bad month

[LeilaNami]

My beautiful rat snake just passed away today. He had been having problems eating, regurgitating about every other feeding. I had no trustworthy reptile vets in my area to take him to. I just lost two tarantulas and my first scorpion this month as well. One due to molting problems, one ruptured during a move, and the scorpion was just old age. We also lost 21 rays at the zoo exibit I work at. I'm about to just give up.

 

[Dillon]

Don't give up, we need you. Sorry about all your losses... I just lost my Egyptian emerald centipede and i am devastated as well bro....

That many rays all at once died at your work? Something in the water?

 

[crpy]

so sorry about your losses, sounds like cryptospiridium with your rat snake, throw the enclosure away.

 

[Taceas]

Don't rush to the "omg its crypto!11" conclusion so quickly. Lots of things can cause regurgitations in snakes and crypto is still relatively rare.

Extreme temperatures while digesting can cause it, oversize foods, handling too soon after feeding, other bacterial problems to name a few. Sometimes feeding too soon after a regurge can just cause a nasty cycle of it.

I am sorry to hear of your beloved snake's death though. Don't take it personally, live and learn.

 

[LeilaNami]

Thanks guys. Yeah the rays were tragic. I work at Dallas zoo. When the exhibit first opened, they did a water analysis and derived the formulas for the chemicals. Well...apparently the city adds 10x more chlorine and all these other funky chemicals to the city water in the summertime because of algae blooms. The aquarium that was responsible for the rays' food and stuff didn't bother to tell the keepers (who're from Pheonix and didn't know). We lost 5 southern stingrays and the rest were cownose rays. Many of them were pregnant too. One of the losses was a one-month-old cownose that was born in the exhibit.

Good news is, 11 cownose survived and we have 18 new southerns (all the size of pancakes) and a really big female cownose. But the pancakes! They are adorable. :}

 

[JayzunBoget]

Water chemistry can vary so wildly throughout the year and, as you've seen, this can have devastating effects on your aquafauna. You should find the local reefer-geeks and talk to them to know what to expect.
To find the reefer-geeks, find your nearest specialty pet store that specializes in salt water.

 

[crpy]

Don't rush to the "omg its crypto!11" conclusion so quickly. Lots of things can cause regurgitations in snakes and crypto is still relatively rare.

Extreme temperatures while digesting can cause it, oversize foods, handling too soon after feeding, other bacterial problems to name a few. Sometimes feeding too soon after a regurge can just cause a nasty cycle of it.

I am sorry to hear of your beloved snake's death though. Don't take it personally, live and learn.

Yeah, sorry to sound alarmed , I lost some corns to crypto in the mid nineties, nasty stuff.

 

[Hedorah99]

Hang in there. I work at a zoo too. A few years ago we had to have our entire wild waterfowl collection put to sleep because of exposure to Avian TB after a botched quarantine (i.e. 4 died in quarantine but were never really posted thouroughly to see why and it was chalked up to "stress"). It became my responsibility to catch all the ducks over a period of three days and send them to be euthanized. It still kinda haunts me to this day. The bottom line is when ever you work with animals tradegy is not far behind. We, unfortunately, outlive all of our wards and human error is a certainty. All you can do is learn from your mistakes and realize the good things about the job. I was in a place like you are now and then this happened....

Changed my perspective about the job. Something about holding a baby otter i guess.

 

[Gr8Reptile]

I know exactly how ya feel man. I had a bad month too not to long ago.
My mantis died of old age and so did my beloved millipede. My first scorp died recently and so yeah after seeing all those die offs I was ready to sell all of my other animals. But then I was walking through a pet store one day and came across a newt. Now suddenly it reminded me of all the reasons I loved this hobby in the first place. So yeah you'd be surprised how much good a new pet could do. Hope ya stick with it.

 

[reverendsterlin]

Good news is, 11 cownose survived and we have 18 new southerns (all the size of pancakes) and a really big female cownose. But the pancakes! They are adorable. :}

Well sounds like I'm too late but the Rio Grande Biological Park usually has a glut of southern rays available, might be where yours came from anyway. Anyway a good place to check if your in need of more.
Rev