whistling/wheezing/...hissing? Can't be an RI.. can it?

[Droxalope_94]

So I've had my first girl Lucie for 1.5 years now and every now and then she makes a noise when she breathes during handling or when she quickly draws back into her hide.

I have a new adopted girl, Mrs. P, who's a bit on the old side and also makes a noise, especially today after handling. her lungs are huge cuz she's a big girl (2600 grams) so I can actually feel the rush of air against my ear when I hold her up ahaha

before I spend about 1k in vet bills (I live in the Florida keys and our only herp vet has to charge outrageous amounts for checkups. heck, I live in a loft with no central ac and about as much floor space as a typical closet for 1,100$ a month... getting ready to move out by next summer THANK GOD)

NO signs of bubbles coming from the corners of their mouths or noses
no clicking or popping or gurgling
no head lifting
no mouth breathing
no rattle noises
no stargazing
no nose rubbing
no abnormal feeding behaviors
no fasting or rejecting prey
no pacing
no rapid breathing
no wobbles
no snot smearing on the sides of the tub/tank or anything else in their habitat
no lethargy
no signs of increased activity either.

and get this- No old stuck shed in the nostrils that I can see

normal pooping/urates, normal full sheds including the nostrils, normal temps and humidity, normal drinking behaviors,
no signs of soaking in their water bowl either, normal tongue flicking, nice pink colors inside, clear eyes etc etc.

and I have Lucie in aspen shavings and Mrs. P on paper towels (she's in her quarantine period until nov 5th because she's new to the family)

everything that's associated with RI's besides noisy breathing is NOT showing up in my girls.

one was abused and hit by her owner when she was young (Lucie) the other is older, I'm assuming between 8 to 10 years old (Mrs. P) with scale colors fading, showing typical older snake behavior

so what's the deal? Lucie I've had for 1,5 years now and she still whistles or wheezes. not loud, I have to stick her face in my ear to hear it. I've been watching for signs of an RI for over a year and so far nothing.

Mrs. P you could audibly hear her breathing after a good amount of exercise or handling but not when she is wandering her tank on her own time at night. her 60 day quarantine will be over on November 5th, and this whole time I've been thoroughly watching recording and inspecting her for anything suspicious. nothing besides noisy breathing so far.


the only thing I've been real worries about is when I open the mouths of any of my 4 girls, they have some tiny tiny clear bubbles in their throat ( NOTHING in their glottis or other airways, NOTHING on the sides or corners of the mouth) and I figured it might be a result of the amount of wiggling involved with actually opening their mouth. Only Lucie so far has been conditioned to sit still and let me touch her face, and even then she still wiggles a bit. Mrs. P does NOT like her mouth opened and squirms, so I figured maybe that's causing the little bubbles to form in the back of her throat.

just making sure that I'm not skipping over a veryyyy subtle RI, or than I am in fact just another helicopter snake mommy yet again worrying too much (which is better than not worrying at all)

.... but wouldn't an RI have already gotten worse or killed my snake by now, since it's been over a year for Lucie and pretty much 2 months for Mrs.P...? One would think that symptoms would at least get worse and way more pronounced as time goes by...


If you guys have really good sound bites of what 'normal' breathing sounds like, or if your snake is a noisy breather but isn't actually sick (and you know that for a fact) please throw down some links or info.

I need all the opinions I can get before moving Mrs.P over to the rack with the other girls, and possibly getting my first son in December (I'm getting my first normal piebald morph AND MY FIRST EVER MALE BP! YAY!!!)

[Snakemom85]

I know next to nothing about this subject but I did watch a YouTube video a while back from GoHerping where he had a rescue snake that had a little bit of a wheeze since he got him because the previous owner had smoked a lot around him and it caused a permanant wheeze. Maybe it's something like that? Just an idea if you can completely rule out RI.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

[dr del]

Hi,

The list of things you haven't seen makes me fairly happy it isn't an R.I.

When they are in "stressful" situations it isn't uncommon to hear breathing noises as they breathe harder and quicker. It may be there is a slight constriction in the nostrils ( especially if the snake is going into shed ) but unless you start seeing any signs of the points you listed as not being present I certainly wouldn't be unduly concerned.


del

[Bogertophis]

I agree with dr del...it's not unusual to hear a forced exhale from a snake we're handling...remember their lung is long & gets "folded" when we handle them certain
ways, giving an audible exhale. The bigger the snake, the more you'll hear it...the large BCI I used to have startled at least one person during handling...he thought
she hissed at him, lol. But he was nervous about snakes, so it didn't take much- he was a bit fearful but greatly relieved when I explained that was just an exhale.

Likewise when a snake quickly retracts into their hides they cause their own 'forced exhale', & as long as you aren't seeing other real symptoms, I think they're both
fine. A few ppl have mentioned that some snakes just do have more noisy breathing than others...in the same way that humans might have been born with a deviated
septum, for example. And as Snakemom85 mentioned, I'd never allow any smoking around my snakes...that's just asking for trouble, & another plausible explanation.
If only our snakes could talk, eh?

[Droxalope_94]

oh how I WISH my girls could talk to me ahaha

[Bogertophis]

oh how I WISH my girls could talk to me ahaha

Careful what you wish for...
"Mom...MOM! I'm hungry, it's time for my rat. Where's my rat? MOM! I'm starving over here...don't you even care? Feed me nexsssst! Make it TWO rats!"

[Droxalope_94]

bahahah! mine would be 'MOM MOM HEYYYYY MUUMYYYYYY where u goin can i come too? i want to come with, mom look, i pooped! hey mom i want rats but only the white kind. this branch sucks im moving it over here, watch my skills in the pool! look ma, i can do a flip with my hide! ma, ma, ma, maaaaa im hungry. im gonna leave you a sock and now im pretty again, cool huh? im still hungry. mooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm hi. '