Respiratory infection questions

I've had my ball python for two weeks and I just started hearing him squeak a couple of times? I JUST took him to the vet today and they said he was fine but then when I brought him home he started to squeak! He has always seemed to rub his head on things oddly but not his nose in particular.

While reading some things I heard that humidity can cause respiratory infection, I don't think it's true but I couldn't find anything contradicting it. Or are you supposed to up the humidity for respiratory infection? I know you're supposed to raise the heat but my ball python's tank has never been below 75 degrees so I was wondering if maybe I bought him right before he started getting it? I will bring him to the vet again if it starts getting worse but I was also wondering if he could have gotten it from the eco-earth coconut husk substrate, maybe I should switch to reptibark or a mix of the two?

Thanks for reading. :)

aspen is a good substrate but honestly I use paper towels...much easier clean up and personally I like it best. As for the squeak...it sounds like maybe your snake is getting ready to go into shed...especially if he is rubbing his head. Look for a blue phase...(sometimes it is easy to miss) but their eyes look a little blue/silver/milky prior to a shed. Make sure during this time you up the humidity to around 70%.

A good sign to look for with resp. infections is bubbles in the mouth, wheezing, open mouth breathing is a very bad sign.

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Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

aspen is a good substrate but honestly I use paper towels...much easier clean up and personally I like it best. As for the squeak...it sounds like maybe your snake is getting ready to go into shed...especially if he is rubbing his head. Look for a blue phase...(sometimes it is easy to miss) but their eyes look a little blue/silver/milky prior to a shed. Make sure during this time you up the humidity to around 70%.

A good sign to look for with resp. infections is bubbles in the mouth, wheezing, open mouth breathing is a very bad sign.

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Oh, I did actually notice I could see the slit in his eye because his eyes are more silver but I thought I just didn't notice before hand. I just don't like the look of aspen, I like the brown and more natural looking substrates. They go with how my tank looks, but if I had to switch I definitely would.

I was really worried about the little guy. Thanks for helping me since I am a new ball python owner and I don't have much first hand experience.

Today he seemed to squeak a few more times but this time it sounded kind of like whistling more than squeaking? I really hope I'm being paranoid and he is just getting ready to shed. :(

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Originally Posted by Miko

Today he seemed to squeak a few more times but this time it sounded kind of like whistling more than squeaking? I really hope I'm being paranoid and he is just getting ready to shed. :(

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This happened with our female bp when we first brought her home. We took her to the vet and they said it was just a piece of stuck shed in her nose. It sounded like a whistling sound that was more prominent when we were handling her to change substrate/clean the enclosure. After her next shed it was gone and she was just fine.