OMG.....my worst fear has come to pass

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Originally Posted by zeion97

.........I'm SO... confused...... my humidity is at 35-40% IA that bad...
....?

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I never let mine drop below 50% and my ambient temps are always around 80-82 degrees.

That's what I was told by the good folks of BP net so it's what I've always striven for.

Im so sorry to hear. I'll pray for your snakes as I can't provide any info on RI :(

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Originally Posted by zeion97

.........I'm SO... confused...... my humidity is at 35-40% IA that bad...
....?

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Humidity should be between 40-60, bumped to 70 for sheds.

Oh man that sucks. I have heard they are much more prone to RI during breeding. That's one reason I keep my temps the same during breeding season rather than dropping temps. A friend of mine didn't even drop below 70 degrees and ended up with an RI. It definitely happens even when you are being careful. If I were you I would get her treated ASAP and bump the temps up for everyone to help avoid anyone else getting it. Keep a close eye on everyone, I'm not sure if you need to treat anyone else unless they are showing sign, that would be a question for an experienced vet.

RI's are the worst. I lost a baby blood to one. Be super fastidious, borderline OCD with cleanliness. Iif your vet prescribes oral meds run. I should have but know better now, unfortunately at cost of my snake :/

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Originally Posted by Otolith

RI's are the worst. I lost a baby blood to one. Be super fastidious, borderline OCD with cleanliness. Iif your vet prescribes oral meds run. I should have but know better now, unfortunately at cost of my snake :/

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That's not entirely true, baytril can be given orally, or injected. Issue with oral medication is they can potentially go back in the enclosure and spit half of it up by trying to get the mucus out, or while trying to give it to them, they can flinch and half of it can go down your arm but I know someone who just treated one of his snakes with baytril orally and it worked fine.

I'm dealing with an R.I myself right now.. I have only had the snake for a few weeks and he came to me with it. He was accidentally taken off the plane he was on and left overnight in Montreal where it's very cold as it is here.

I took mine to the vet and was told to bump the humidity and raise the temps to get the immune system going. I went in there after doing my research.. I asked her for baytril and she said fortaz was stronger. The 2 medications I believe you want to hear are baytril or fortaz. I have to give mine an injection of fortaz every 72 hours and was given 10 syringes to do so. It is way too stressful to keep taking them back and forth to the vet every 3 days to get an injection.

You'll panic at first as I did, but once you go to the vet and realize if treated properly, isn't life threatening, it can calm your nerves quite a bit. Some people have successfully treated it by raising temps and humidity but I still believe they need to go to the vet.

Besides going to the vet, there is actually nothing you can do except for exactly what you're doing now!

Good luck!

I haven't read the whole thread but I'll give you some advice from personal experience and from a friend's experience and reiterate that we're not vets and you need to get her to a good herp vet asap.

One of my BPs had an RI that was caused by too low of humidity (as per my vet). She was prescribed Fortaz and Baytril and it cleared her up. I bumped up her temps and tried to keep her humidity high. How it has been explained to me is that low humidity can cause minute tears in the mouth and throat in which bacteria can grow and cause an RI. Alternatively too high humidity without proper ventilation can allow bacteria to grow in the enclosure causing an RI. I was advised to wash my water bowl regularly (I used 10% bleach) to keep additional bacteria from growing in there and to soak her regularly in warm water to help replenish hydration lost by being on antibiotics AND to hopefully help open up her nostrils. Also, regularly clean and disinfect her enclosure to keep bacteria from growing.

To give you some hope that your boys won't catch it I'll tell you this story. A friend of mine had two BPs housed together and the male came down with an RI. They were never separated but the female never caught the RI. The male ended up succumbing to the RI (probably linked to the stress of being housed with another snake) but the female is still alive and never showed an RI symptoms. Knowing what I know now I would have pushed harder for her to separate them. Obviously I don't advocate keeping BPs together and you should QT your girl asap but I wanted to give you some hope that your entire collection isn't doomed. I'd just monitor them REALLY well to make sure they don't start showing symptoms and bump up their heat as well just to be safe. Try to avoid all stress because my vet told me that RI's can be brought on by stress.

I think theres some confusion goin on about humidity. Yes balls need the humidity under regular conditions. But we are talking about during a ri. While there is difference of oppinions on what to have humidity set at during a ri. Based on experience lowering the humidity and jacking the heat helps with the treatment process of ri. I have had a couple experiences with ri in my own collection over the years. I have been pretty much a den mother or father for friends snakes with ri. In every case i have done the same thing and it works. Im not saying that raising humidity doesnt work cause i dont do it therefore i have no experience with doing so. Injections of any antibiotic is always better then oral. Fortaz works very well as does baytril but some infections dont respond to one or the other. Personally i keep baytril on hand for the just in case and it has always worked for me. I am not a vet but my vet is the best in the country hands down and i have learned alot over the years. Although he will not or advise to treat without cultures done first. With that said i personally am confident in trying to clear issues myself and if i run into the issue of things not working i will take a trip to the vet. And yes ri seems to ramp up a bit in breeding season with temp dropping especially when using moist substrates like cypress. This is why i always use paper. As far as an ri happening during shipping nightmares this is rare. It usually takes more then just one or two nights of cold temps to cause a ri. Its safe to say that if you recieve an animal with a ri it was coming on for a bit. Also a ri is harder to get rid of with a bigger animal. The way it was described to me was that an adult balls lungs are more developed and bigger therefore by the time you notice symptoms the ri is pretty well established. The best thing to be proactive is to constantlly be listening for wheezing or any noises out of the ordinary. Obviouslly keeping temps and humidity at normal ranges, and keeping things clean. Also always be very ocd about clean hands when handling animal after animal.

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Originally Posted by Solarsoldier001

Im so sorry to hear. I'll pray for your snakes as I can't provide any info on RI :(

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Prayers are just as good as advice!
Thank you!!

:)

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Originally Posted by babyknees

I haven't read the whole thread but I'll give you some advice from personal experience and from a friend's experience and reiterate that we're not vets and you need to get her to a good herp vet asap.

One of my BPs had an RI that was caused by too low of humidity (as per my vet). She was prescribed Fortaz and Baytril and it cleared her up. I bumped up her temps and tried to keep her humidity high. How it has been explained to me is that low humidity can cause minute tears in the mouth and throat in which bacteria can grow and cause an RI. Alternatively too high humidity without proper ventilation can allow bacteria to grow in the enclosure causing an RI. I was advised to wash my water bowl regularly (I used 10% bleach) to keep additional bacteria from growing in there and to soak her regularly in warm water to help replenish hydration lost by being on antibiotics AND to hopefully help open up her nostrils. Also, regularly clean and disinfect her enclosure to keep bacteria from growing.

To give you some hope that your boys won't catch it I'll tell you this story. A friend of mine had two BPs housed together and the male came down with an RI. They were never separated but the female never caught the RI. The male ended up succumbing to the RI (probably linked to the stress of being housed with another snake) but the female is still alive and never showed an RI symptoms. Knowing what I know now I would have pushed harder for her to separate them. Obviously I don't advocate keeping BPs together and you should QT your girl asap but I wanted to give you some hope that your entire collection isn't doomed. I'd just monitor them REALLY well to make sure they don't start showing symptoms and bump up their heat as well just to be safe. Try to avoid all stress because my vet told me that RI's can be brought on by stress.

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Thank you so much for the hope!

I just got back from getting her the Vicks but I got a kid-safe type with no turpentine/cedar oil/thymol.
[who knew that much toxic stuff was in VapoRub??]

This just has menthol, eucalyptus and some other essential oil that's not poisonous.

Until the ill-advised/regrettable breeding attempts, none of my snakes were probably even actually aware of the others.

Never kept them together.

Never handled one without using hand sanitizer after another.

[maybe my Bee's "girl trouble" was discovering he wasn't actually the only snake in the house, after all]

As of right now, she doesn't have the mouth slobber going on, just some mild, very watery [versus 'thick snotty'] nose bubbling.

The rumbling that I felt all through her body this a.m. has now moved to the area just below her neck, proper.

[upper RI, maybe?]

The local herp guy is getting Baytril for me Monday in case it takes a while to get an appt.

He's dealt with this many times over the last 3 decades, both with his own snakes and the snakes of other people and is confident she'll be okay.

She's calmed down substantially and is back her old cranky, jumpy, offish self.

At least she's not foaming at the mouth and gasping any more.

Would diluted isopropyl alcohol be okay for sterilizing tubs?

We don't keep bleach in the house because I'm really sensitive to it.

I use antibacterial dish washing liquid and a handheld steamer to clean stuff right now.

I am monitoring them to the point where I think I'm annoying them.

Me sitting and staring at their faces and their breathing rates seems to make them think I'm up to something....except for the Bee and the Dumerils who just hope I've got food for them.