A cautionary tale

[Kinra]

It appears that most life lesson I learn have to be learned the hard way. I am going to tell you a cautionary tale that may or may not have a happy ending.

At the end of July I picked up a big beautiful bee female from someone on craigslist. I got it knowing it had mites, that wasn't a problem for me having tangled with mites before. I treated her for mites and pretty much left her alone. At one point I thought she might have had the start of a RI. During this period I was 2 hours away from my reptiles during the week and couldn't check on her often. At the end of September I moved back to WI and once everyone got settled in, I realized that I was correct and the bee had the start of an RI.

After giving her a once over I decided that it wasn't too bad. She was in a tank before I moved back and I though being in a tub with temps that were better regulated it might go away. My vet had told me previously that sometimes snakes get very minor RIs that most keepers don't notice and they cure up on their own. During this whole time she ate regularly and generally seemed fine. Last night I felt compelled to check on her again. I pulled her lip down on the side and saw that it looked like she had some gooey saliva in her mouth (I wouldn't go so far as to call it mucus). Today I called the vet to schedule an appointment and they were able to get me in about an hour after I called. I left work early and went home to pack her up.

Once we had reached the vet I unboxed her in the exam room. She started acting much worse than I had seen in the past. She was open mouth breathing and for lack of a better word coughing. I am fully convinced that a snake coughing is the most horrible sight I have ever seen. Her head went right up, her mouth opened and she looked like she had a seizure while admitting a sound that can only be described as the sound of death.

I honestly thought my snake had up and died right there in front of me. The vet tech came in before she did it again and was able to see what was happening. It happened a few more times before the vet came in. She was choking to death on mucus. For about 30 minutes she and the vet went through the cycle of he would clean the mucus from her glottis and she would cough up more. She was unable to get a good breath in during this time. Once she stopped the cycle of coughing the vet stuck a small tube down her glottis and gave her a few good breaths with an air bag. After that she just laid there and didn't move but she was breathing. Even with us moving around her she didn't react unless touched and even then it wasn't much of a reaction.

Her prognosis isn't good. She has some bacteria in the mucus she is spitting up but that doesn't mean it isn't a viral infection. The vet gave me three options, 1.) treat it as a bacterial infection 2.) take a tissue sample and send it out for analysis that wouldn't test for all possible viral causes 3.) put her down and do a necropsy to ascertain the risk she poses to the other snakes in my apartment. I ultimately decided on option 1 because the tissue sample testing was costly and could take up to a month to get results. I didn't consider option 3 because I feel she deserves a fighting chance regardless of the risks she poses to everyone else, it is my fault it progressed this far and I need to at least try to save her.

She was put on a combination of medications and I have a follow-up appointment scheduled in a two weeks. My vet said she is either going to improve or pass away within the next two weeks (also why we didn't do option 2). I am hopeful she will improve. While she looked half dead as we were leaving the vet but she seems a little better now and is more active. If she passes before her next appointment I will have a necropsy done to determine the risk of anyone else getting sick. None of my other animals appear sick but as I learned from this you can never be too sure.

The lesson to learn here is don't take a chance, if something appears even slightly wrong it's time to see a vet because it's probably worse than you think it is. My mistake might cost this girl her life and I feel horrible about that.

[GenePirate]

Reptiles hide the extent of their illnesses very well. But, don't beat yourself up. You did the right thing by seeking treatment. Keep her medicated and warm in a humid environment, and the rest is up to her. Expect that she'll take quite some time to get better if she goes in that direction. If I read correctly, her RI started with her previous owner, so it's not your error. Please let us know how she does.

[Kinra]

Reptiles hide the extent of their illnesses very well. But, don't beat yourself up. You did the right thing by seeking treatment. Keep her medicated and warm in a humid environment, and the rest is up to her. Expect that she'll take quite some time to get better if she goes in that direction. If I read correctly, her RI started with her previous owner, so it's not your error. Please let us know how she does.

Her RI did start with her previous owner if my observations were correct. The move half way across country might have made it worse but it never seemed too bad and she continued to eat which is why I didn't worry. I am beating myself up because I noticed the signs of a RI 4 months ago when I got her and if I had done something about it instead of hoping that a proper environment would make her better, it never would have gotten as bad as it was yesterday.

This morning she seemed that same as last night, which when compared to how she was at the vet is significantly better. I wish I had taken out my phone to video how she was when she was coughing so others could see. I jumped and cringed every time she did and I kept fearing that was the end for her.

I honestly think the biggest danger for her right now is if she decided to try to cough up more mucus. If she does it while I am home I should be able to either get her to the vet or clear what she coughs up away like the vet did.

[DooLittle]

Poor baby. Hope she pulls through for you! Keep us posted.

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[gsarchie]

Good luck with everything and I hope to see a post in a couple of weeks with how well she is doing!

[Kinra]

I think she's already starting to feel a little better already. I've been checking on her constantly because I've been terrified that she was going to start coughing again.

This is how I found her this morning:


I don't think she knows she's supposed to be sick and sitting on the heat tape and not wrapped around the water bowl on the cool side. I'm guessing it's behavoir like this that made treating the RI with heat impossible.

She's had one dose of meds so far. She's on two meds, one oral (Azithromycin) and one injectable (Ceftazidime). Both are supposed to be given every 3 days, so I get to medicate her again tomorrow.

[mechnut450]

man good luck with her shame such a beautiful snakes got sick. MY fiance (4thesnakelady) hada guy bring in a snake ( bee and it wa sick too ) it died and he acted like it was no big deal. I know if i see this kid I bee slapping him ( ncis gibbs to tony ) style several times . lol I hope your girl pulls though.
I wish I could find morphs in my state n craigslist lol.. mostly I am finding now is normals aand the people want morph prices for them.

[Flikky]

Poor bee I wish her well! Hope she gets better soon

[Kinra]

I am sad to report that this morning as I was going to give her the meds I found her dead.

It looks like she had another coughing fit in the middle of the night and choked to death. There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently with this whole situation. I wish I had taken her to the vet sooner, I wish I had been sleeping on the couch last night... but most of all I wish she had pulled through. She was a beautiful snake and it's going to take me a while to accept that I essentially killed her.

I will be taking her body in for a necropsy soon. I am praying that whatever she had isn't something that can be spread through the air and infect the rest of my collection.

[DooLittle]

I'm sorry.

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