Heat tape malfunction. Hoping our girl isn't fried..

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

Heat Tape or Flexwatt? I was concerned about this after the switch was made and people started using the Heat Tape that is not UL listed. It sounds like neurological issues and my limited understanding is that you are going to have to get her safe with stable temps. With neuro issues, you are going to have to give her time, probably 1-6 months to fully recover to see if the damage is going to be permanent. With humans I usually give 6-12 months recommendation. Hopefully someone with more direct experience and advice will chime in soon.

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flexwatt..

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Originally Posted by creepin

i know neurological damage was done. you can tell that just by looking at her. that was the first thing that came to mind. i've read horror stories of peoples thermostats failing and it frying their whole collection.. and some of the snakes that survived passed a few days later.. i was more so wondering if anyone had had experience with this and if their animal had gotten better over time. pretty much just looking for someone to give me hope. lol :/ doesn't look good though.. she's still alive as of tonight though.

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LOL sorry...I tend to be quite literal in my thought patterns and responses....no reason not to hope though Creepin...only time will tell...and if possible I would move her to your place for daily observation...If there is one thing I've learned with all my varying pets over the years...animals are incredibly resilient and able to overcome quite a bit with the TLC of their owners (had a Norwich Terrier survive a literally mauling by two 'coons).

well here is the video of her if anyone is interested in seeing how she's acting.. 1080p and full screen and you can see her head vibrating or "twitch" better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ftD-JPzkeA


as for a little update.. dad called and said when he checked on her this morning he found her laying completely upside down. :( he thought she was dead at first. maaan i'm hopin she gets better. i feel terrible for her..



and a little venting.. i went out to my dad's house on monday to double check the temps and check on our girl while he was at work. dad had gotten this rack through boaphile (it was one of the "rhinoraxx"). while i was out there, dad wanted me to give jeff at boaphile a call and ask him about the heat tape. i knew it wasn't jeff's fault our heat tape had malfunctioned, as we've had this rack for almost a year with no problems. i was just going to give him a shout and let him know what was going on and see if he had heard of this before.

as soon as i started trying to explain to him what was going on with the temperature variances he kept cutting me off and wouldn't let me talk. he asked me where the thermostat probe was and i told him it was taped on the heat tape on the middle shelf. he told me it needed to be on the bottom shelf, taped directly on the heat tape. he kept repeating over and over it needed to be DIRECTLY on the heat tape (i guess he was too busy interrupting me to hear i told him it WAS directly on the heat tape on the middle shelf). i started to try explaining to him that with my rack at home, friends racks i've helped with, and the recommendations of everyone on here, the middle shelf was the optimal place for a thermostat probe, and regardless of whether the probe was on the middle shelf or the bottom, that was no reason to cause a 30 degree temperature change from spot to spot on different shelves. i got about two words out and he interrupted me again with "just humor me. place the thermostat probe DIRECTLY on the heat tape on the bottom shelf right next to where the heat tape starts and call me back in 30 minutes."

i'm sorry, but when i have a $2,000 animal that has just been fried, i am in NO mood to humor you. i let you speak. show me the same respect and let me speak in return. i began the conversation completely friendly, but after being interrupted multiple times and talked down to as if i was ignorant, i'm sure a little bit of my frustration began to show through in my voice. we were always quite happy with our boaphile rack. it's nice and sturdy and has gotten the job done. but needless to say, after this little experience, we will not be returning customers. if there's one thing i've learned in sales, you kiss your customer's ass, or at the very least show them respect, especially if the products you're selling are hundreds of dollars. ali at animal plastics has always been overly friendly to me with any questions i've had, and that's the main reason i returned to her when i needed another cage, not that AP's products are necessarily far superior than others, but how you treat your customers goes a long way.

thanks for letting me vent. i feel much better now. ;)

it says "this video is private"

i forgot to mention in the video, this was after i had unplugged the heat tape and let it cool off and then plugged it back up and fooled around with thermostat placements for a few hours. i believe the heat tape had gotten much hotter throughout the bottom at some point when it had been running constantly.

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Originally Posted by NormanSnake

it says "this video is private"

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should be fixed now. first time uploading a video to youtube.

Poor girl...:( hope she makes a full recovery for you. She sure is pretty.

Hey man, sorry about your girl hope she'll be ok.

As for a somewhat similar incident, when I got my new boa at some point during shipping the heat pack fell off, so when I unboxed the heat pack was laying directly on top of him (he was in a bag) his tounge flicks were slow and he seemed a little off. When he was in his tub he would basically star gaze for a couple minutes at a time. He would do this off and on, I'm not sure how long it took until he quit doing it (got him in Feb.) but I know I haven't seen anything like it in a while and he seems completely normal now.

Of course some of his behaviors could've been from shipping, but as far as the star gazing I think it may have been neurological.

Good luck with your girl.

Did you try moving the probe?
Have other people heard of that? Where the probe should be closer to the end where the connections are?



Sorry this happened to you but maybe there is an important learning element for others.

I watched the video and from what I saw it looks like spider wobble, I have seen much worse on animals that lived long lives without issue. In my experience the wobble can increase with stress or excitability. What I would do is not use the space with the temperature spike. I know some folks who purposely won't use the bottom or top spots of their rack because of temp variations. The high temps may have stressed her a bit and exaggerated her wobble but I wouldn't say nuero damage. Once again I have seen much worse. I have also seen animals get burns from excessive heat without any nuero damage. What I saw was spider wobble, nothing else and I have seen several hundred spiders in my time.

Also as far as laying upside down, I have seen several spiders do this as well.