Possible inclusion body disease?

[Jovein]

Okay, so I adopted an adult male ball python on Saturday. I am keeping him in a 50something quart sterilite tote. The first few days he was very mellow, and acting normal. He was in shed when I brought him home (eyes foggy.) Two days ago I switched to cypress mulch to raise humidity for aide in shed, and put a piece of cork bark for him to rub on. Early yesterday morning, I found that he was almost all shed (it was a bad one.) So I took him out and cleaned up his cage (he also defected which is why I changed it.) In this time he was on my shoulders while I was tiding up his cage. I switched his substrate back to paper towel. He was a little antsy then. I go to put him back in his tote and close it, and he begins to throw himself at the walls, and twitch his middle body slightly. He was doing this all yesterday and was trying to squeeze his neck/middle body out of he tote. It seemed like he was agitated with anything touching his middle body and make a big jerking motion, but it seemed like he was trying to frantically get out. Now mind you, he was in this same tote four days in a row. Temperatures and humidity have been good, I have been monitoring them entire time I have had him. I use an ultratherm heating mat controlled with a thermostat. So yesterday I thought he may be hungry because he may have spotted my guinea pig when I had him out. I attempted feeding him yesterday to no avail. He completely ignored it and was trying to escape the feeding tote. The weird thing is, he is acting calm this morning... But his movements yesterday were plain unnatural. He did have some slight scabbing on this middle back from an injury of unknown origin. I assume if it isn IBD it has something to do neurologically because of the minor wound? (Which looks non existent because of his shed now.) He was trying so bad that I had to duct tape his lid down. I will upload a video of it when I have wifi access. I thought it may be due to stress, but the movements do not match to that. I would let him roam in my bathroom if for some reason he was antsy, but I do not want to take the chance of him having IBD and it spreading to my other pythons ..

[Jovein]

http://s1173.photobucket.com/user/Ho...mdyyh.mp4.html

[Jovein]

http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...ps7i2mdyyh.mp4
Please let me know if they work !
http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...ps7i2mdyyh.mp4

[Jovein]

http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...psc1heg4tx.mp4

Sorry posted the other one twice. This is the second video. Please watch all the way through. He twitches/rolls multiple times in this one.

[bcr229]

Not IBD. He's trying to escape the tub and the paper towels he's on keeps shifting/sliding around on the bottom, which is making him look uncoordinated.

My guess is he wants somewhere to hide, and that big cardboard box isn't doing it for him. It's too large and lightweight for him to get under it and feel secure.

[Jovein]

I had just put the box in to see if he was stressing out and wanted to hide. I haven't found anything big enough in my area for him to use. I tested it out before and I could barely fit his body in the box (it was very snug). But before the hide, he wasn't trying so hard to "escape". I mean in some instances it seems like he is trying to escape, but others it looks like he is attempting to press his body on something to relieve pressure or something. The way he moves his neck/head in the second one is also odd... He oddly flicks his body when touched as well.

[Jovein]

Is there anything to create a makeshift hide? I usually use the black plastic hides but none were big enough at the reptile stores I have been to. He is a big boy. I have not gotten a weight on him yet, but everyone kept thinking it was a female (is male though; popped and probed.)

[BPSnakeLady]

If you have a dollar store or a walmart near, you can pick up a cheap big mixing bowl, flip it upside down and cut a hole in one side, large enough for him to crawl through. I'd suggest sanding the edge to take off rough edges. Ran me about $2 for the bowl.

I've also heard of people using small cat liter boxes, i used an empty margarine container for one of my other ball pythons.
Edited to add; I'll get a pic of my 'hide' when I get home to show you what I did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jovein]

Do you think that would be heavy enough for him? He keeps flipping around everything in his cage when he spasms.

[Felidae]

What do you use to clean his tub? I saw already some products also can make similar symptoms, neurological issues or irritation.