Please help, royal python died!

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Originally Posted by Nhsmoker

I didn't mean to imply the op caused the problems. Misting causes humidity spikes and can certainly cause ri but I can't imagine it can happen in a couple weeks. I just don't believe misting is a great habit and find it unnecessary.

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What snakes do you own?

Any that actually require high humidity?

I do. GTP, ETB, and a BRB.

I mist them daily. I have for years and have no RI issues to report.

The only RI I've ever had to deal with was when I unknowingly bought my GTP with one. Luckily for the snake I knew what it was right away and got him to the vet. One set of injections later and he has been healthy and happy for years now. I mist him. I even must him directly as they will many times drink the water off their body. Still with all that I have not had any RI issues in my collection.

We did do a culture but it unfortunately came back as inconclusive. She was started on Fortaz; that was.... sooort of working, but not very quickly, and when we decided to tube feed her due to weightloss we switched to Obrax. Seems to be doing the trick, she's asymptomatic at the moment (no more wheezing, gaping, bubbles or excess mucus, or sitting with her head propped up like she was before) but she's only been on that for the last two weeks, so we're going to keep on with two more to make sure it's truly good and gone. Then it's just a matter of letting her chill for a bit and get back to regular eating.

Also yeah, a brief spike is not going to hurt an animal. that's like saying it must never rain in Africa because the humidity spike would make the wild balls sick. RI is an infection. There has to be an infectious agent there in the first place, and then other factors that lead to a weakened immune response, which allows it to take hold. Most commonly is continuous, prolonged too low or high humidity, continuous, prolonged too low or high temps, or continuous, prolonged exposure to too much stress from other factors.