Ugh.. I think she's sick

Dearest Thomas "Slim" Whitman,

It is with great regret and sadness that I must inform you that you will from now until forever, be ignored.

Hopefully you do a better job biking and humvee-ing than dispensing advice.

Have a good day.

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Originally Posted by Manasha-Bogo

Dearest Thomas "Slim" Whitman,

It is with great regret and sadness that I must inform you that you will from now until forever, be ignored.

Hopefully you do a better job biking and humvee-ing than dispensing advice.

Have a good day.

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How AWESOME is that! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Somehow, I don't think your sadness is quite so great :D

Like I said before, good luck with your snakes, and here's to horses everywhere eventually drinking the water...

At least we can say that she did not regurge due to improper temps.:)

While your temps sound fine, I have to agree with Slim about the egg crate divider. It won't help isolate illness and mites (sounds like your mite problem is solved though). If you want to keep your male healthy, it is highly recommended to totally separate the female. You can use a solid wall, but the best thing is to put her in quarantine in a separate enclosure.

She sounds small, a hatchling? Since it sounds like you can't use any other tanks, she will do well in a temporary 6qt-15qt tub set up until she is well again or if you find out she's not contagious. At walmart a 6qt tub is $2. A 15 qt is less than $5. A foot of flexwatt from a reptile store ranges $2-5. (flexwatt heat tape needs a thermostat.)
The small space will probably reduce some stress on your girl as well. Tubs also make great carriers for vet trips.

All in all, just think of it as keeping a newborn child away from a sick sibling.

Good luck. :)
Hope she gets well soon.
Keep us updated.

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Originally Posted by Manasha-Bogo

you did ask about temperature... I don't want it to seem as if I'm blowing that off so here it is..

I have a thermometer with a probe on the basking "rock" (if you wanna call it that). It remains pretty steady around 91-93 degrees F. the rest of the tank fluctuates between 75 degrees at night and 83+ during the day while the heat lamp is on. I know the night temp should stay higher than this. It definitely will drop lower in the winter (even tho this is s. florida, it does get in the 40's & 50's). I have looked into solutions for that including under-tank heating but that won't work with the way the tank stand is solid wood and not open underneath.

I have the big honking heat lamp in the middle and their hides are as close to the middle as they can go on either side of the divider. water on opposite ends of the tank. plain white paper towel on the bottom. nothing else in there right now as I'm waiting for all evidence of mites to disappear. They spend all their time on top of, beside, or inside their hides which are directly under the one heat lamp. Every once in a while I catch them in soaking in their water. that's about all I can think to describe.

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I'm not going to go into the seperation thing as that's been discussed...

My thoughts:
Your temps aren't bad, however I would recommended ditching the lamp for an under the tank heater. Either flex Watt, heat cable, or just a uth mat that comes with little rubber feet that you put on the corners of the tank to raise it up. You will need a thermostat to control it and if you are looking to save money just buy the hygrotherm off Amazon for the mat. The other uths will be better utilized with a proportional tstat. The lamp sucks the humidity out of the air and is usually only recommended to bump up the temps as a secondary to the uth. Hope the snakes are feeling better...

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First, I want to express that I really do appreciate getting all of your help. I have trusted online communities as a resource for animal care literally for decades and I can tell that this is a great community despite a few brushes with people more intent on berating than helping. Its pretty easy for me to spot a great forum after being a professional "board member" for many years. And I like this place which is probably why I'll keep coming back. My main goal is to help my snakes. Not to be liked. I couldn't care less about being liked.

The idea of ditching the lamp really puts a smile on my face. I would love to ditch the lamp. Thanks for all the uth ideas. I'll have something set up by end of next week. It does take time to get things done because whatever I go with for heating will have to get ordered and delivered.

The vet opens in 45 minutes. I'll call then and see if I can get an early vet visit before work. Work is between home and the vet which is why I was entertaining the idea of taking her to work but work is a cold place and the car would be too hot so it would be best to go straight to the vet then backtrack to work. I have a lot going on at work so the stress level for me is high right now. Not to mention it is "take your child to work" day and I'll be lugging my kids around with me all day and need to finish a ton of work since I will be out of town tomorrow thru Sunday to see the in-laws (generating even more stress).

I was up trying to get some of the work done that *has* to get done in an attempt to lighten the load on myself today but that didn't go well.

Anyways, If I can "give" the snake to the vet today so they can care for her until next week that would take a load of worry off. If they don't think it's necessary to keep her, then that may be a good sign. I don't care about vet costs. I have spent about $1000 since last month on my dogs and my pet rabbits alone. And that only covers 1/half of my pets. I still have 2 conures and 1 African grey tht need to see a vet (not because they're sick, but as a pre-requisite to being cleared for fostering parrots).

I wonder if you all really cared about all that? Just saying...

Anyways, I'll keep checking in and learning as much as I can. I do have ideas for the big tank that I think would make it a perfect habitat for the snakes. I'll post those ideas for feedback in the husbandry section. UTH will definitely be part of it.


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The vet visit at 9am EDT (15 mins from now). I'm headed towards the vet now after making a pit stop at work to save face. (my boss sux)

So manasha (the snake) looks OK right now. The last time I took a pet to the vet I was this worried about was my dog Scully. She was a 9 yr old Jack Russell. She didn't last the day. Pretty sad story actually. Anyway......


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So she's in the doctor's hands now.

Doc is very concerned. Says Manasha is "critical". And I just dropped as much money as they both cost to begin with. Oooh Fun!!!


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Also I thought it was telling that the vet asked where I got her from. Then told me that they've seen a lot of sick reptiles from people who got them from the same place.

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Well I hope she pulls through.
I understand the use of a heat lamp and all but thumbs up on getting a heat mat. I just recently got rid of all my lamps (except for the lizards.) Technology in keeping snakes has improved so much over the past few years and for some people it's hard to keep up.

But good luck and I'm hoping for a good and fast recovery.

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Originally Posted by Foxtuning65

Well I hope she pulls through.
I understand the use of a heat lamp and all but thumbs up on getting a heat mat. I just recently got rid of all my lamps (except for the lizards.) Technology in keeping snakes has improved so much over the past few years and for some people it's hard to keep up.

But good luck and I'm hoping for a good and fast recovery.

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Yea, my biggest mistake with the snakes was assuming that I could reuse all the same equipment I had with my bearded dragon. The tank, furniture, heat lamp, UV lights, etc...

Turns out *all* of that was wrong.

Don't need UV lighting, don't need big tank, certainly not the furniture, and not even the heat lamp....

So I've gone back to the drawing board a few times in my head. But even being better prepared would not have changed the outcome for Manasha because I'm certain now that she came to me sick from the herp store.

I should have taken her to the vet sooner tho... like 2 weeks ago when I was first concerned about her growth. But... can't change the past.... :(