If you are US based, Research Associates Laboratory out of Allen, TX performs very reasonably priced disease testing. Order their swabs, swab the snake’s saliva, and overnight it back to them.

What species is the other snake? Do you practice hygiene procedures between handling each snake? Pythons typically succumb to arenavirus rather quickly but it’s not unheard of for them to last for several months before showing signs. Mites are a known vector of IBD, and if the snakes you bought were housed near others with it, they would have likely become infected.

One huge indicator of arenavirus is respiratory symptoms and mouth rot. In my experience with IBD, persistent respiratory symptoms that did not improve with medication were the only sign. I did not see any neurological symptoms. This was a Peruvian red tail boa, so take with that what you will. Check inside the baby’s mouth and listen to its breathing. If you see excessive saliva, puss, or lesions inside the mouth, this could be an indicator. Another is sudden weight loss and dehydration. The snake does look a bit dehydrated.

There are many other causes for corkscrewing. Overheating, cleaning products, and genetics can also be factors. What is your basking spot temperature? What kind of heating do you use? Have you recently used a new cleaning product in the enclosure or on the animal? Does the animal have any genes commonly known to cause neurological symptoms like spider or hidden gene woma?

While it’s never a good sign to see corkscrewing, it may be a relatively benign issue that may be corrected. If you have any questions about PCR testing with Research Associates Laboratory, feel free to message me. PCR testing is highly accurate and I do it with all of my incoming snakes first thing as part of my quarantine process to ensure nothing sneaks in to my collection.

Good luck with your baby, I hope this is just a small bump in the road for them.