**Ball Python Health Concern! Never seen this before!!**

My 2 of my snakes were going thru a bad shed, so I gave both of them a hot/warm bath. (husband forgot to dry them off). The next morning the normal was wheezing bad, so I removed her and put her in a bin with a heat pad under it. The next day, I heard my Spider (the other one we gave a bath to) started wheezing. I immediately removed him and did the same thing with the heat pad,etc. I disinfected the whole room so that my other BP's don't get sick. Anyway, the next day I noticed that my Spider was not wheezing anymore, however when he would go by my ear, he would make this tiny little pop sound every once in awhile. That was 2 days ago. Today, and yesterday, he hasn't made not a single sound. He seems perfect and he has no bubbles/mucous in his mouth at all. He is eating,etc. However, he is still separated from the collection for the next couple weeks just to be sure. However, the normal, is wheezing worse however no popping. Mucous around her teeth and bubbles in back of throat. Ive been cleaning her throat/mouth with Q-Tips. Her whole body shed except for her head. We made sure that it wasn't shed stuck in her nose area making the wheezing sound. The shed on her head/neck area is VERY weird. Its all falling off! All her scales/colored scales are falling/flaking right off when we touch her. Her lips are getting dark purple in color. The left nostril seems to be plugged. She rubs that one side all over the tank. Wondering WTH is going on??? Any advice??? Im taking her to the vet next Monday. Just wondering if anyone has any input on what is going on? Thanks. =)Congratulations on the nice babies. They are beautiful.

Glad you're taking her to the vet, she sounds like she needs it.

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Originally Posted by tejanastar

My 2 of my snakes were going thru a bad shed, so I gave both of them a hot/warm bath. (husband forgot to dry them off). The next morning the normal was wheezing bad, so I removed her and put her in a bin with a heat pad under it. The next day, I heard my Spider (the other one we gave a bath to) started wheezing. I immediately removed him and did the same thing with the heat pad,etc. I disinfected the whole room so that my other BP's don't get sick. Anyway, the next day I noticed that my Spider was not wheezing anymore, however when he would go by my ear, he would make this tiny little pop sound every once in awhile. That was 2 days ago. Today, and yesterday, he hasn't made not a single sound. He seems perfect and he has no bubbles/mucous in his mouth at all. He is eating,etc. However, he is still separated from the collection for the next couple weeks just to be sure. However, the normal, is wheezing worse however no popping. Mucous around her teeth and bubbles in back of throat. Ive been cleaning her throat/mouth with Q-Tips. Her whole body shed except for her head. We made sure that it wasn't shed stuck in her nose area making the wheezing sound. The shed on her head/neck area is VERY weird. Its all falling off! All her scales/colored scales are falling/flaking right off when we touch her. Her lips are getting dark purple in color. The left nostril seems to be plugged. She rubs that one side all over the tank. Wondering WTH is going on??? Any advice??? Im taking her to the vet next Monday. Just wondering if anyone has any input on what is going on? Thanks. =)Congratulations on the nice babies. They are beautiful.

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Sounds like RI is kicking in. I would bump up the heat ! You can wait till it gets bad and take them to the vet or you could take them to the vet now. Better safe then sorry.

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Originally Posted by KingPythons

Sounds like RI is kicking in. I would bump up the heat ! You can wait till it gets bad and take them to the vet or you could take them to the vet now. Better safe then sorry.

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You always want to treat as soon as possible before they bacteria gets out of control. Could be an RI, could be something inside blocking her breathing or maybe she was exposed to a chemical. How did you bathe them?

Take both to to vet to get checked out.

As a possible counter point and to put you at ease a little, it may not be an RI at all and could just be a case of getting water in their nose(or the equivalent). If that's the case it may just go away on it's own.

A vet trip is still a good idea, but you may find out it's not as bad as you think it is.

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Originally Posted by tejanastar

My 2 of my snakes were going thru a bad shed, so I gave both of them a hot/warm bath. (husband forgot to dry them off). The next morning the normal was wheezing bad, so I removed her and put her in a bin with a heat pad under it. The next day, I heard my Spider (the other one we gave a bath to) started wheezing. I immediately removed him and did the same thing with the heat pad,etc. I disinfected the whole room so that my other BP's don't get sick. Anyway, the next day I noticed that my Spider was not wheezing anymore, however when he would go by my ear, he would make this tiny little pop sound every once in awhile. That was 2 days ago. Today, and yesterday, he hasn't made not a single sound. He seems perfect and he has no bubbles/mucous in his mouth at all. He is eating,etc. However, he is still separated from the collection for the next couple weeks just to be sure. However, the normal, is wheezing worse however no popping. Mucous around her teeth and bubbles in back of throat. Ive been cleaning her throat/mouth with Q-Tips. Her whole body shed except for her head. We made sure that it wasn't shed stuck in her nose area making the wheezing sound. The shed on her head/neck area is VERY weird. Its all falling off! All her scales/colored scales are falling/flaking right off when we touch her. Her lips are getting dark purple in color. The left nostril seems to be plugged. She rubs that one side all over the tank. Wondering WTH is going on??? Any advice??? Im taking her to the vet next Monday. Just wondering if anyone has any input on what is going on? Thanks. =)Congratulations on the nice babies. They are beautiful.

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I'm wondering a few things...

How "hot" was the water and how deep? What was in the water other than just water? Why are you "removing" the snakes? Do you mean moving them away from the rest of the snakes or are they together in a single enclosure? You mention specifically putting a heat pad on the bins, what heat are they under normally?

The "popping" is often a sound associated with RI as well, so keep a close eye on the spider also. Often scales fall off when you've treated with a petroleum product(mineril oil, etc).

RI can bring along mouth rot, which might explain the mucus and discoloration.

I would definitely make a vet visit and keep both snakes away from the rest. Perhaps raise the temps a little on everyone just in case. Good luck!

every once in a while I will hear my big girl make a popping sound when she breathes but she has to be like in my ear. Last vet check up on her I asked and she said that some times water can get down there trakia (breathing tube) and cause that or sometimes depends on how they are curled up. She said she didn't have an RI and that I was good to go with her.

I removed them from the snake rack in the room and placed them in separate enclosures. Usually they are in their tub which is over their flexwatt which is thermostat controlled the temp for the flexwatt is set at 92-93 because the actual temp in the bin is about 3 degrees cooler, I have my probe taped to the flexwatt. Anyway breeding season is coming up so I started lowering my temps. 93 during the day and 83 dropped to at night. As far as bathing I just used plain water deep enough to cover them the majority of the way but not like deep where they were unable to breath. The water temps were a little hotter than warm since they are cold blooded. They were bathed separately. Spider shows no mucous or bubbles. He hasn't wheezed or popped in 3days. He just ate a medium rat yesterday. I believe his to have been possible water in the nose. The normal in question appears to be wanting to soak so I supplied her with a bucket and as soon as she hits the water her wheezing is 10 times louder. She does have mucous and bubbles no appetite. Rubbing one side of nose on tub. Discoloration is not in mouth but instead around front heat pits and bottom jaw still has brittle flaky head shed. I get paid disability (car accident with a semi) and therefore have to wait until the 1st and vet isn't available until he 3rd.

Update: lots of soaking. Caps on eyes pink belly. Just completed aged on 09/22/11. However it was incomplete in the neck/head. Wheezing very slight seems to get worse when she is around/in water. Slight popping. Some mucous no bubbles. Lack of appetite. Ill keep you updated.

First of all-

Thank you to everyone who responded with great information. She did in fact have a URI also a bad shed. I was given SSD cream for her scales, and Baytril for oral suspension. It is now the 22nd of October, so about a month since this I first started this post. She has been doing marvelous. Ate a small mouse. Taking nothing bigger, has not lost weight, no more wheezing, or bubbles, no more popping, she has shed again and it was a complete shed. She is still in quarantine until she is completely cured. Only thing she is showing at this moment is thick mucous toward the back of the throat. Nothing around the jaw line anymore. So, basically this will be my last post on this thread. If you are curious to how she is doing, please feel free to send me a message. Thank you again to everyone that helped during my time of needed assistance.

Very glad to hear she is doing better. :gj:

I'm glad she is doing well, but I thought I would comment on a couple of items that nobody seemed to have mentioned.

First off, you said that you bathed them in warm/hot water. Warm or hot water to you is probably scalding to your snake. The water should be around 88F which would probably feel lukewarm to you.

Second, snakes do not need to soak in order to have a good shed and it will probably cause your snake to have a poor shed. They produce a fluid which is secreted between the old skin and the new skin and is used as a lubricant to get the shed off. Too much water will dilute the lubricant and may cause your snake to have a poor shed. The only thing is needed is to bump up the humidity if your snake is in an environment with low humidity. If your snake does have a bad shed, bathing in lukewarm water is sometimes used to remove a stuck shed.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

I'm glad she is doing well, but I thought I would comment on a couple of items that nobody seemed to have mentioned.

First off, you said that you bathed them in warm/hot water. Warm or hot water to you is probably scalding to your snake. The water should be around 88F which would probably feel lukewarm to you.

Second, snakes do not need to soak in order to have a good shed and it will probably cause your snake to have a poor shed. They produce a fluid which is secreted between the old skin and the new skin and is used as a lubricant to get the shed off. Too much water will dilute the lubricant and may cause your snake to have a poor shed. The only thing is needed is to bump up the humidity if your snake is in an environment with low humidity. If your snake does have a bad shed, bathing in lukewarm water is sometimes used to remove a stuck shed.

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Thank you for this. I actually talked to a breeder friend of mine out of Austin,TX who basically said that same thing you said here. I bathed her due to the vet in my area (supposedly reptile) said that bathing would help. My female that had the URI has been clear for I think about 3 weeks and is actually locked with my Spider at the moment. She has been back in collection for about a week and has eaten 3 med rats each week since the URI seemed to have cleared up. I did take a QTip and swab the mucous from her mouth every morning and evening and then gave her 0.1ml of Baytril Orally every morning. I think the swabbing helped a lot. The Baytril I am sure cleared it up, but it took awhile which was expected given their slow immune system response. :)

I was wondering what the vet had said about the discoloration around the mouth.

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Originally Posted by babyknees

I was wondering what the vet had said about the discoloration around the mouth.

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When I took her in to the vet, I asked her and she didn't say anything about it except that it was probably related to the bad shed that was going on around the neck/head area. Vet gave me some SSD cream. (Not sure what it stands for but she said I could also get it at walmart) and it seemed to go away as soon as she shedded again. She did shed 3 times that whole month that she was sick. So, im guessing they tend to shed more when they are sick/bad shed???

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Originally Posted by tejanastar

Vet gave me some SSD cream. (Not sure what it stands for but she said I could also get it at walmart) and it seemed to go away as soon as she shedded again. She did shed 3 times that whole month that she was sick. So, im guessing they tend to shed more when they are sick/bad shed???

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SSD = silver sulfadiazine cream. It is an anti-bacterial/anti-fungal cream that is used to prevent subsequent infections on skin that is healing from burns & other trauma.

Snakes that have been exposed to dermal injury of some sort (cuts, burns, etc) will typically shed more frequently than uninjured specimens.

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Originally Posted by Kara

SSD = silver sulfadiazine cream. It is an anti-bacterial/anti-fungal cream that is used to prevent subsequent infections on skin that is healing from burns & other trauma.

Snakes that have been exposed to dermal injury of some sort (cuts, burns, etc) will typically shed more frequently than uninjured specimens.

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Wow, you are too smart!!! Share some of your wise knowledge with me!!! It was funny because she was going thru a bad shed, and then would hit her bin with her nose, like what they do to get the shed started from the head, and then I picked her up to check on her, saw that some was lose around her mouth/nose area, and pulled it off gently, that discolored her scales, so I got the SSD cream and it worked perfectly!

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Originally Posted by tejanastar

Wow, you are too smart!!! Share some of your wise knowledge with me!!! It was funny because she was going thru a bad shed, and then would hit her bin with her nose, like what they do to get the shed started from the head, and then I picked her up to check on her, saw that some was lose around her mouth/nose area, and pulled it off gently, that discolored her scales, so I got the SSD cream and it worked perfectly!

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LOL...hit me up via PM if you'd like to chat on the phone. Always happy to help, ESPECIALLY a fellow Texan! :)

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Originally Posted by Kara

LOL...hit me up via PM if you'd like to chat on the phone. Always happy to help, ESPECIALLY a fellow Texan! :)

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lol thanks! Can I thank you twice for that comment??? :D:banana: