HELP! pink belly on my new bp

Hey guys,
New BP owner here..

Just got Max about a week ago..
took him to the vet on Monday because he had some louder breather.. he sounded strained.
She gave him an antibiotic for the beginning of a URI..
but now 3 days later, his whole belly is pink.. very pink.

any ideas?
possibly time to shed? or bacterial infection getting worse??

Could be time to shed, my bp's belly turns a light pink before it sheds


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Thanks! That's what I figured.. I scheduled him another appointment just in case. (:

Did the vet test for an RI or just prescribe antibiotics? Did you have mucus coming from the snake?

Sometimes when a snake is getting ready to shed they will start having clicks, pops, or irregular breathing sounds caused by their loosening skin. I'm not saying that's what this is but it does happen.

Your snake will have a pink belly, then the skin will become cloudy which is the "blue" phase, then the skin and eyes will clear up and a few days later it will shed. At the first signs of a shed its usually important to bump up the humidity.

Okay, then my other BP must be in the blue phase now.. her belly is barely pink but her eyes are very milky and her color is extremely dull.

When I took the older one to the vet, she listened for respiratory issues and examined him.. if there's another test for respiratory infection, I'm unaware of it.. so let me know if that is something that could be done as well.. she have him one dose of antibiotic on Monday and told me to come back in within 72 hours for a second dose.. she said she thought he had the beginning of a URI. I called this morning and added his pink belly to be examined during the visit today too.

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Originally Posted by srking1993

Okay, then my other BP must be in the blue phase now.. her belly is barely pink but her eyes are very milky and her color is extremely dull.

When I took the older one to the vet, she listened for respiratory issues and examined him.. if there's another test for respiratory infection, I'm unaware of it.. so let me know if that is something that could be done as well.. she have him one dose of antibiotic on Monday and told me to come back in within 72 hours for a second dose.. she said she thought he had the beginning of a URI. I called this morning and added his pink belly to be examined during the visit today too.

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As has already been stated, snakes make some raspy noises.

Some are natural noises they make when they are stressed - some come with being in shed. Since the noise coincides with your snake's imminent shed, there is a good chance that (in the absence of any other symptoms) there is nothing wrong with your snake.

What a QUALIFIED reptile vet does is observe the animal and look for signs like mucous, odd head positions, a recent history of food refusals, etc. to confirm the presence of a URI. Unless the odd breathing sounds are constant, they likely may mean nothing.

Once additional symptoms are observed, the vet then takes a bacterial culture - either from a tracheal wash or a swab. This is so that they can pinpoint the bacteria involved and what is susceptible to. Without it, the vet is guessing at the efficacy of the antibiotic. In the world of increasing antibiotic resistance, it is imperative to treat bacterial infections correctly - and on the first try.

Secondly, not all RIs are bacterial in nature. Some may be secondary opportunistic infections to another underlying disease.

So, again - if your vet heard a constant breathing irregularity and did not take a culture - then she did not do her job. On the same token, if your vet heard only an occasional crackle or wheeze during direct examination with no other symptoms and did not take a culture and then sent you home with an antibiotic regimen, well, then I'd find another vet.

Find a new vet... And do a little bit of self research! These are very common, and not irregular things, that under all basic research for animal you will learn! its good you did take to vet adnd o care, but alot could be avoided with simple searching!

Aswell i hate to ask but is your heat source regulated ​by a thermostat?

the heat source is not regulated by a thermostat.. I have a thermostat in the tank, but an infrared bulb above one end of the tank creating a temp gradient throughout the tank.

...why do you ask?
.

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Originally Posted by srking1993

the heat source is not regulated by a thermostat.. I have a thermostat in the tank, but an infrared bulb above one end of the tank creating a temp gradient throughout the tank.

...why do you ask?
.

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Is the bulb your only heat source?

yes, the vet and the reptile store we purchased him from said that a warm side of about 90/95 degrees and a cool side of about 80 degrees was necessary but not to use heat rocks or under tank heat mats for risk of burning him.. and humidity of about 50-60% normally and increased when during shed..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by srking1993

yes, the vet and the reptile store we purchased him from said that a warm side of about 90/95 degrees and a cool side of about 80 degrees was necessary but not to use heat rocks or under tank heat mats for risk of burning him.. and humidity of about 50-60% normally and increased when during shed..

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Okay...good luck with him. :)

would you recommend a different heat source? or possibly more than just the one bulb?

i'm still learning here.. I'd love all the advice I can get.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by srking1993

would you recommend a different heat source? or possibly more than just the one bulb?

i'm still learning here.. I'd love all the advice I can get.

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It depends on your setup and where he's housed. I prefer belly heat, either an Under Tank Heater (UTH) or heat tape like flexwatt, connected to a good thermostat. That, along with keeping the ambient room temp warm, maintains a good heat gradient. But that's in a spare room dedicated to my snakes. I prefer belly heat to other heat sources as it's supposed to aid in digestion.

Using tanks can make it difficult to maintain proper heat and humidity levels. Humidity levels are especially difficult to maintain when using a bulb as a heat source as it tends to dry out the air. The dry winter months compound it even more. That can lead to bad sheds and increased risk of respiratory infections.

Do you have a IR temp gun? If not, what are you using? Using a probe thermometer or a stick on thermometer will not give an accurate temp of the hotspot from the lamp. If your only monitoring the ambient temps and your hot side is in the nineties I would bet your hotspot is over 100.

Like Sho said most of us here use a uth with a proper tstat. Using this method you can have a hotspot of 88-90 and keep the ambient temps at 78-80. The less heat you need to provide with a bulb the less humidity you kill.

Well i asked because unregulated hot spots leads to The BAD kind of pink belly! (burn)

As KMG said, with those lil dinky thermometers they are never super accurate, be good to get a IR temp gun, aswell as a bulb without a thermostat itself can overheat with unregulated temp because it does not take in consideration of your room temp.

My youngest just shed. (:http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/08/e7ytyjat.jpg

Is this the one you took to the vet?

If sounds and a pink belly were the only thing that worried you the vet most likely made you pay to treat it for an RI when it was unnecessary. Pink belly is a sign of shedding which is normal and some sounds can be mDe that are unrelated to an RI. If there weren't any bubbles or mucus showing IMO the vet got you to pay for some unneeded treatment.

I agree I think the vet charged you for unnecessary medicine!!!

Always try to call vet ask for a Refund, sometimes they will.


I Took in my one hedge hog who had symptoms of cancer, and i told them this and he was like a dead fish and cold, i asked to put him down (50$) he says NO NO NO this is just a lung infection, we can treat it blah blah blah, He then gave me 3 options

1) Cheap- Have medicin to treat (150$)
2) inexpensive- Get medacine, Take x-Rays and Hydrate by injection or w.e ($439)
3) Expensive- MEdacine, Xray,Hydrate,Stay over night, ($700)


Well i do love animals so i said shoot, lets go for #2 maybe ill stop his suffering and help him recover So they did all this said yup after a week of meds hell be fine, They gave him first med (syringe into mouth, sure its easy when hes half dead and not balling up, I couldn't imagine doing if he was healthy and feisty) end restult is i got him home, put a old sneka heating bad, under his cage with a rehostat to keep at a toasty 85, within 3 hours of being home he passed away, Now im out 400$ for something I knew was pointless to do but i did it because the vet sales pitched it pretty much and trying to guilt me by saying "you really wanna put him down without giving him time to fight"..... Well next day i busted in the door and let him know. For trying to make me feel "bad" but end result he gave me a full refund, on everything but the medicine!

Sadly many vets now, are there for Profit and not health of animals. Under closer observation of the xray i wasnt able to see at first you could see the cancerous tumor between his stomach/spine....

If you have your snakes in tanks this is my personal experience with it.
Using lamps was great for heat and decreasing risk of burns, but it caused a lot of bad sheds (I lived in ME/NH at the time so humidity was already an issue) because it made the tanks significantly more dry than I wanted.
It was recommended to me to switch to belly heat, heat pads were recommended, but the man at the shop that suggested this to me neglected to mention the importance of using a thermostat when using heat pads. Long story short, I have a snake with burn scars on much of her body (even following all the instructions on the heat pad).
Your best bet, **find a thermostat** (I even used dimmer plugs to regulate the heat until I bought my racks - anything to keep the temp regulated), buy a temp gun (very cheap, easy to find), and use under-belly heat for them.

Also, as many people have suggested, you probably want to seek a new vet. Giving antibiotics without being positive that there is a bacterial infection (and what TYPE of bacteria!) puts your snake at risk for a lot of things, including adverse reactions to the antibiotic administration (some snakes develop abscesses) and also resistant strains of bacteria that weren't a problem beforehand. I know starting out I also was worried about whistles and heavy sighs when my snakes were going into shed, but you'll learn quickly that it's not uncommon! And pink belly (unless the substrate has been wet for a long time) is going to become your #1 sign for the beginning of a shed!

Good luck!