Okay, I'm pretty sure that my big, beautiful girl Aurora has some sort of a respiratory problem, but I'm still a little confused. I got her when she was about 6 months old and I've had her for 4 years now. She's around 4 feet long and pretty thick, and I always spoil her like a princess But about a week ago I noticed that her face was all scuffed up and she was making a crackling/clicking noise when she breathed. I was a little concerned, but I remembered that something similar happened probably about a year or so ago before she was going to shed, and then after she shed it was fine. So I just figured it would be best not to over-react about it.

Then I took her out 4 days ago and realized she was still making the noise and now it was even slightly louder. Plus, I had been monitoring her and I haven't seen her go into blue yet. And now today she refused her food and is making fairly audible exhalations, with her mouth opening very slightly when she does so. I also caught her yawning a few times, which normally she only does after she eats to re-align her jaws. So now I'm like... "Sh!t WTF??"

She still seems very alert and about as active as she always is. She's not lethargic at all and her long tongue is still flicking out all over the place. I don't see any bubbles or excess mucous either. It's been about a month since she last ate, and I know that's really not very long, but taken with the other symptoms (and the fact that she usually will eat anything you put in front of her), it probably means something. I did see her drinking today, so that's good I suppose, at least she's getting fluids.

SOOOO, after my long, boring rambling, any thoughts?? I'm going to bring her to the vet on Monday just to be sure, because the fact that she's exhaling audibly and seems congested is worrying me to death I'm just confused because she was my first snake and I always tried to do everything right. She has a nice 30gal breeder tank all to herself, the temps are always right (~90 basking spot, ~72 ambient), I always tried my best to keep the substrate (aspen) clean and dry, etc, so I'm just wondering what else could possibly cause a RI?? The only other thing I can think of is that I recently switched from one brand of aspen to a cheaper one (I hate being poor )that is much more dusty. I was concerned about the amount of dust at first, but my other 2 corns seem perfectly fine with it. Could she have been sensitive to it?? Or maybe breathed in some of the larger particulates and gotten the infection that way?? I just feel horrible that I could have caused this

Either way, I am bringing her to the vet ASAP (hopefully Monday or Tuesday) and switching her over to newspaper for now. But yes, any info on other causes of RI would be appreciated. Are some snakes just more susceptible, for example??

Sorry for how long this post turned out. They always end up being longer than I intended. Thank you in advance to anyone who actually reads all of it and still has the energy to reply!!