than bubble gum - that's got to affect the texture toward the crunchy end of the spectrum