Nidovirus: A Story about my Biosecurity Nightmare

Nidovirus, or serpentovirus, is an RNA virus that is known to cause severe, and more often fatal, respiratory infections (amongst other symptoms) in snakes and lizards. The virus was very recently discovered in 2014 and has become a very taboo topic in the reptile industry. The fact is that Nidovirus is not just a boogeyman: it is real and it WILL kill.

Ember

I had my first encounter with Nido (even those that talk about it euphemize the term by dropping off the scary ‘virus’ part of the word) in late March of 2022. My sweetest ball python, Ember, had come down with what I thought was a respiratory infection (RI). I could hear clicks and wheezing when she breathed, I saw bubbles in her saliva, and she had a lack of appetite. I took her to the vet since this was not the first RI I had been through as I had a rescue ball python, Meeko, who had a gnarly RI the year prior. The vet agreed that it seemed she had an RI and sent her home with some antibiotic injections to be given subcutaneously every three days for a month.

After about three weeks, mid April 2022, I called the vet again because there had been no improvement and there was now mucus in her mouth in addition to the bubbly saliva. The vet sent her home with a stronger antibiotic after seeing her worsening condition. I started doing research on what could possibly be making her so sick and came across a podcast that discussed reptile diseases, amongst other things, called “Holdback Rack Podcast.” I happened to come across an episode that discussed Nidovirus, which at that point I had not heard of, and it slowly dawned on me that Ember may have Nido.

After still not seeing any progress after another few weeks, now May 2022, I decided to order a Nidovirus test to just ease my mind. It took about a week to get the swab, and I sent it in that day, but unfortunately, UPS got delayed and it didn’t get sent out overnight like it was supposed to. The test came back negative.

Ember, early June 2022, elevating her head with a toilet paper tube. She loved tubes.

At this point, June 2022, Ember had worsened significantly. She was keeping her head elevated by leaning on her hide or water bowl. I was having to clean the mucus from inside and outside of her mouth daily. Her body had become incredibly swollen. I made her yet another vet appointment. This time the vet recommended we do a bacterial culture to see if we could figure out what we were dealing with so we could hit it with an antibiotic targeted to it. I told him about my concerns about it being Nido and he said he would do some research since he wasn’t familiar with it.

Ember, mid-June 2022, mucus build up and swollen body in the background.

A few days later the culture results came back. They indicated that Ember had some kind of odd bacterial infection not normally seen in reptiles (I would come to discover later that this was the secondary infection she was battling). The vet sent home an oral antibiotic for the specific infection and said that the swelling was from gas buildup from the apparent RI.

I started Ember on the oral medication, but also ordered another Nido test. She started mouth breathing, not being able to close her mouth. Her eyes got cloudy, and her body swelling was increasing. At this point, in my gut I knew she had Nido, and I decided to make a euthanasia appointment for the following week because it was a Friday and no one was open until Monday.

The next day she looked even worse. She was no longer holding her head up and her breathing was very labored.

She passed later that day.

I was devastated.

Ember, late June 2022, a day before she passed away.

That same day, the second Nido test came in. I swabbed her mouth and esophagus and put it in the freezer so I could send it out on Monday.

This time it was actually overnighted, and I had results Tuesday evening. Ember was positive for Nidovirus. I remember staring at the results in disbelief even though I had suspected this to be the case. A sense of dread came over me as I thought about my other snakes, and how this could be the end of my ball python breeding hobby.

I ordered tests for all my snakes, and then swabbed, labeled, and sent them to the lab the same day the swabs came in the mail. That two-day wait was agonizing.

When the results came back I was scared to look. I fully expected everyone to be positive and just braced myself. As it turned out fifteen of my sixteen snakes were negative, but one was positive.

It was Meeko, the ball python that I had obtained as a rescue.

Rewind to May of 2021. Meeko was offered to me from a supposed reptile “rescue.” He was advertised as a healthy, proven breeder male and his “adoption fee” was very cheap, so not really knowing better at that time, I went to get him.

Upon arriving at this so-called rescue, I immediately felt bad vibes. We were not allowed to look at the previous enclosures, or even go in the house for that matter. You could smell the wonderful aroma of dead crickets and snake poop wafting out the open door.

When the lady handed me Meeko I noticed he had some stuck eye caps and a pretty bad case of mites. I should have backed out right then and there, but being the empathetic person I am, I decided to get him out of the hellish place as everything I saw was stuff that I was comfortable dealing with. I had gone with my mom who was going to “adopt” a bearded dragon from the “rescue”. The bearded dragon was in no better shape and visibly ill. Regardless, she still decided to take him, being that she was also empathetic and couldn’t leave him in that awful place.

Once I got Meeko home, I immediately put him into quarantine in a tank in a completely different room than my other reptiles. I began treating him for the mites and giving him soaks to remove his stuck shed. I scheduled an appointment for him with my reptile vet for the next week since he had a slight wheeze and I wanted to get his eyes checked out.

It turned out that he had an RI and several layers of old eye caps stuck to his eye. He was given some antibiotic injections and I was given some to administer at home. I treated him with antibiotics for a month but he was still wheezing so I took him in for more antibiotics.

Meeko, after his third vet visit.

After two more rounds of antibiotics, he seemed fine, aside from having permanent damage in one of his eyes from the stuck eye caps.

Meeko, after his fourth vet visit. He was a favorite patient at the clinic at this point.

I quarantined him for six months after the three months of treatments before moving him into my rack in February of 2022. That same night that I moved him into the rack, I cleaned and changed the substrate in all snake tubs. I was doing Ember’s tub and went to wash her water bowl and her hide because she had just shed and made a huge mess of it. When I came back to her closed tub I realized she wasn’t in it, which was very confusing. I was tired and started retracing what I was just doing and realized I must have accidently stuck her in a different tub. Sure enough, I found her in Meeko’s tub. She had been in there for less than five minutes, and I wasn’t too worried as they both seemed healthy. Five minutes was all it took for Ember to become infected. This mistake will NEVER happen again.

Meeko, around the same time as the tub mix up with Ember.

Let’s return to June 2022 when I got the Nidovirus test results. I now realized where Ember had gotten exposed to Nidovirus. The RI I had treated Meeko for was just a secondary infection. He was an asymptomatic carrier of Nidovirus, meaning he had no symptoms but still carried the virus and could spread it.

I ended up rehoming him to a friend who really wanted a snake, he had no other reptiles and I told him about the virus. After a year of being spoiled in a new loving home Meeko began showing symptoms of Nido. It proceeded to get worse and he was eventually helped over the rainbow bridge.

Oh, and the bearded dragon my mom got? Well, he also had a severe respiratory infection with a lot of the same symptoms Ember had. We did not test him for Nido because at the time, I did not know it could affect lizards as well. Unfortunately, Frankie the Beardie suffered the same fate as Ember. The same vet that saw Ember and Meeko was also seeing Frankie, and my mom had brought him in several times just as I did Ember. The vet had never seen anything like this and had done everything that he could, and we both appreciated his time, patience, willingness to research, and kindness.

So, what was the point of this story?

Well, there are a few.

1. Test your animals on intake.

2. You can never be overly cautious about your biosecurity.

3. Do not take in sick animals.

Had I followed these, Ember would still be here. I was incredibly lucky to not lose my entire collection. My entire collection is now Nido free and I now test all my animals at least once a year and I always test my breeding animals before pairing.

Let my mistakes be a lesson. If this story saves even one animal from suffering the same fate as Ember it will be worth sharing. Feel free to share my story, the more people who learn and educate themselves about the importance of biosecurity, the better this hobby will be for all of us!

In loving memory of Ember, Meeko, and Frankie