I've had my BP for nearly a year now, and until tonight she has been doing pretty well. She pooped last night and I got that cleaned up and she was acting normal then. Tonight I noticed she was roaming around her enclosure (very unusual for her unless she has pooped); so I opened her enclosure to discover she had pooped again. I let her roam around on the floor while I spot cleaned. She was acting normal and curious, but then I noticed her nostrils were red and her tongue too. This immediately worried me so I took a look in her mouth. The roof of her mouth had blood on it, but I couldn't find an injury. She gets really squirmy when I have to check her mouth, and since I needed to take a closer look with a flashlight I called my husband into the room to help me with her. It didn't take him any longer than 30 seconds to come in there. By the time we looked again all the blood was gone and her nostrils were back to normal. I'm a clean freak when it comes to my snakes so I always use disposable syringes (the 1ml that don't have a needle) to check there mouths. The only proof I had that she actually was bleeding was the tiny amount that was in the syringe. So I'm wondering if maybe this is mouth rot? Won't be able to ask my vet until Monday, and you guys have always helped calm me down when my babies get sick, so I figured I would ask here before I panicked.

The second thing is, if she does have mouth rot then I wonder if it's not her temps being wrong. She has heat tape set to 90f and it stays right around that whenever I've checked it with a temp gun. Now my house stays pretty chilly so I also have a CHE hooked up on a thermostat to keep her ambient temps up. Her cool side ambient temp is 79-80f, warm side is 85-86f. On ambient temps, should you keep the warm side closer to 90f? I know she needs a basking spot(which is what I use the heat tape for), but surface temps and ambient temps are different. I just don't understand ambient temps on the warm side. What if I switched to a RPH, then what should the ambient be on the warm side be if I switched to an enclosure I couldn't use heat tape with anymore? Sorry, ambient temps just confuse me on the warm side.


Same thing goes for my boa imperator, she NEVER uses her heat tape but she will hang out on the warm side sometimes. I feel like when I take her out she is never warm, but always cool because she refuses to use the heat tape. Do I use the thermometer to make sure ambient temps are okay and then just make sure she has a spot that has surface temp of 90ish with the temp gun and do the same for my BP?
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Thank you all in advance. Can't tell you how awesome it is to be able to come here when it's 2am and I need some answers before my vet is available. You guys are great!