Arrgh!

This used to be my favorite time of the year, but I'm really starting to hate it. My entire apartment is 10 degrees cooler than it normally is because it's not cold enough out for my apartment complex to turn the heat on. It is included in the rent but it seems like it's only on from December - February. :mad:

My apartment is currently sitting at 71-72, which is throwing off all of my enclosure temps. Yeah it's nice to not be dying of heat like I usually am, but I feel bad for my snakes because they don't have proper cool side temps. (My racks are open so I have a lot of heat loss. I have plans to build better ones soon.

I also just discovered that my new cinny (who is sitting in quarantine) is wheezing. She doesn't have any other sign of an R.I. so I'm hoping it's just some stuck shed, but only time will tell. She wasn't shipped properly, but that is another story all together. The het ghost that was shipped with her seems fine though. I've only had them for about 3 weeks and she finally ate twice for me which is why I took her out for the first time.

One of my strips of flexwatt seems to have stopped working on my quarantine rack too. >__<

I sware all of my problems come in sets of 3s. >__<

Sorry, I just really needed to rant a little and this seems to be the only place I can do it and have people understand. :P

Im sorry mayte... just try your best. I would give the cinny a nice warm soak and see if that possible stuck shed comes off. My best wishes to he/him. Also, you can try and put another UTH in on a dimmer to raise the cool side a little bit since its getting cold there. Keep us updated and best of luck, you can rant anytime btw we understand :)

71-72 really is okay. If it drops past that, you might want to throw a blanket over the tanks (you're using a UTH, not a lamp?) But at 72F they can thermoregulate just fine, they'll just hang out mostly on the warm spot.

The cinny might be "whistling" not wheezing. Some snakes do it around shed time. My black pastels do it ALL the time. They whistle when they're annoyed at me, they whistled when they're excited, they whistle when they do any climbing or crawling at all. It's surprisingly loud! I took them both to the vet, he did a mouth check, and there were no signs of an RI. So I guess it's just the shape of their nasal passageways? Maybe it's the single-gene version of the duck-billing you see in the black supers?

To be safe, you should either take the cinny to the vet, or do an oral check yourself. Get a good grasp on the cinny's head/neck, take a q-tip, hold it sideways, and push the cinny's nose up until its mouth opens. Hold the upper jaw open with the q-tip, and have a look around--- mouth should look pale pink. White may mean anemic. Bright pink or red or any dark colors are bad. Wet is okay, but bubbles and drool are not.

You shouldn't hear any whistling with the mouth open, because the snake is mouth breathing at that point, not nose-breathing. Whistling at this point means trouble...

Then again, you may not notice, because if this is the first time you've ever done an oral check, there will be lots of thrashing and squirming to pay attention to! Which is why the vet may be the safest option. But I try to do oral checks once a year on all my animals. Older animals usually get the drift and start cooperating.

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Originally Posted by Obscurus28

Im sorry mayte... just try your best. I would give the cinny a nice warm soak and see if that possible stuck shed comes off. My best wishes to he/him. Also, you can try and put another UTH in on a dimmer to raise the cool side a little bit since its getting cold there. Keep us updated and best of luck, you can rant anytime btw we understand :)

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Thanks, it's always feels good to rant to people who can give constructive feedback. All of my family/friends think I'm nuts and just don't understand. :P

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Originally Posted by loonunit

71-72 really is okay. If it drops past that, you might want to throw a blanket over the tanks (you're using a UTH, not a lamp?) But at 72F they can thermoregulate just fine, they'll just hang out mostly on the warm spot.

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Awesome, thank you. I've been stressing out that my apartment was way to cold for them. If it drops below 70 I'm call my apartment office to complain, I've gotten used to the heat. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by loonunit

The cinny might be "whistling" not wheezing. Some snakes do it around shed time. My black pastels do it ALL the time. They whistle when they're annoyed at me, they whistled when they're excited, they whistle when they do any climbing or crawling at all. It's surprisingly loud! I took them both to the vet, he did a mouth check, and there were no signs of an RI. So I guess it's just the shape of their nasal passageways? Maybe it's the single-gene version of the duck-billing you see in the black supers?

To be safe, you should either take the cinny to the vet, or do an oral check yourself. Get a good grasp on the cinny's head/neck, take a q-tip, hold it sideways, and push the cinny's nose up until its mouth opens. Hold the upper jaw open with the q-tip, and have a look around--- mouth should look pale pink. White may mean anemic. Bright pink or red or any dark colors are bad. Wet is okay, but bubbles and drool are not.

You shouldn't hear any whistling with the mouth open, because the snake is mouth breathing at that point, not nose-breathing. Whistling at this point means trouble...

Then again, you may not notice, because if this is the first time you've ever done an oral check, there will be lots of thrashing and squirming to pay attention to! Which is why the vet may be the safest option. But I try to do oral checks once a year on all my animals. Older animals usually get the drift and start cooperating.

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I did open her mouth and her mouth looks fine. I'm sadly used to it because I am treating my enchi for a RI. He had bubbles in the back of his throat so he got antibiotics. He just got his last dose this morning so I get to fight with him in a few days to check on him and call my vet with an update. He's 500g of angry snake, especially when you want to open his mouth. :rolleyes:

I'm going to keep an eye on her. I didn't realize a cinnies/black pastels whistled. But that might be what it was. It also most sounded like she wanted to hiss at me but wasn't pushing the air out fast enough. She was very tense and not to happy about being held. Thank you for the great information. :)

Just a question Kinra, why can't you turn on the heat?
I mean if it were included in my rent, I'd expect to be able to use it when I wanted it.

Well okay, if you had an enchi with an RI, you probably want to do weekly checks on everybody else for a while. It could easily have been transmitted. Blah, no fun!

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Originally Posted by llovelace

Just a question Kinra, why can't you turn on the heat?
I mean if it were included in my rent, I'd expect to be able to use it when I wanted it.

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I think they have a main control that turns it on for the whole building. I have my thermostat set to 90 but it is only reading 71-72. I don't know why they gave me the thermostat if they can control when the heat turns on. :rolleyes:

I'm going to ask them about it tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by loonunit

Well okay, if you had an enchi with an RI, you probably want to do weekly checks on everybody else for a while. It could easily have been transmitted. Blah, no fun!

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My enchi had it before I got my cinny. I've been keeping an eye on everyone in the rack with him but his was very very mild (he's in my main rack). The only sign he had was bubbles in the back of his throat.

(I had to treat one of my pieds for flagellates when I got her a few years back. Really sweet snake. But after the first couple doses, she started giving me this look, like, I want you to know I would never bite you. But I'm thinkin' about it right now. Oh yes, I am.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by loonunit

(I had to treat one of my pieds for flagellates when I got her a few years back. Really sweet snake. But after the first couple doses, she started giving me this look, like, I want you to know I would never bite you. But I'm thinkin' about it right now. Oh yes, I am.)

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Lol, I wish my enchi was that nice about it. He has no problems drawing blood, but some how I managed to get out alive while giving him injections every 3 days. :P

I'll be lucky if he calms down anytime within the next year now. :rolleyes: