Possible inclusion body disease?

Okay, so I adopted an adult male ball python on Saturday. I am keeping him in a 50something quart sterilite tote. The first few days he was very mellow, and acting normal. He was in shed when I brought him home (eyes foggy.) Two days ago I switched to cypress mulch to raise humidity for aide in shed, and put a piece of cork bark for him to rub on. Early yesterday morning, I found that he was almost all shed (it was a bad one.) So I took him out and cleaned up his cage (he also defected which is why I changed it.) In this time he was on my shoulders while I was tiding up his cage. I switched his substrate back to paper towel. He was a little antsy then. I go to put him back in his tote and close it, and he begins to throw himself at the walls, and twitch his middle body slightly. He was doing this all yesterday and was trying to squeeze his neck/middle body out of he tote. It seemed like he was agitated with anything touching his middle body and make a big jerking motion, but it seemed like he was trying to frantically get out. Now mind you, he was in this same tote four days in a row. Temperatures and humidity have been good, I have been monitoring them entire time I have had him. I use an ultratherm heating mat controlled with a thermostat. So yesterday I thought he may be hungry because he may have spotted my guinea pig when I had him out. I attempted feeding him yesterday to no avail. He completely ignored it and was trying to escape the feeding tote. The weird thing is, he is acting calm this morning... But his movements yesterday were plain unnatural. He did have some slight scabbing on this middle back from an injury of unknown origin. I assume if it isn IBD it has something to do neurologically because of the minor wound? (Which looks non existent because of his shed now.) He was trying so bad that I had to duct tape his lid down. I will upload a video of it when I have wifi access. I thought it may be due to stress, but the movements do not match to that. I would let him roam in my bathroom if for some reason he was antsy, but I do not want to take the chance of him having IBD and it spreading to my other pythons ..

http://s1173.photobucket.com/user/Ho...mdyyh.mp4.html

http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...ps7i2mdyyh.mp4
Please let me know if they work !
http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...ps7i2mdyyh.mp4

http://vid1173.photobucket.com/album...psc1heg4tx.mp4

Sorry posted the other one twice. This is the second video. Please watch all the way through. He twitches/rolls multiple times in this one.

Not IBD. He's trying to escape the tub and the paper towels he's on keeps shifting/sliding around on the bottom, which is making him look uncoordinated.

My guess is he wants somewhere to hide, and that big cardboard box isn't doing it for him. It's too large and lightweight for him to get under it and feel secure.

I had just put the box in to see if he was stressing out and wanted to hide. I haven't found anything big enough in my area for him to use. I tested it out before and I could barely fit his body in the box (it was very snug). But before the hide, he wasn't trying so hard to "escape". I mean in some instances it seems like he is trying to escape, but others it looks like he is attempting to press his body on something to relieve pressure or something. The way he moves his neck/head in the second one is also odd... He oddly flicks his body when touched as well.

Is there anything to create a makeshift hide? I usually use the black plastic hides but none were big enough at the reptile stores I have been to. He is a big boy. I have not gotten a weight on him yet, but everyone kept thinking it was a female (is male though; popped and probed.)

If you have a dollar store or a walmart near, you can pick up a cheap big mixing bowl, flip it upside down and cut a hole in one side, large enough for him to crawl through. I'd suggest sanding the edge to take off rough edges. Ran me about $2 for the bowl.

I've also heard of people using small cat liter boxes, i used an empty margarine container for one of my other ball pythons.
Edited to add; I'll get a pic of my 'hide' when I get home to show you what I did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you think that would be heavy enough for him? He keeps flipping around everything in his cage when he spasms.

What do you use to clean his tub? I saw already some products also can make similar symptoms, neurological issues or irritation.

I washed it with unscented dawn. Now that I am thinking of it, I may have dried him off with a towel that may have been dried with dryer sheets??? But he didn't start acting oddly when I put him back into his tote the day after (and he shed the skin that I dried the night before basically).

That looks like the standard BP behaviour called "wrecking the place" :cool:

Is there any solution that I can use that can safely remove the possible chemical? (Soak in water...?) again he had a minor injury on his back. He has calmed down today but when I attempt to pick him up or touch him, he jerks away. Or when I run my hand on him he lifts up his body. Also, when I attempt to pick him up he barrel roles/twitches. His neck is almost in a constant s shape as well, not sure if he is doing if defensively or if something is wrong with his nerves.

Have you tried the exo terra extra large hide? It's pretty dang big. And very heavy so it will be difficult for him to move around. Read some of the reviews in this one to see what snakes are fitting into this thing lol :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002A...041641-2413449

Or maybe even one of the larger reptile basics hides. They have large, extra large, and jumbo and have the measurements for each hide. He has to fit into one of these things.
http://www.reptilebasics.com/hide-boxes

I hope this is helpful [emoji4]

Honestly, I think you're way over-thinking things. The members that seemingly have more experience with BPs on this thread aren't worried about what they've seen on the videos (and trust me - they would say so if they felt they needed to).

IMO, it looks like a ball python searching for a place to get comfortable (or, as the good doctor said - "wrecking the place"). They like snug, dark spaces to squeeze themselves into and an open glass aquarium with a big cardboard box for a hide just isn't doing it for him. I think that if you take an honest look at your husbandry (check out the glass aquarium set-up thread in my signature below) and make a few changes to his set-up, you'll see his behavior change and you can start to shift from over-protective parent mode into calm-cool-collected snake owner mode. :)

Have you used that bin to house another snake? It reminds me of when you put two snakes together that don't want to be together. I had a customer who had a male that was "freaking out" very similar to yours. He thought it was from moving the snake from another bin and it wasn't happy. After driving himself a bit crazy he realized that another male had been previously housed in that bin. He did a real good cleaning, lid and everything. The snake was fine after that and he figured it was the scent of the other male. Just throwing it out there.

Thank you all for the replies! I looked at the previous link for x large hide box but they were sold out, will be ordering from lllreptile. I will also be cleaning out his tote again. (Although it was a brand new tote, and brand new substrate bowls/etc.. I
In ever know.)
what would be a safer alternative to clean his tote with? Vinegar water mixture, would there be anything else?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jovein

what would be a safer alternative to clean his tote with? Vinegar water mixture, would there be anything else?

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I use either F10 or Chlorhexidine, depending on what's in stock when I order. I also wipe the hides and enclosures down with Healthy Habitat, when they need a fresher smell. I get most of my stuff from Reptile Basics, but there are other vendors who sell it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jovein

I washed it with unscented dawn. Now that I am thinking of it, I may have dried him off with a towel that may have been dried with dryer sheets??? But he didn't start acting oddly when I put him back into his tote the day after (and he shed the skin that I dried the night before basically).

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jovein

Thank you all for the replies! I looked at the previous link for x large hide box but they were sold out, will be ordering from lllreptile. I will also be cleaning out his tote again. (Although it was a brand new tote, and brand new substrate bowls/etc.. I
In ever know.)
what would be a safer alternative to clean his tote with? Vinegar water mixture, would there be anything else?

---

I'm glad the links were helpful :) I think once he gets a nice snug comfortable place to hide he will settle in. Also there's nothing wrong with what your cleaning with. I've been scrubbing down tubs and enclosures with the apple scented dawn for years without any issue. I even wipe my snakes down with it when they are messy from smearing their poo around lol. The dawn and the towels are totally fine and aren't causing your snake to act the way he is, so don't worry about that :)

Also definitely follow the link that Eric mentioned I'll post it here too if it's easier for you. It takes you step by step on how to set up a glass tank, tells you what you need and where to go to get it a really really good sticky :)

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-With-Pictures!