Can you diagnose my BP

Gosh! I hope he will be ok. Please let us know what the vet says.

Yes good luck! Please tell us what the vet finds!

Looks neurological to me. Unfortunately I dont have any advice to offer. I truly have no idea what's goin on.
Almost looks like a spider BP with a severe wobble issue . Hope all goes well with the vet and you figure out what's wrong .

any update

Hey everyone!
Thanks for all of your help through this. I went to see Dr. Greek this morning, and of course Monty (my bp) acted completely normal aside from some quick movements and major curiosity. I explained the behavior to Dr. Greek and he recommended that we start with an oral antibiotic (baytril) to see if it helps. After physical inspection, everyone said he looked very healthy on the outside. He checked Monty for mites and didn't find a thing and noted that he could possible have suffered a trauma, thus the reason for his constant agitation.

After the vet I had to run over to pet-smart to buy a heat-pad, thermometer and water bowl. Just before I went inside, I took Monty out of his travel cage and held him for a bit. He was calm for a couple minutes and then something agitated him and he quickly spasmed and went underneath the seat of my car and crawled up into a super tight ball. I could not get him out from under there for the life of me over the next hour. He finally loosened up and I was able to pull him out.

He is now safely exploring his clean cage. I'm hoping he relaxes tonight and doesn't make a huge mess! I figure the best thing I can do now is try to make him feel comfortable, give him his daily medication and weight it out. I will try to post a new (happy) video of him soon. Thanks again for all your help everyone!

PS: where is the best place to stick a temp prob for a reading and at what temperature should it read night & day?
Thanks!

Maybe you could email the vid to the vet?
And it makes me uneasy that he prescribed an antibiotic....The vet didn't even see what was going on with the snake. Are you sure the vet is knowledgeable?
I feel like the vet just randomly prescribed it.

That video is really hard to watch. Looks like some sort of neurological problem.

I agree, that vet sounds a little sketchy to me. Antibiotics are harsh chemicals to prescribe without even finding an infection. I'm not a vet but still...

ARGH, I hate when they hole up and you know where they are but you can't get them out! And you're already worried about him. Well, I'm glad he's acting a little more normal, and at least looks generally healthy to the vet.

Hi,

As Generationshell asked is there no way you can show that video to the vet?

There are parasites etc that can cause movement and nerological symptoms but I don't have any idea oif baytril would be effective against any of them even if we knew that was the cause.


dr del

i can try to send it to him on Monday. I kind of took his word for it since he was so highly recommended. Hmm, he seems to be doing a little better right now. He hasn't spasmed since this morning, just is very active. I'll see how the weekend goes and then go from there.

Possibly an infection causing neuro problems? Hmm I hate using abos unless absolutely needed. But i hope he had an excellent reason for prescribing them. I would def get that video to him and see if this still
Concurs with his script and initial diagnosis.

Interesting that he didn't do it as much while out of his cage!! That could prove very useful info. Someone mentioned some type of electrical shock......which is somethinig but since you are changing you set up........that might cure it. As far as the probe....stick it right to the glass where the heat mat is. Best to try to secure it with a glue gun NOT tape. You can get a glue gun for like $5 at wally world or Michaels.

For now I would highly highly reccommend paper towels or newspapers. Just so you are sure to see any type of urates, blood, etc.

Another question.....(and this could light a fire under some but that is not the purpose of the question nor do I want to get into a feeding debate here) do you feed live or frozen?

I sure hope he gets better. Poor guy! Just a suggestion you might want to move his tank away from the tv to a quieter place, maybe darken up the back of the tank to. Did you get anything to regulate his heat mat? They get really hot wouldn't want him to get a burn on top of his other issue. Definately keep us updated. Sorry you have to go through this.

I only seen my bp act like that once and it was solved with a soak inthe tub ( and a lot of paper towels afterwards lol) poor snake was so consipated I though it ripped itself a new one going in the tub. ( of course it was a rescue and was dehydrated I know this cause the poor thing drank about 12 oz of water in 1 day ) PLus a soak and a gentle rub with paper towels may help the eye caps come off.

One thing noone asked has the place been treated with any chemicals recently ( bugs, mice or such ) I know some rental properties get treated without letting the tenates know..

Can anyone recommend a good heat mat and heatbulb for his enclosure? should he just have the mat on at night ? As of right now it is too cold in the day and night. I recorded temps of 80 in the day and 70 at night. I woke up to see him all curled up under the newspaper - finally a good sign.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by surfingguitar

Can anyone recommend a good heat mat and heatbulb for his enclosure? should he just have the mat on at night ? As of right now it is too cold in the day and night. I recorded temps of 80 in the day and 70 at night. I woke up to see him all curled up under the newspaper - finally a good sign.

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My heat is on 24/7. I personally use heat cable and heat tape. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than anything sold locally. Its much too cold during the day especially. Unless your house gets really cold you may not need the lamp, but you'll have to fiddle with things. As long as your hotside is ~90.f the coolside should stay perfect. But 80 is a good day cool side. At night my coolside drops to ~ 75-80. Totally normal and ok. As long as the have the hotspot to go to a night time drop into the 70s is fine. But this is why we keep the heat on 24/7.

Personally I use a spider robotics thermostat and love it......about $119- and I swear once you order it you will have it in about 2 days. Super reliable!!!!!! There are cheaper ones out there....I just swear by these. As far as a "heat mat" I use heat tape from Reptile Basics. It is cheap and effective and works like a charm. You can also just use a heat mat from zoo med but be sure it is controlled with some type of thermostat. Actually make sure you control any heating device as they do spike! You want to run your heat constantly...a thermostat will control it so that it is a constant temp and not fluctuate. The only time you really want to do a night drop is really for breeding purposes. Other than that....just keep the temps steady

Good call on the pestisides ....I didn't think of that. Along that route when was the last time you changed the bedding. That bedding could of been exposed to something causing this whole thing. For those of you that use some type of bedding....it is a good idea to cook it prior to using it. Now I know you can't do that with carefresh.....but any wood type of bedding you can.

I also highly recommend cholorhexadine for cleaning. You can order it through reptile basics. A bottle will last you forever as you dillute it with water. This is the best stuff in the world. No smell to it.....will disinfect everything....and it totally safe for your pets. This is what a vet would give you to clean a wound with. Since having reptiles and discovering this stuff we now even clean our counters with this stuff. Our snake bins, any dishes or hides, all reptile enclosures are cleaned with it and we use it for boo boos on humans and reptiles as well. (just make sure if you are cleaning a cut you dillute it as well as otherwise it would sting a bit).

I find it odd that the vet would prescribe the antibiotics without a clear diagonosis. His symptoms look extremely severe to me and suggest a severe neurological problem. I hope he gets better but I highly doubt the antibiotics will do anything

Homegrownscales, how do you use the heat cable to keep your ambient temps up?

OP I hope your snake starts to get better! Hopefully changing up your husbandry will help since he was hiding this morning.

yea.....once i woke him up and gave him his medication he wasn't a happy camper. He has been exploring and/or trying to escape all day! He flipped out a couple more times earlier and I had to restrain him. I have a 75 what infrared heat lamp now with a under tank heat pad. The temp readings today are around 81 under the lamp.

Thanks for keeping us updated. I hope everything works out.
BTW, you never mentioned what you're using to control the heat. Please tell me you're not running the heat mat and bulb un-regulated.

@akherps. My reptile room where the snakes are is ridiculously hot at all times. I actually have to run a fan in there all year to pull some of the hot air out. So temps are 80-85 and if I don't run the fan the room will get up to 90s. For the most part unless your house is 60s the ambient and cool spot should be warm enough in a rack. Tanks are a different story. I'll mention that I used heat pads on t stats when I used tanks. But ever since I had more than 3 snakes I ditched the tanks. Heat cable is great for tubs. Also I've seen people tape it to the back of the tank using the foil tape. They s it up and down the back or zig zagged it up the back. For the hot spot they used the heat pads. Again all heat was regulated.

Well Monty has calmed down somewhat. I woke up this morning and he was curled up on the heat pad so thats a good sign. I gave him his meds as well as some water through the syringe. I bought an accurite gauge and have been monitoring the temps. Its been around 84 during the day and about 76 at night.

Good news! :)

That is a good thing!

How's he doin? The last post I see is from the 25th. Not sure if the crash lost any newer posts or not. Hope he he's better. I do agree with the other about the antibiotics. Kinda weird the vet would prescribe them with no further tests. But he is a vet so.... Keep us updated.

I brought monty to prehistoric pets today. I showed them the video of monty having muscle spasms and owner concluded that he is bucking. every employee thought he looked physically and mentally fine and agreed that he seemed like he had intentions to breed. could it be that he just wants to breed? he has never acted like this before up until the last 3 months. they said something about smelling his own scent makes him act up- this is why when he is in his own environment he freaks out . What do you guys think?

Well I've been breeding balls for 4 years now. I don't consider that an extremely long time. But I can say that I've only seen behavior like that when two males are together. Beyond that a male that has lived his whole life by himself I've never seen do that.

well there's only 1 way to find out. anyone in the oc area have a female that wants to try and be breed with my my male?

Honestly, that wouldnt be the best idea. Personally, I dont think you want to try to breed a snake that you arent 100% sure is healthy. If your snake is sick you would only be exposing another animal. Besides, you would also need to quarantine the female to make sure she is healthy too. Just overall seems counterproductive to me.

It is. Not knowing what's going on with an animal and then exposing it to another is lack of a better word. Stupid. Any males or females that show any odd symptoms do not breed for me, any that start the season but are having issues for any reason get pulled out. It could be detrimental to the animals health breeding. Not to mention spreading any potential problems.

ok well i found this video on youtube and it is pretty right on on how he has been acting. If this is what is going on, what steps can I take to get him to stop acting this way. Again, he really only acts up terribly like this when he is in his environment. Once I take him out, he calms down immensely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=884o4Esah0I

None of those snakes acted anything like the video you initially posted. Are you saying he's behaving much more normally now?

Also, I agree with everyone else on the breeding issue. If whatevers affecting him is viral/bacterial it could easily infect the female, and if its genetic it really should not be passed on.

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