Ball Python Seizure??

A couple of weeks ago I was up pretty late and I noticed that my pastel ball python was moving around in her terrarium doing what ball pythons do http://www.reptilescanada.com/images/smilies/tongue.png
She doesn't move that often so I decided to watch her and see what she was up to. After about a minute or so things started to get weird. She randomly looked up at her heat lamp (probably because she felt the warmth coming from it) and then all of a sudden she started thrashing her head left and right. She also had her mouth wide open as well while doing this. After about 10 seconds she finally stopped and returned back to her normal behavior.

Over the past few weeks I've been keeping an eye on her and she has not repeated this event.

My question is, could this have been a seizure? Or was she just startled by me watching her?

Before anyone says anything about respiratory infections, I'm pretty sure its not. The temps and humidity are both where they should be and she has not shown any symptoms of an RI (wheezing, constantly starring up, etc)

I was wondering if anyone has ever seen this before. Thanks

Eric

I have never heard of this. I would call a herp vet and ask them for their opinion and if you need to bring the snake in. Good luck. Keep us posted.

Did you look at the other end?

I have seen this and heard some wierd sounds when they were...erm... straining shall we say.


dr del

I couldn't see her other end, she was under a bush. Although had it been moving I would have seen the vines move which they didn't. And I heard no sound coming from her. In fact she's never made a sound except for the one time that I misted her. She was about to shed so I wanted to make sure that her skin was humid enough for proper shedding; but, since she made the noise, I decided to never misted her again.

Its interesting that you seen something like this though. Was the noise loud or very low, could I have not heard it?

Was she just looking up and swaying back and forth? Thrashing makes it sound like she is twisting and throwing herself against the side of the cage.

Yeah I couldn't think of another word to describe it. It wasn't as hard as thrashing but not has soft as a slight sway back and forth. I guess you could say that she was swaying fast with her mouth wide open

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bwds7

Yeah I couldn't think of another word to describe it. It wasn't as hard as thrashing but not has soft as a slight sway back and forth. I guess you could say that she was swaying fast with her mouth wide open

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sounds like something my snakes do after they eat. I would venture to say it is normal. Definitely not a seizure. Sometimes they will open their mouths to realign their jaw, so its not out of the ordinary.

If you haven't seen it happen again, I wouldn't really worry. It doesn't sound like she is sickly or anything.

Yeah, if she was stetched way up, maybe she was losing balance and "wobbling"?

Also, agree with Dr. Del. When we first got snakes, one of ours scared the crap out of me with the whole open mouth noise thing. Turns out she was making #2. :D

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I wouldn't say she was realigning her jaw. I've see her do that multiple times and she doesn't sway. But no that you've mentioned it, she could've been going #2, I guess I misunderstood what Dr. Del meant by "did you check the other end". I never knew they opened their mouths and swayed when they do that.

Was it like this?

My boy has done this 6 times.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cdpurv/video...69309442115118

Wow, this thread is almost a decade old. But cdpurv video response seems to hit the nail on the head about a similar episode. Thanks for sharing. :gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cdpurv

Was it like this?

My boy has done this 6 times.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cdpurv/video...69309442115118

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Excellent find- thanks for posting that. And yes, I've seen that same behavior before- pretty sure it had to do with something caught in their throat- that would be my interpretation. And it could be something as minor as a bit of substrate or even a long hair* that got swallowed with their prey, & after the prey went down, the hair was still "on its way"- so the snake is trying to maneuver it down, & since they cannot cough, & have no hands to remove it, all they can do is thrash as shown in the video.

*A little side note- since I have long hair- Every now & then one of my dogs will manage to swallow a stray hair of mine, & since it's apparently not digestible, you should see the dance they do around the yard when it comes out the other end, attached to fecal material they're trying to unload! :rofl: It really freaks them out when "stuff" follows them! :O I "shouldn't" laugh, but I can't help it. :D