Opening mouth..

Hey guys! I'm just gonna give some background info before i get to my questiion. My family and I rescued a four year old ball about 5 months ago. When we got her, she was in very bad condition. She has several layers of retained eye caps and scars all over her; they said it was from the heat pad, but most of them are on her spine, so unless she is playing cool tricks while we're not looking, i doubt that's what it's from. However, they said that she wouldn't eat anything except live food for her whole life, and from how they explained it, they just kinda left the rat in with her and didn't watch her, so I'm kinda thinking a lot of the scars are from that. They were also wrong about her not eating f/t prey. The first time we offered her f/t food, she took it SO well. She's in good condtion now.

Anyway, here's my question: She is currently shedding, so I was giving her a bath, and while i was drying her off she opened her mouth. She does this everytime i give her a bath. Are they supposed to do that? Also, I noticed this time that there was a BUBBLE in her mouth! Is that just because she was in the water? Should I be worried?

I'm going to try to get her into the vet for a check-up just because of how mistreated she was, and we also suspect that she has an RI because we've been able to hear her breathesince we got her. The breathing seems to be getting better, but I'm still gonna try to get her in just in case. Is there anything in addition to that that I can do?

Any help is INCREDIBLY appreciated!
-Rachel :rockon:

P.S. Sorry, the post is kinda long..

i would get to a vet and get the snake checked out as soon as possible. siitting with the mouth open is one sign of a respiratory infection. a good reptile vet will know for sure and prescribe the meds to take care of it.


vaughn

That is a very good sign of RI!! Get him to a vet ASAP, and keep him away from your other herps. They do open there mouths durring shed, but if there is a bubble, I would say RI. No body can tell you what he has, but I bet it is a RI.

Just raise his humidity, and get him to a vet ASAP! Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kavmon

i would get to a vet and get the snake checked out as soon as possible. siitting with the mouth open is one sign of a an respiratory infection. a good reptile vet will know for sure and prescribe the meds to take care of it.


vaughn

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Thank you Mr.Fast fingers!!:evileye::P

the vet is the best thing you can do for her. this could be RI but I havent encountered RI yet. *knocks on wood*

Some of my snakes "yawn" every once and a while. and my large female will make noise when you pick her up (found out that was hissing) but if the sounds are all the time then I would say vet check but that is MO.

I would get her to a vet asap. The bubbles you saw were probably from mucus from an infection. I rescued a snake with a severe RI and can tell you that bubbles/ strings of mucus when she yawns are a red flag! If you suspect she has an RI, because of the breathing you should take her to a vet anyway because they usually do not get better on their own. I would make a vet apointment as soon as you can to get her on some meds. I'm glad she's in a good home now! Good luck with her.

Welcome to BPNet and thank you for rescuing that snake. It sounds like you intend to give it a good and responsible home. I like others here will advise you to see an experienced herp vet. Have a culture done so they can prescribe the correct meds if an RI is present and a fecal float wouldn't hurt either. Just gather up her/his next poop, pop it in a ziploc baggie and drop it off to the vet (if you phone ahead most will take fecal samples anytime). Best to know if you are also dealing with any internal parasite load. Also a proper sexing so you know for sure what gender you have.

We have a great BP caresheet here if you need any basic information on setting the snake's enclosure up. Glad to hear it is eating. Remember to not feed it right before a vet visit though.

Wow! Thanks for all the quick replies! I'l definitely call the vet and schedule an appointment. Richard Funk is about an hour away, and we need to go out there anyway to get rats, so I wan to go to him. I've heard great things about him.

Just an update. I've got an appointment with the vet [Dr. Funk] tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some meds for Sassy.

Sounds great, hope all goes very well with the vet and you get this snake back on the road to full health. Please let us know how things went.