Massive temperature spike in enclosure

Just came home and noticed my boa drooping her head out the side of her half log like she was dead so I immediately opened the cage to see if she would react and as soon as I reached in I could feel the heat inside the cage. As of right now she is alive.

A few days ago I moved my RHP probe to the middle of the cool side, closer to the warm, partially touching the ground and set the temp for 73* as suggested on here. All was good for the first few days, I checked multiple times everyday and it was holding ambient as well as floor temp on both cool and hot side just fine.

Then today when I came home she was like I mentioned above and her ambient temp was reading 84.3, floor temps between 99* and 114* directly under the RHP.

She was about 1/3 to 1/2 way under the RHP and was curled up inside a half log which kept her out of direct heat but I have never seen her drooping her head like that before and Im extremely worried I might have hurt her.

The RHP is unplugged right now and I'm moving the probe back to the hot side but what should I do for her? I don't know how long it has been that hot but how damaging can that high of heat be to a boa? I love my little boa, she's the sweetest little angel and I'm absolutely devastated I hurt her

Edit: the inside of her hide where she is is at 88.9* and she lifts her head and flicks her tongue but has yet to move

Sounds like brain damage. I hope not though! Do you have the RHP on a thermostat? How else did it spike? I don't understand how anyone can run a heater without a very carefully setup thermostat.

Im running a herpstat 2, hence why I have a probe and was able to set the temp. The only thing I can think of is that the cage is near a window and temps outside have dropped to -43 celsius. The temp in the cage was holding perfectly fine up until tonight

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

Sounds like brain damage. I hope not though! Do you have the RHP on a thermostat? How else did it spike? I don't understand how anyone can run a heater without a very carefully setup thermostat.

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A few years ago, I got my first uth and didn't know that thermostats were necessary. Heck, I didn't even know they existed and figured the mat wouldn't get hot enough to do damage. Luckily it just cracked the bottom of the tank and didn't hurt my snake

Ran through my settings again as i reconnected the RHP and discovered it was a complete screw up on my part. I set up a second enclosure today and blindly assumed that the left plug in would be output #1 ( we read from left to right, I should have checked) and set the temperature to 85* on the wrong one so my RHP was trying to bring the ambient temperature on the other side of the cage all the way up to 85*

Is there anything to do for her? I assume nothing can fix neurological damage but can she still survive as a happy, healthy snake as long as its not too severe, and how can I tell how bad it is?

I suggest a visit to a veterinarian

I will look around for a good reptile vet tomorrow

You shouldn't let the probe touch the ground. If you're going to dangle it having it at least a few inches off the ground is best.

I have mine glued into a cable strap and the strap glued to the rim of the rhp. It has worked great for years. The probe doesn't touch the rhp hearing element but it's in the direct path of the outer edge. Setting it up like this eliminates the snakes ability to move it, lay on it, soak it, etc.

I see you figured out what you did. As stated above dont let your probe touch anything and make sure it cant fall down more into the enclose. One good size piss that RHP will be running wide open again trying to heat a wet probe laying in soaked substrate.
Idk if a Vet will do anything for you at this point. Tomorrow take him out and see how he is. It won't be hard to tell if he's ok or not i wouldn't think

Thanks for the info guys, I will pull her out and see tomorrow morning when I get home.

I usually have the probe dangling so it just barely touches the ground, as thats where the snake usually is but I will move it up a little ways and properly secure it so that it can't move :gj:

What seems to work best for you guys using RHPs, probe on the hot side or probe on the cool side?