Getting sick?

[CuddleMunkie]

Today when I got home from work I decided to take my BP out for a few minutes to check on her and see if she was ready to eat since it's been a week since she refused her meal and two days after I moved her cage (my sister and I traded bedrooms, so naturally she moved with me). She was fine after the move and completely adored her new hideaway I put in there for her, slithering in it and curling up within minutes.

Anyway, I took her out and after a minute or so of coaxing her to unball herself (I actually laughed because she literally looked like a ball in my hand), she leapt to life and started slithering all around my arm like normal. It was then that I noticed she was drooling from the sides of her mouth. When she inhaled deeply, I could feel it rattle through her. It's like when you have a cold, and you can feel the gunk in your lungs when you breathe. (Which is why I'm thinking that she might have a respiratory infection.)

I looked at her for several minutes, and she doesn't act unusual at all, really. She yawned a couple of times, but her eyes are clear and there's no changes to her coloring or weird spots on her face or mouth that I've read could be signs of mouth rot or a parasite. But what really startled me was that she coughed twice after I put her back in her tank and fired up my computer to get online to come here. The first one really rattled her, but the second didn't look like it bothered her much at all.

She's since gone back into her hideaway, curled up for a few minutes, then come back out to slither around her tank. Her humidity is a bit low, so I'm about to add more water to her subtrate to get that back up, and putting her basking lamp back on even though she's warm to the touch. (I've been regulating her temps and humidity, as well as setting day and night times by covering and uncovering her cage on routine.) She's not yawning a lot, just every so often, about every ten to 15 minutes.

Also, she doesn't have mites because I always check for those. I did change her subtrate out last week, though because the old stuff was getting really dry really fast and smelled like grapes when I misted her tank to keep it moist. (Which was like, really super weird in my opinion.)

So, should I be looking into a vet for her, or wait a bit and give her more heat and time to get over this herself? I think the closest vet that could see her is about two hours away, and I don't really feel comfortable taking her on a long car ride like that unless it's absolutely necessary because I'm afraid it would stress her out and aggravate whatever this is.

Oh, and before it's asked, the cool side of her tank is about 83 and the warm side is about 87 and getting warmer because of the lamp, so I suppose it could be considered low?

[SquamishSerpents]

Respiratory infection, guaranteed. Go to a qualified REPTILE vet and have a culture done; they will prescribe antibiotics.

[CuddleMunkie]

Damn. I was afraid of that. Any idea how it could have happened? I thought that I was doing so well with checking her temps and keeping her humidity up.

Now I really feel mad at myself because I had to have been doing something wrong.

But thank you! I'll start trying to find her a doc that's closer to home so I can get her better fast!!

[oskyle1567]

Culture culture culture! Its going to cost you a little bit more but it guarantees your animal is going to receive the proper medicine. I listened to my doctor and did not get a culture ended up losing a couple of my animals due to resistances.

[CuddleMunkie]

Calling offices tomorrow to see when and where I can get her in. It makes me want to cry every time I hear her little coughs. When I got home this morning she was laying behind her hideaway with her head on top and she just looked at me like, "Mommy, I don't feel good." and it just made me so sad!!

I've left her cage covered and even turned off my AC and slept with a little fan pointed at my bed instead just to make sure she won't have even a remote chance to get cold from it. Her humidity is good and the temps are up to the perfect range.

The only thing I'm really worried about (other than poor Penny, of course!) is how bad this will drain my meager savings. Anyone know about how much I can expect to pay??

[BWyant]

Drool = bad.

Vet Visit - 40-70$
Culture - 20$
Antibiotics - 5-10$

The prescribed home remedy is to up your heat and humidity. Personally, I wouldn't want that crap getting more wet and textured like mucus inside of my body. I doubt the snake does either. Hence, I'm not big on cranking up the humidity, but I'll let someone with more experience than me be a final verdict on that subject. Just crank your heat up a couple degrees for now.

Get to, as Squamish said, a REPTILE doctor ASAP.

[CuddleMunkie]

Vet Visit - 40-70$
Culture - 20$
Antibiotics - 5-10$

Totally not as bad as I was thinking. I can spend that much easily for her. Kinda makes me wonder why it costs more for a dog or cat than it does a reptile when they're not quite as common for pets...

But something got me thinking. I cover her cage completely with a couple towels to amp her humidity back up. And with the top of her tank being to only open space, could I have actually caused her to get sick by restricting the air flow that way?

[SquamishSerpents]

Not sure on the covering thing, that's why racks are so much easier to use when caring for BPs. You never have to worry about humidity. When I had a couple BPs in tanks they were an absolute nightmare!

I suppose it's possible that if there was bacteria or poop in the cage it may have not been such a great idea to restrict the airflow. I can't imagine breathing in bacteria is good for anybody. Generally if you're going to cover a tank, you only need to cover a portion of it.

Instead of covering it how about getting a much larger water dish? Also, what are your warm and cool side temps?

[CuddleMunkie]

Her water dish is already huge. She has room to spare whenever she decides to take a dip in it. Actually, I have a picture of that...

This was before I took over her care, so it's not buried in her subtrate like I have it now. But you can see that it's huge and takes up a large part of her ten gallon tank.

Her temps now stay in the mid-80's on the cool side with her water dish and upper 80's to 90 on the warm side.

I try to clean out her poop the same day she has it. Because it's poop and that's gross. (lol)

[lovepig78]

I've left her cage covered and even turned off my AC

You shouldn't keep snakes in the same room with an AC... that will make the ambient room temperature lower then recommended...

In my opinion...