Emergency! Massive heat spike from having thermostat pulled free of the heat tape!

[bad-one]

I just woke up to a horrible smell, my room was warm, the snake rack was extremely hot and my 6 year old normal male is dead! He was all curled up and extremely bloated...

I put him and his tub outside and now I pulled my female spiders cage and she is alive, but limp as a noodle I carefully soaked her in the some water to leech away the heat a few minutes ago (she had to over 100*F!!!) She is slowly becoming more responsive (such as flinching when you poke her side) but I need to the know if there is anything else I can do for her????

Right now she is cooling off beside me on the couch.

My other two snakes are fine as they were on a different portion of tape controlled by a different thermostat. The one controlling the adult snakes heat tape had its sensor probe pulled free by my closet door and the tape easily felt over 100*F...

[cinderbird]

Ive read that snakes that go through heat like this can have some neurological damage; siezing, jerky irradic movements, star gazing, etc. I would take your remaining snake to the vet to get it evaluated, or at least give them a call and get advice from someone knowledgeable.

[DellaF]

So sorry that happened to you. I hope someone will have some advice for you. I would probably call the vets office and ask.

[llovelace]

Oh man!!! Sorry for your loss

[dragonmoon]

Sorry for your loss ... that sucks I agree with Cinderbird about the vet for your Spider girl better to be safe than sorry

[bad-one]

I just off the phone with a good reptile vet and she pretty much said there isn't much she could do for my snake. Only time will tell if she has long term effects or fully recovers.

[dragonboy4578]

Sorry to hear that.... I hope she pulls through for you....

[jason_ladouceur]

sorry for your loss,
this is a little late but I would recommend that you add a dimmer switch to the line that controls your heat tape. i.e. wall socket - thermostat - dimmer - heat tape. set the dimmer so that the tape can only get slightly warmer than you want it to be. that way if you ever have another problem with the thermostat the heat tape won't be running at full power.

[bad-one]

And thank you for the kind words everyone.

Ivy, my 1700g spider girl, is definitely out of it, she moves a little now and but no tongue flicking and she is very weak... She has fully cooled down and her cages temps are back to normal so I think it's time to put her back and hope she recovers.

I can't believe I lost my normal boy... Anubis was my first ball python

-Jason that's a really good idea, if my spider girl makes it and is able to function normally I'll definitely try that. If she doesn't do well or live I don't think I want to work with ball pythons anymore, at least not for the time being... I've put in so much and have had such terrible luck with it

[DellaF]

for your baby girl.