Hello!

I've been keeping my ball python, Venus, for close to three years now. She was originally a rescue and was found wrapped around a tree in the middle of winter, so she came with various problems (mouth rot, mites, stuck shed, a vicious resp, and emaciation). I was able to get her back to health and she hasn't had many problems since then aside from a mite recurrence and another resp. I got her out today after being out of town for Spring Break to find her whistling . I'm hoping you may be able to give me some advice as far as to why this has happened, and what I can do to prevent this from coming back in the future. From my personal experiences and what I've read I know that humidity and heat are the most problematic things to consider when a resp is involved, as well as stress. I moved up to a town home for college recently and moved her from an exo terra to a tub, and have had some issues re-adjusting everything. So far I believe it's a due to a temperature drop and possibly insufficient humidity while I was away, and possibly residual stress from the move, but I would like your opinions. This is what's been happening:

-I'm currently having some issues with my UTH, as I have been having to switch between the temperature I'm setting it at. I have a JumpStart thermostat with the probe on the outside of the bottom of the tub between the pad and the plastic, and have noticed that when I set the temperature near 90/91, I usually find the temperature sitting between 85/88 when I check it, but when I set the temperature to 92/93 to compensate, the temps rise up to 94-96. I know these values really aren't ideal, and there are times that the temperature is nice and in the 90-92 range, but I can't seem to keep it as consistent as I would like. Any suggestions? (Also, as far as me being away for the week goes, I had the mini heater in my room set to 75F when I left to keep the cool side temp up, but I'm pretty sure one of my roommates turned it off while I was away, so the room was closer to 60 when I got back . My tarantula wasn't happy about it either ).

-I'm keeping her on Forest Floor substrate, which has been great for maintaining humidity with observation. It's usually around 50-55%, and I made sure to wet the bedding a fair amount before I left for the week in an effort to keep the numbers high while I was gone, although it may have dried out too quickly.

-I moved in January and I suspect she has been going through brumation recently as she has been less active and has not been interested in food for the past few months. She has lost some weight, but she got chubby over the Summer and looks to still have a healthy amount of fat, but I'm wondering if the lack of food has made it more difficult for her to stave off infection.

-I was able to get a brief glimpse into her mouth, and did not notice any saliva or other buildup, though it looked like the (veins?) in the top of her mouth on either side were red and irritated.

Finally, I plan on monitoring her over the next few days/week and raising the temperature and humidity (as I believe it's likely that the cause of this infection was that she was too dry and too cold, but I would love your opinions) and seeing how that goes. I will also place her on paper towels and buy new substrate. I do have some F10 I can diffuse into a fogger if necessary, but I'm hoping I caught it quickly enough that I can stomp it without the use of the disinfectant.

Sorry about the novel - I can't seem to write short posts. I've spent a long while working at a reptile shop and have experience with resp infections before, and know general details about causation, symptoms, and recovery, but I try to keep learning as much as I can, and like to branch out to different sources with questions. I'm disappointed that my oversights have resulted in her getting sick, and would like to better my husbandry. Please let me know what your thoughts are!