My ball python is showing early symptoms of a respiratory infection - clicking/popping noises when breathing, taking some open mouth breaths/yawning, but I haven't seen any mucus coming from the nose or mouth. I'm not exactly sure of the cause, my best guess it improper humidity, but I"m not 100% sure. The lowest the humidity gets is 40%, but I mist the cage twice a day and keep a damp towel over 3/4 of the enclosure, and that raises humidity to 50-60 (it's a glass enclosure with a screen top). I'm planning to try a week's worth of treatments using the reptifogger-F10 treatment and see if that will improve symptoms, but there is also an exotic pet vet 40 minutes from me that I'm planning to take her to if signs don't improve.

I'm wondering how I should modify her enclosure to better help her while she has this respiratory infection. To add to the complexity, she also just starting getting cloudy eyes indicating a shed within the next week. What should I do? I've read that for RI to simplify the enclosure to make it easier to clean daily (take out the substrate and use paper towels/newspaper as bedding while she is sick, take out everything except two hides and a water dish). Should I replace her bedding and water daily then? Disinfect her hides daily as well? Will raising humidity to help her shed process be okay if she has an RI, too?

Also, I don't have a temperature-controlled UTH - only a day/night heat lamp. I've read good and bad things about both heat sources - UTHs are better for underbelly heat to help digestion, but then I've also read that doesn't really matter and a heat lamp will do fine. What do you think? I've thought about switching to a UTH, as I think if humidity is the issue, a heat lamp is drying out the enclosure more than a UTH would. Where can I purchase a reputable temperature-controlled UTH? My local pet store only has the stick-on ZooMed ones that are not temp-controlled.

This is my first time dealing with RI in a snake, and I feel really bad and hope I can do my best to help to help her before it gets too serious. My reptifogger will be here tomorrow - should I try this treatment for a few days and if there's no improvement, go to the vet? Or should I make a vet appointment right away, and make sure they do a culture to identify what kind of RI it is? Thanks in advance.