- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,173
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
Why does this have to be said? It's your fault when you don't quarantine.
One, among many, good things about my W2 job is that I can talk to people on the phone when my tasking can be run with muscle memory. I get to talk to chelonian people all over the US.
A recent conversation with a friend brought out the need for quarantine and the nightmare that can come from the “nobody really does it” point of view. That day job, where I get to talk with people is in a lab with model organisms and serious disease processes, so for me it is not secondary, but primary to keep in mind what order I do my work in, wearing PPE (personal protective equipment), and basically working with things/stuff that come with serious consequences if you get willy-nilly.
The friend wanted a second male tortoise for a colony, to up the reproductive output of her females. BTW, I’ll not mention any specifics in terms of names or species, because the point is to encourage the use of quarantine protocols, not make a an example of a person(s).
The male seemed low weight for its size, and was somewhat sluggish. It came from a breeder with a good reputation, that has sold many animals to many people, someone I have read many positive reviews on from people who tend to be on the critical side, like myself. It came a bit underweight, that’s the important point.
But the weight issue became worse, and the male become more sluggish, and eventually my friend took the tortoise to an actual qualified vet. The tortoise was determined to have Intranuclear coccidia. Wow! The dealio is, between when that tortoise arrived at my friends place, and when the disease was sorted out, they had distributed some animals, so now they may or may not be transmitting this somewhat rare disease into other collections. Some of those secondary collections do use quarantine, some don’t, and they have already moved animals from their collections to yet other groups or what could now be a fourth potential wave of disease propagation. All those parties have been notified, and have sought diagnostic help from veterinarians. Here’s another, even worse, outcome – some of those vets have responded, allegedly, that it so rare a disease, that the owner probably need not worry. My friend is forwarding the case file to those other parties, to help wake those vets up.
Quarantine, what exactly is it and how do you do it? In the simplest form a quarantine is a period of time, where the animal is evaluated for diseases. There is not too-long a time. If you are going to have a single pet tortoise, then in a sense it’s whole life will be one of a quarantine status, the evaluation will be somewhat passive, waiting to see if some issue comes up, then acting to resolve it.
A more assertive plan would be to have proactive tests run, the simplest would be fecal exams. But so much that can be nasty diseases won’t show up in fecal, or even a broad spectrum of blood analyses. Many disease only show up when the tortoise is in distress. The good/bad news is when tortoises change habitats (from one owner to another) that is a stress/distress situation, so disease organisms may reveal themselves more readily. Temperatures below appropriate is another stressor that distresses the tortoise such that diseases may be more readily detected. Like all those tortoises that get runny noses when they have been exposed to that unpredicted over night low and they didn’t go into or weren’t put in their night house.
I use the longer more passive approach to quarantine. When new animals come into my collection they may not be paired up or placed with others for a few years. Many times when I get a group of several (like when I got a group of 15 K. erosa), I separated them out into groups of three or four. That way even if something does show up, there is a chance, modest as it may be, that the disease is already somewhat isolated.
Keeping a new ‘group’ that come from one source, as individuals for a year or two, then reintroducing them to each other for propagation is a good strategy. You get to know each animal for its individual quirks, separation and re-introduction often increases the likelihood of mating activity, and then there is the quarantine thing.
I said I wouldn’t say who the people are, well, now I will. If you are someone who does use a quarantine plan, you might be happy and glad that you go to the trouble, and maybe ever so slightly concerned you have an animal that was mixed up in the collection effected. from my friend You’re not one of the 'who’. On the other hand if you don’t use quarantine even in it’s simplest form and you are worried, then I would be talking about your animals in your care. Now you know the 'who' - it’s you.
If you don’t use a quarantine protocol, then it really is you that endanger your and other collections. Why this person is someone I consider a fiend is because they did not just keep quiet and let the disease transmit as it may. They have fully stepped up and are being transparent to the directly affected people/collections. It would be great if we were all responsible enough to use a quarantine, but if not, being transparent about an issue is a pretty ethical and ‘what’s right is right’ response.
Don't be that person - don't be the 'who' I'm writing about. And know/no Kapidolo Farms was not in this loop
One, among many, good things about my W2 job is that I can talk to people on the phone when my tasking can be run with muscle memory. I get to talk to chelonian people all over the US.
A recent conversation with a friend brought out the need for quarantine and the nightmare that can come from the “nobody really does it” point of view. That day job, where I get to talk with people is in a lab with model organisms and serious disease processes, so for me it is not secondary, but primary to keep in mind what order I do my work in, wearing PPE (personal protective equipment), and basically working with things/stuff that come with serious consequences if you get willy-nilly.
The friend wanted a second male tortoise for a colony, to up the reproductive output of her females. BTW, I’ll not mention any specifics in terms of names or species, because the point is to encourage the use of quarantine protocols, not make a an example of a person(s).
The male seemed low weight for its size, and was somewhat sluggish. It came from a breeder with a good reputation, that has sold many animals to many people, someone I have read many positive reviews on from people who tend to be on the critical side, like myself. It came a bit underweight, that’s the important point.
But the weight issue became worse, and the male become more sluggish, and eventually my friend took the tortoise to an actual qualified vet. The tortoise was determined to have Intranuclear coccidia. Wow! The dealio is, between when that tortoise arrived at my friends place, and when the disease was sorted out, they had distributed some animals, so now they may or may not be transmitting this somewhat rare disease into other collections. Some of those secondary collections do use quarantine, some don’t, and they have already moved animals from their collections to yet other groups or what could now be a fourth potential wave of disease propagation. All those parties have been notified, and have sought diagnostic help from veterinarians. Here’s another, even worse, outcome – some of those vets have responded, allegedly, that it so rare a disease, that the owner probably need not worry. My friend is forwarding the case file to those other parties, to help wake those vets up.
Quarantine, what exactly is it and how do you do it? In the simplest form a quarantine is a period of time, where the animal is evaluated for diseases. There is not too-long a time. If you are going to have a single pet tortoise, then in a sense it’s whole life will be one of a quarantine status, the evaluation will be somewhat passive, waiting to see if some issue comes up, then acting to resolve it.
A more assertive plan would be to have proactive tests run, the simplest would be fecal exams. But so much that can be nasty diseases won’t show up in fecal, or even a broad spectrum of blood analyses. Many disease only show up when the tortoise is in distress. The good/bad news is when tortoises change habitats (from one owner to another) that is a stress/distress situation, so disease organisms may reveal themselves more readily. Temperatures below appropriate is another stressor that distresses the tortoise such that diseases may be more readily detected. Like all those tortoises that get runny noses when they have been exposed to that unpredicted over night low and they didn’t go into or weren’t put in their night house.
I use the longer more passive approach to quarantine. When new animals come into my collection they may not be paired up or placed with others for a few years. Many times when I get a group of several (like when I got a group of 15 K. erosa), I separated them out into groups of three or four. That way even if something does show up, there is a chance, modest as it may be, that the disease is already somewhat isolated.
Keeping a new ‘group’ that come from one source, as individuals for a year or two, then reintroducing them to each other for propagation is a good strategy. You get to know each animal for its individual quirks, separation and re-introduction often increases the likelihood of mating activity, and then there is the quarantine thing.
I said I wouldn’t say who the people are, well, now I will. If you are someone who does use a quarantine plan, you might be happy and glad that you go to the trouble, and maybe ever so slightly concerned you have an animal that was mixed up in the collection effected. from my friend You’re not one of the 'who’. On the other hand if you don’t use quarantine even in it’s simplest form and you are worried, then I would be talking about your animals in your care. Now you know the 'who' - it’s you.
If you don’t use a quarantine protocol, then it really is you that endanger your and other collections. Why this person is someone I consider a fiend is because they did not just keep quiet and let the disease transmit as it may. They have fully stepped up and are being transparent to the directly affected people/collections. It would be great if we were all responsible enough to use a quarantine, but if not, being transparent about an issue is a pretty ethical and ‘what’s right is right’ response.
Don't be that person - don't be the 'who' I'm writing about. And know/no Kapidolo Farms was not in this loop
