Avoiding tragic feeding practice…

[Steeve B]

I read an inquiry about feeding decaying prey to monitors, I have to say this and hopefully it will help prevent a tragedy,
When my daughter was 18 months old she was hospitalised for 5 day in intensive care, I know some of you will judge me on this, and you have all the rights, but none of you will ever be as hard on me as I have been during and after this tragic event. Now here’s what happened as you know IV always kept monitors when my wife had our first baby we decided to keep all reptiles in a separate room meaning no more in any part of the house, I really tot this was a good protective measure, and it was! but the problem was my bad feeding habits, I use to let rodents and chicken parts for hours and take them out at night when all monitors had fed good. The problem is these food who’d become contaminated by such bacteria as salmonella, even if I always washed my hands the monitors who’d contaminate me by scratching my arms with there contaminated claws, needless to say that a bite will have the same results and so will the lack of hand washing. This post is not meant to scare anyone, but to inform you that even long term keepers can make mistakes.
And sharing even such things that makes you look like a total idiot is every herper's responsibility.
All my animals are now on borrow time, if with all my protective measure such a thing shod ever happen again.
They will all go and I will become a militant against irresponsible keeping of such animals, now don’t jump the gun and just try to understand, many will say this and that, but I know how careful Iv always been with hygiene, and I cant help but think if this can happen to me it can happen to others. Laurie is now 6 years old and my son Lenny is 4 years they are my life pride and joy, Laurie almost died from salmonella and I still feel the guilt, so pleas think before you reply to this post as it’s only meant to help nothing more. Kind regards

[Tim_Cranwill]

Scary story!:( I wouldn't judge you. I have 2 kids and I understand that a parent would NEVER intentionally harm their child in any way. I appreciate the "heads up" and the admission of your mistake. It takes a big person to admit when you are wrong, especially when your mistake causes harm to someone you love.

Great post. I'm so glad your daughter made a full recovery:)

[Steeve B]

Thank you very much, I mean it;)

[Rebecca]

I'm kinda confused as to what happened?? :confused:

[honduranfreekk]

Steeve I think cranwill is so right you should not be judged on what happened I 2 have 2 kids and every one makes mistakes and we all have I know I have and I am glad she is ok and yes it took gutts and a big man 2 make that post You my friend like all of us are only HUMAN. ;)

[asphyxia]

Thanks Steve very well recieved, and makes me re look at my feeding pratices, just to double check some things, I may even put some little reminders up saying"Remember to Wash your Hands".

Also, it is post like yours that make this site so educational and community based with the sharing, and I really hope no one judges you.

On a further note, I would like to see, some further information on proper feeding pratices, perhaps even a area on this site with some additional info.

Thanks much
Steve

Best Regards
Brian

[Steeve B]

Ok I see this post has broth a lot of questioning, first let me say aim by no mean an expert on salmonella and I really don’t know exactly how my baby got contaminated, but I know I was careless and such an event must be prevented at all coast. The government take this very seriously, and investigate every known case, there take on this is very drastic, get ride of the animals, no ifs or but just away they go, and there’s just no arguing, peoples welfare is the priority contaminated animals have absolutely no value. In this case I was at fault so I parted with all my animals, and a year later my wife realised this was making me very miserable, so we sat down and discussed the possibility of having a safe reptile’s room. Now days there’s a 1000 things I do different, but perhaps the most important is to never leave food more then 1houer especially eggs and meat, I only feed rodents now. Pleas don’t let this scare you salmonella contamination is not that common with reptiles its much more prevalent in grocery store chicken and meat and every year peoples get sick from exactly these sources. There’s no denying my daughter was a serious case, but I have to admit that welfare authorities treated this much like the Medias reacts to an escaped reptiles, blowing thing out of proportion, as if they are in desperate need of a scapegoat. As I said this post is not meant to scare you off, but only to inform and help prevent an accident, I don’t enjoy talking about this but when I read post’s that says go ahead and feed rotten meat to your monitors it gives me goose bumps, as this is totally irresponsible not only to the peoples welfare but also to the reptiles community. Regards
Ps. thank you so much for all the support

[Dom]

Very interesting post Steeve.. i value your honety and am very happy your daughter is ifne..

I have fed my monitor rodents all there life except in the past 3 month as I was low on cash so i baught lots of chiken drumsticks and legs.. After reading your post, i realize that i was no taking th proper precaution and will defenetly increase my cleanliness habits..

I personally prefer a rodent diet and have returned to it now.. I simply find that chiken or meat is too messy .. but now I have an other reason to stick to rodents.

Take care

Dom

[markb]

Hi Steve,

We can ALL learn from such horrors, and I am delighted Laurie is happy, well and enjoying her childhood.....In 1997 I was bitten on the hand by my unknown green Varanus - my neighbor even took a picture of it biting me. I washed my hand, put a bandaid on it and thought nothing of it there-after. I went to San Diego IHS that year and on return, my hand was swollen, I had bronchitus and went directly to my MD. He put an intravenous IV into me immediately, gave me antibiotic shots and told me I was 1 hour from dying from blook infection via this this lizard bite I had got 3 days before, compromized with my now-pneumonia condition, I was lucky to be alive at that point - do not take lizard bites, or even cat bites lightly - wash your hands before, after entering your reptiles enclosure, and for bites, watch them carefully - its a painful experience, and nearly cost me dearly, due to my over-sight.
Cheers,
mark

[Dom]

I can understand why monitors bites can be so harmfull but I was simply wondering what the worst case scenario is from a snake bite or even a croc bite?

I know large boids tend to to cause the hand to swell up and it also tends to get infected .. is that pretty much the worst that can happen?

Just curious

Tx all - very informative posts!

Keep em coming

Dom

[Steeve B]

Your not talking to the right person about this, but from what I read monitors can harbour up to 50 pathogens in there saliva, these come from decaying animals products. In captive condition all these bacteria are shed with time, but feeding contaminated food will not help our monitors to keep acceptable mouth hygiene. Talking with Trooper Walsh or Jeff lemm will in light you much on this. I believe they did a study on Komodo septic bite proprieties.

As for what damage they can do well I did post about this, if you wish I can forward the post on this site.
Kind regards

[KaHane]

Steeve, your post is very valuable, Glad your little one is doing fine.
Markb, that's a scary incident! glad everything went alright.
We all can learn from these examples and make the necessary changes for a safer environment for us and our animals.
Thanks guys.

[Steeve B]

Yes that’s the most important in keeping exotics, not to ignore possible danger! and to educate ourselves with peoples experience thru these forums. Thank you for your comments and nice email. Regards