Help - My BP is squeaking like a mouse

[lvg4him]

So for about two months now, our BP has been wheezing off and on. We took her into the reptile store where the guy who cares for all the sick snakes was working (he is rarely in, so it was so good he was in). He said that it didn't look like a respiratory infection (there were no other signs of difficulty). To turn up the temp to 90 for a week and she should be fine.

Well tonight, she has started squeaking like a mouse. And it is LOUD - I can hear it in the other room! It is happening every 3-10 minutes.

Her last shed was three weeks ago. The temp is 90. Don't have a way to measure humidity, but we live in a very dry climate and spray often. We also give her a bath every so often (last bath was three weeks ago).

The reptile center doesn't open until 9 tomorrow. I don't want to lose her. She is THE best pet ever!

Thank you for any help.

[Eric Alan]

I wouldn't be bringing her to a reptile store. If I were you, I'd be bringing her to a vet.

[albinos_rule]

Inspect closely around the nostrils, and make sure there is no shed left over from her last shed. I suspect that is probably what it is

[bcr229]

I would also check for stuck shed first, as well as bubbles, mucous in her mouth, etc. Also put your hand under her neck, hold her gently, and see if you can feel any congestion - it's like holding a hose with air and water burbling through it. If this has been going on for two months off/on, the time to take her to the vet was likely weeks ago.

The problem with constantly spraying is you often make her enclosure sopping wet briefly, without really increasing the humidity long-term. I would also make a humid hide for her. Get a plastic food storage container with lid that is large enough to hold her, cut an access hole in the lid, and put some damp spaghnum moss or coco-husk in it.

[lvg4him]

I would also check for stuck shed first, as well as bubbles, mucous in her mouth, etc. Also put your hand under her neck, hold her gently, and see if you can feel any congestion - it's like holding a hose with air and water burbling through it. If this has been going on for two months off/on, the time to take her to the vet was likely weeks ago.

When we took her in, the guy did that (holding her hand under the neck) and held her like that for about 30 minutes waiting for that congestive feeling. He also looked for bubbles and mucous. Sadly, we don't have the money to goto the vet with my hypochondriac mind, so the pet store said we could come in and check with them first before taking her in and they would let us know if she needs to go to the vet for sure or not. Thing is, the wheezing (not the squeaking like a mouse) that has been going on for two months, she is not showing any other signs of anything else. She is eating fine, no mucous, no bubbles, no tongue sticking together. No congestion feeling when we hold under her neck. The squeaking is new. And it was just last night. She is not doing it today. And we held her and she is acting fine. It is so weird.

I appreciate the advice on the humidity hide. I will get on that today. We had something when she was little, but took it out as she got bigger. I need to get something new again.

Thanks again to everyone who replied. I really appreciate it.

[bcr229]

By chance does she have either the black pastel or cinnamon morphs in her? Some of them "squeak", I think it's related to the gene that causes duck-billing and kinking in the super forms.

[Mr. Misha]

Not sure if this is any help, but if it's not a RI, it could be a physical "defect". I had my Normal girl for about two years and she started squeaking a couple of month after I got her. She's a healthy girl with no RI or any other issues but she does sqeak from time to time especially when being handled. Someone on this forum joked once that she has asthma... lol.

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[Running Elk]

My super cinnamon makes an odd noise from time to time when breathing. He doesn't really have a duck bill, he's a good example of a super cinnamon, but occasionally he makes a small noise that my other snakes don't.

So I second the questions about cinnamon/black pastel -- does your posses those genes?