My BP whistles

[vjb]

New vet, definitely. REAL herp vets have probably been bitten hundreds of times and most likely by species far more aggressive and dangerous than Ball Pythons. Or they at least know how to approach a snake in the best way. That guy may be a wonderful vet for many other kinds of animals, but he is clearly not good with snakes.

I couldn't agree more. I was like midway into the appointment.

[vjb]

I thought I'd post an update. I went to a new vet today for retained eyecaps and the whistling sound which has gotten better since I started this thread.

On the way I was wondering whether he associated the container with the last trip to the vet and he struck at me as I took the top off of the container so I guess I have my answer.

I grabbed him up and he was fine but obviously nervous.
Kind of like when you take tour car to the shop because its making "a noise" and then it doesn't once you get there, my BP didn't make a peep as far as the whistling.

He didn't want to vet to look in his mouth but once he did everything looked fine. The diagnosis from the vet was that my guy was a little dehydrated (I'm sure from the previous owner/conditions.

He also said he looked a little heavy since the vet could see some skin between the scales so he recommended I stop feeding weekly and go to every other week feeding schedule. He's about 2 years old, male and 1588 grams. About 3.5 feet in length. Does this sound overweight for the size/age?

Another issue was that he hasn't passed a stool in the past month since I've had him. Well that was solved when the BP went all over floor and partially on the vet . He passed a couple pieces of hard white urine and some regular stool, so we got a stool sample for testing.

The vet suggested I wait until after the next shed reference the eyecaps.
He also suggested a humid hide so once I returned him to his enclosure at home, off I went and got that accomplished. I put the humid hide (a large inverted Tupperware type bowl with another small container of sphagnum moss inside) in place of the cool hide.

Any thoughts/suggestions/tips would be appreciated. Thanks in advance and my wishes for a Happy New Year to everyone here.

[vjb]

Bump for the update.
I was hoping to get some thoughts/advice from the knowledgeable people here on this.

[vjb]

Nobody?

[dr del]

Hi,

That weight doesn't sound too bad to me - and I would be more inclined to keep the feeding schedule the same and just use a slightly smaller prey size.

What is he eating at present?

I would also put the cool side hide back in - humid hides are best used as well as the regular hides not in place of.


dr del

[vjb]

Thanks. I'm using small rats from a local shop and have been feeding him one per week.
I will not go to one every other week like the vet suggested. That's just too much of a switch, maybe every 9 days and see how he does.
I did put the cool hide in and replaced the warm hide with the humid hide.
Now he's in the cool hide all of the time.
Problem is he's so big that I cant fit all three hides in the enclosure, plus the water dish plus the log in a 30 long.

Hi,

That weight doesn't sound too bad to me - and I would be more inclined to keep the feeding schedule the same and just use a slightly smaller prey size.

What is he eating at present?

I would also put the cool side hide back in - humid hides are best used as well as the regular hides not in place of.


dr del

[piper]

If you have a scale, you should probably try and weigh your rats. Small rats to where you are purchasing them could be considered medium rats to others. Just a thought.

Check this out: http://www.rodentpro.com/catalog.asp?prod=2
Showing skin between the scales is a sign of being overweight. Do you have any pictures?

[dr del]

Hi,

Thanks. I'm using small rats from a local shop and have been feeding him one per week.
I will not go to one every other week like the vet suggested. That's just too much of a switch, maybe every 9 days and see how he does.
I did put the cool hide in and replaced the warm hide with the humid hide.
Now he's in the cool hide all of the time.
Problem is he's so big that I cant fit all three hides in the enclosure, plus the water dish plus the log in a 30 long.

The reason I suggested smaller prey was that it kept the same feeding schedule so was less disruption to the snakes eating pattern.

He won't notice if the rat is 45g instead of 55g but he will notice if it is 3 days late.

As to the space issue I would use a smaller water bowl and throw the log away - the hides are more important than the log and if the humid hide fixes the humidity issue then the waterbowl size becomes less relevant.


dr del