First RI scare

[rabernet]

So, I've been keeping ball pythons for five years now and knock wood - have never had a RI in my collection.

I had a friend over last evening, who I haven't seen in YEARS and come to find out - he loves snakes, so he was enjoying my collection and wanted to see a few feedings. I happened to have a breeder female rat that had developed a tumor and so I fed her off to one of my largest females.

We came back later in the evening and he wanted to see her lump, so I take the hide off of her, and I notice that her paper has a few drops of liquid under her mouth.

I freak! I pick her up gently supporting her body and liquid comes POURING out of her mouth. I'm like CRAP! How the heck did she get an RI? And one this bad??? But she's not wheezing, she's not rattling in her lungs, and she's not open mouth breeding, she's just looking at me like I've lost my mind while she's continuing to drool all over the place.

Another reason I freaked is that she JUST finished breeding with Winston a few days ago.

So I tell my friend, I'm really hoping she just had a drink of water before we got her out - I'm just going to check her in the morning and get a vet appointment on Monday if she's still doing this. Of course, we stopped all handling of other critters (I had not handled her before we handled the other animals last evening, thank goodness!).

Checked her as soon as I got up this morning - and dry as can be - nothing coming from her mouth, opened her mouth, nice and clean, no bubbles, and I even tilted her down a bit to see if anything would dribble out - nada. Still breathing normally, no whistling, no deep chest rattling, no open mouth breathing. WHEW! She must have had a long drink before we checked on her.

At least for now, I can continue to say - no RI's in my collection!

[boasandballs]

lol, I had a bp ecape out of one of the display cases I was packing for a show. It was in the boa room, which is a large room with lots of hiding places. She had been out for more than a month when I figured out where she was hiding. When I picked her up the same thing happened to me, cold liquid came pouring out of her mouth.

I knew she had been in the salamanders tank drinking out of the waterfall, that is how I figured what part of the room to take apart. I put her in a nice warm cage in the qt room thinking she was sick. She is fine, eating like like no tomorrow.

[zantedeschia]

I am suddenly reminded of all the "do ball pythons drinks?" threads....

But this is great proof that ball pythons can't hold their drink....

[Louis Kirkland]

Sorry to hear about your scarey experience Robin. From your description of the situation it sure sounds like it's just what you said. She had a full belly of rat and you picked her up after she had just taken a long drink of water.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you.

[kc261]

But this is great proof that ball pythons can't hold their drink....

Robin, sorry you had a scare, but glad it sounds like there is no real RI.

It is oddly comforting to know that even the more experienced keepers that I look up to occasionally have these panics over what turns out to be nothing. I STILL freak out and think RI for a moment every time one of my snakes makes one of those huffy hissy noises that sounds like a wheeze.

I guess it is better to be overly concerned than not concerned enough and miss the first signs of what turns out to be a real problem.