I suspect my ball has an RI. He is around 3yrs old. He is showing some symptoms but not all so I think it is pretty early. My herp vet is CLOSED because of the whole covid-19 thing and there is no info on when they will re open. I live in a small town and all of the other vets in my area are family pet cat/dog places that do not treat snakes. I may be able to get him in there on an emergency basis if I push.


Anyways, he has been making the popping wheezing noises and occasionally opening his mouth but no excess saliva or bubbles. I have checked his mouth a couple times and it looks nice and healthy, again no visible bubbles or excess saliva. Besides the wheezing and occasional mouth opening he is behaving normally. He is active, eating, properly shed, shiny scaled and bright eyed. Lots of tongue flicks. Last time I had him out he was sitting on my stomach, opened his mouth real wide and made a pretty forceful exhale that almost mimicked a sneeze which was pretty weird. His normal husbandry is 50-60% humidity 65% after misting. Ambient temps 75-85 with a warmer area for basking and sleeping if he chooses. Since he has shown symptoms I have sanitized everything and bumped up both so his temps are around 85-95 and his humidity 65-75%. I have read conflicting opinions on raising or lowering the humidity but I believe the cause of the RI was lower humidity, it gets really low around here in winter. So that is why I raised it. It seems to be helping, he is still making noises but not opening his mouth as much. Minimal 'star gazing' but he is a periscope as it is so that is pretty normal for him.


My question is, although usually I would just take him just to be sure, with the only herp vet around closed and no severe symptoms (bubbles and saliva) will the temp and humidity adjustments be enough to either help him fight it off himself or keep him comfortable and not advancing until the vet re opens? Is there anything else I should be doing? I have read about the f10 treatments and also the vicks. I am hesitant about both but especially the ladder.


Also he got sausage butt about two weeks ago. Hadn't pooped and was full of gas. Warm water and a light massage and he blew out the longest fart I've ever seen and a big poop right after. I figured it was a bad rat, but have since read some accounts of the open mouth breathing causing them to swallow air and get gas... So maybe its related? He has pooped since and it has not happened again.


Sorry for the long post! I haven't posted here before and have only lurked.