Salmonella - How can I prevent exposing my dragon?

[DorgEndo]

Hey everyone. I was diagnosed with salmonella on 12/28/20. Symptoms started 12/25/20. I definitely did not get this from my beardie. She is still brumating!

I want to prevent her from contracting my illness. I have latex gloves I can use. She will wake from brumation very soon. Which means I will need to prepare her food. She also loves out of the enclosure floor time. I also have inquired with my vet about testing her for salmonella down the road to check that she doesn't contract my illness. Salmonella can be a zoonotic illness so I don't want her being ill.

To be honest this salmonella hit me hard. I still have symptoms. I suspect this is from a food contamination, most salmonella causes are, as I had some new take out foods the week before my symptoms emerging. I also got 2 new green anoles and I will be having them tested as well. Working with the vet.

Super fun fact! In the US salmonella gets reported to the state when you have a clinical diagnosis confirmed by a sample. I had someone from my state's food commission question me on all my foods I have gotten for up to 1 week before symptoms. And super bonus because I have pet reptiles I also get to be interviewed the someone from the State Dept of Health for zoonotic disease. I didn't know this was all a thing.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, sorry that you got salmonella, hopefully you'll recover soon. From what I've read it's usually not too severe. It's REALLY odd because usually people are worrying about catching it from their reptiles. Anyway, almost all reptiles carry salmonella and your dragon is probably no exception. You are more likely to get it from your dragon than vice versa so don't worry .