Humidity with respiratory infection!?!?!

Ok I have researched so many threads on ri's and have been trying to find an answer but can't exactly. I have had two ball pythons for 1 1/5 years now with nothing wrong and everything going smooth. I just acquired a new one about a month ago. She had fed twice up until about a week and a half ago. When I noticed last night she was keeping her head elevated and had a little bubble on the side of her mouth with some clicking! My heart sank as I new it was ri. I'm not sure if the move got her immune system down or the new environment. I have them in a 32 quart rack 91 on hot side and I will say the last few weeks it has been dipping down to 77 or so on the cool end my humidity has been around 40% but I'm spraying twice a day! I can't get her into the vet till next week, so my question is should I try and raise the humidity or leave it be until I get her to the vet! I feel like a bad parent, I can't believe I let this happen!

One of these days someone needs to reconcile all the contradictions regarding humidity and treating RIs.

Some people claim to much humidity causes it.

Some people claim raising it can help treat it.

But before that, someone needs to explain the difference between ambient/atmospheric humidity and wetting the enclosure.

FWIW, humidity levels of 40% won't cause an RI, nor will a cool side of 77 degrees.

Some come on all you forum warriors - help the OP out. Do you treat an RI with more humidity? Do you raise the humidity with more spritzing?

Along with the OP, I eagerly await the responses and hope we get a definitive answer.

My vet (SEAVS in Fairfax, VA) recommended raising both the temperature and the humidity a bit to help keep the mucous moist so the snake could expel it and breathe more easily while the antibiotics did their job. He compared it to when you are congested and take a long, hot, steamy shower - you feel better after it.

Thanks for the replies guys... Do you think she will be ok for 4-5 more days before the vet. I think I caught it early as she was acting completely fine a week and a half ago! I bumped the temps up ... I feel really bad for her having to constantly hold her head up!

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Originally Posted by bcr229

My vet (SEAVS in Fairfax, VA) recommended raising both the temperature and the humidity a bit to help keep the mucous moist so the snake could expel it and breathe more easily while the antibiotics did their job. He compared it to when you are congested and take a long, hot, steamy shower - you feel better after it.

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So how does he recommend raising humidity? Through a spritz with a water bottle?

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Originally Posted by jhotch

Thanks for the replies guys... Do you think she will be ok for 4-5 more days before the vet. I think I caught it early as she was acting completely fine a week and a half ago! I bumped the temps up ... I feel really bad for her having to constantly hold her head up!

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I'd take her to the vet as soon as possible.

In the meantime, spritzing doth not humidity make. Use a fogger, a nebulizer or a humidifier to create a humidity chamber and fog her for 45 minutes twice a day until you can see the vet. Use distilled water.

If there is a way to nebulize/fog her in her enclosure - so much the better. Eliminating the stress associated with moving her would be ideal.

The out put ports on nebulizers, humidifiers and foggers can be modified if necessary to accommodate a hose so that you can fog in a hide or in a tub. Sealing air holes helps hold the humidity in.

Otherwise, efforts to raise humidity by spraying or misting are fairly futile and can lead to other issues.

I also want to say, that based on what you've written it sounds like this has been an RI in the making long before you got the snake.
All I can say to you is best of luck, and I hope things clear up as soon as possible.

I've done a lot of reading the last couple days on wha to do when your ball python has an RI because I'm afraid my little pastel has one :(. General consensus is to raise humidity to ~60-65% and raise temps to 94 on the warm side and 86 on the cool side. It's a lot harder than you think to keep the temps exactly where you want them. She's going to the vet today... Wish me luck

Thanks everybody

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

I'd take her to the vet as soon as possible.

In the meantime, spritzing doth not humidity make. Use a fogger, a nebulizer or a humidifier to create a humidity chamber and fog her for 45 minutes twice a day until you can see the vet. Use distilled water.

If there is a way to nebulize/fog her in her enclosure - so much the better. Eliminating the stress associated with moving her would be ideal.

The out put ports on nebulizers, humidifiers and foggers can be modified if necessary to accommodate a hose so that you can fog in a hide or in a tub. Sealing air holes helps hold the humidity in.

Otherwise, efforts to raise humidity by spraying or misting are fairly futile and can lead to other issues.

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I have f-10 sc at home should I use this as well or strictly water?

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

So how does he recommend raising humidity? Through a spritz with a water bottle?

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He didn't say. I don't care much for excess spritzing as the snake usually ends up laying on cold damp substrate without a decent increase in humidity.

I use a separate enclosure for QT, it has both a RHP and UTH. The UTH is large enough not only for the large hide used by my adult BP's, but also for a 9"x9" pyrex baking dish. I put that filled with water on the heat, another wide flat water bowl on the other side, and two hides into it. It was a bit cramped but it did keep humidity around 70% with minimal misting on the sides of the enclosure so the paper didn't end up wet.

My little BP did recover quickly too.

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Originally Posted by jhotch

I have f-10 sc at home should I use this as well or strictly water?

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http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-My-Experience

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-My-Experience

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Awesome, thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it.

I just wanted to give you guys an update. I finally got her to the vet saturday after he was out of town for all of last week! He said that she is looking good, as of right now he doesn't want to do any injections and said there might be a little excess mucus but nothing significant, he didn't hear any clicking or wheezing and also said her strength was good. I wanted to thank you guys for the help especially skiploder. When I noticed the bubbles and wheezing last fri the 28th after posting this thread I changed her substrate from aspen to paper towels. I then bumped her hot spot from 90 to 93 and ambient temps up to 83-84. I disenfected her tub every other day and used the fogger with f-10 for 20 min every day. The first 4 days she continuously had her head elevated and still had a few bubbles on the side of her mouth but was slowly improving, I noticed fri the 4th she was coiled in a regular position and her head was laying flat like normal. She doesn't have clicking any more and hopefully she will continue to get better. So thanks again!