JCP Bubbles?

[ev477]

Hello everyone,

I was recently going to make a trade with someone for a Jungle Carpet Python. I was handling the JCP and heard some puffing and breathing while I was handling it. I've been digging up trying to find some answers about this, and found that it is normal for them to make some noises while breathing.

However, I looked in its mouth to check for any lesions or what have you and saw something quite odd. I saw some bubbles in the back of the throat. I didn't make the trade because of the noises, but I didn't really think too much about the bubbles.

While digging on here I'm finding that bubbles are a sign of a respiratory infection. I'm confused though because I wasn't sure if the bubbles come out of the nostrils, mouth, or whatever in the case of an RI. Are bubbles in the back of the throat, where the food goes down, sign of an RI or is this normal?

[DavidG]

If it sounds like a hiss but not defensive and it's not constant it's normal. RI is commonly diagnosed by non-vets by listening for consecutive noise while breathing and bubbles from the nose or mouth. Colin will be more insightful on the bubbles in the throat. I've never seen any inside of my snakes.

[ev477]

It was not a defensive noise. It randomly made the noises, maybe 2 to 3 times a minute, so it was not constant. As far as the bubbles, they were sitting in the back of the throat. It wasn't like a foamy sort of bubbles either, one was about a quarter inch in diameter with a couple smaller ones next to it.

[Colin Vestrand]

bubbles are upper RI usually... even if it were just a couple bubbles, i don't think i'd buy it because RI's in carpets can be associated with a lot of bad things (ie, not necessarily just being too cold, but a sign of something worse).

noises when breathing are usually nothing to worry about with carpets. all my carpets make slightly different noises from one another... everything from whistles to hisses to 'wheezing' (its not really wheezing, but i dont know how to describe it), the point is - they get nervous and make the noises.

[CoolioTiffany]

My BP sometimes makes noises through her nostrils, but she is completely healthy and does not have RI. Sometimes when I check inside of all of my snakes' mouths, I will usually notice some small bubbles in the throat but those just happen to be saliva bubbles. Though, if the bubbles were big, could be a sign of RI. And if you try to pop it, and the bubble doesn't pop, that's most likely a mucus bubble from having RI. The noises you will hear when a snake has RI is popping or clicking when they breathe through their nostrils.

[ev477]

Sometimes when I check inside of all of my snakes' mouths, I will usually notice some small bubbles in the throat but those just happen to be saliva bubbles. Though, if the bubbles were big, could be a sign of RI. And if you try to pop it, and the bubble doesn't pop, that's most likely a mucus bubble from having RI.

I was hoping that it was normal for there to be bubbles sitting in that area like how you are mentioning, but I'm not really trying to take a chance and go back to get a possibly infected carpet though.

It's hard enough to pry open the jaws of a snake to take a look inside, you'd have to be some kind of crazy to try to poke a bubble inside of a snakes mouth to see if it pops


I'm glad I feel like I made the right decision in passing up the trade