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

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

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.

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i've caught my bee laying a little inverted before.. i see the spider wobble as well in her, but from what i could find online, overheating can cause the exact same symptoms as the spider wobble even in animals without spider in them..? i know spiders wobble can get worse or better after time, but she went from barely showing any wobble at all (except a little while feeding) to this in less than a week.. i wouldn't say i've seen several hundred in my time, just the three in my collection and the ones i've seen at shows and a couple friends'.. but none of them had the head "twitch" she has. is that common with spiders with bad wobbles?

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Originally Posted by MrLang

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.

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i did move the probe. tried it at several difference spots. ended up leaving it on the bottom shelf since that was the one that got so hot. temperatures seem to be holding much better now. we did order some new flexwatt just in case and have been monitoring the temperatures religiously. but no, i have not heard of other people saying to place the probe right next to the flexwatt connections, but that's what i was told to do. since the thermostat probes are directly on the shelf that spiked the temperatures seem to be more consistent.

I hope you and your snake make a full recovery. It takes a lot for you to relax again after an accident.

I would make a couple of proactive suggestions, for your piece of mind. I would suggest a fail safe thermostat. I always use one on a rack as it is so easy to move a probe. It would help in any case. I would place the failsafe probe in a different location. I use the top as it runs warmer than the rest. I have it set below a critical temp Personally mine is set to 100ºF as my room is cool anyway. Heat tape at 100º in my case produces 95º or so. This should prevent any reoccurrence.

Oh, she is absolutely gorgeous. Please keep us updated. This is going to sound crazy weird... But my snakesitter did a google search (are snakes ticklish) and came upon some stuff about massaging snakes. I haven't read any of it, but apparently stroking from behind the head to the tail with long firm strokes is good for them and they like it. I know massage really helps with discoordinate nerve firing in humans, I wonder if it might help with all that agonizing-to-watch body posturing.
Good luck, she really is a beautiful girl.

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Originally Posted by UltraViolet

Oh, she is absolutely gorgeous. Please keep us updated. This is going to sound crazy weird... But my snakesitter did a google search (are snakes ticklish) and came upon some stuff about massaging snakes. I haven't read any of it, but apparently stroking from behind the head to the tail with long firm strokes is good for them and they like it. I know massage really helps with discoordinate nerve firing in humans, I wonder if it might help with all that agonizing-to-watch body posturing.
Good luck, she really is a beautiful girl.

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Did someone let Mike know about this??? I didnt know you could massage ur snake either...

sent from my incubator

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Originally Posted by creepin

i've caught my bee laying a little inverted before.. i see the spider wobble as well in her, but from what i could find online, overheating can cause the exact same symptoms as the spider wobble even in animals without spider in them..? i know spiders wobble can get worse or better after time, but she went from barely showing any wobble at all (except a little while feeding) to this in less than a week.. i wouldn't say i've seen several hundred in my time, just the three in my collection and the ones i've seen at shows and a couple friends'.. but none of them had the head "twitch" she has. is that common with spiders with bad wobbles?

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While it's possible that it's extra spider wobble from stress, the only thing that would cause her to be stressed is the heat spike (doesn't look like anything else in her routine changed). And the abruptness of the change in behavior is alarming. IMO you're looking at neurological damage from heat spike, and she should be treated as such.

Good call on ordering new tape, looks like yours was defective which is very unfortunate, but I'm glad you caught it in time before it killed all of your snakes or burned down your dad's house.

Forgot to add: My bee likes to randomly flip onto his back about once a month and play dead, I think sometimes our snakes enjoy scaring the bejeezus out of us.

Any updates? How is she doing? I hope she's ok. :(

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Originally Posted by DooLittle

Any updates? How is she doing? I hope she's ok. :(

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still alive. according to my dad, he THINKS she looks a little better. my dad talked to one of his friends that's a vet that works with exotics and he said that usually when this happens, if the snake survives 48 hours they usually make it. she pooped yesterday so that's a good sign. refused her last feeding but that wasn't a surprise. just gonna be patient and hope she slowly returns to her normal self, or at least starts eatin on her own. i'll be goin out there tomorrow to pick up some rats and check on her so hopefully i'll be able to see a little improvement.

The video shows almost identical symptoms to my het pied boy, but where it is just her head and neck, his whole body is like that. That is, at least to my knowledge and experience, heat related damage, just like my het pied has. The good news is, her's is not so extreme that she should not be able to function normally given some time. If the damage is permanent, and it will take time before you know, once she adjust to how her body now functions, she should be just fine. There is even the possibility she may be able to breed eventually.

As best I can tell, with my admittedly limited experience, this is way harder for us to deal with than it is them. My Aries, the little het pied who is so badly damaged, is very strong willed. Even though his poor body won't obey him, he doesn't let it slow him down. The older he gets, the more he learns to adjust for the way his body works and the easier it becomes for him to do things. Granted, he never does anything that looks even remotely like something a "normal" ball python does, I firmly believe he does not see himself as handicapped. His fighting spirit and determination are so amazing to see. I know many people would put him down because he is so badly damaged, but how can i when he fights so hard?

Perhaps I can get my husband to take a little video of him, so you can see what I mean. Your girl has some brain damage, of that I am sure, but I don't think it will affect her much at all. Given a little time, she will overcome most of it, even if the symptoms don't improve on their own. Aries is testimony to that.

Gale

And this week? She still doing alright (all things considered)?