My BP whistles

[vjb]

I've done research before posting this but I thought I'd post here to see what you all thought.

First off, I have a 2 year old male who last ate a rat 4 days ago. I've only had him (he's my first) a couple weeks. Temps are 92 on the warm side, and 75 on the cool side. The Rh is 55% in a 30 long tank with a substrate of Exo-Terra Jungle Earth. He did a full shed about a week ago.

The problem is whenever I handle him a while, like 5 or ten minutes, he starts to whistle. Some might say wheezing. Its definitely not a hiss, its rhythmic. It seems like it was the loudest on either the inspiration or the exhalation, one or the other.

I know it sounds like an RI but I because it doesn't start until after hes been handled a while I wonder if it could be stress.

Today it seemed like he was stretching toward the floor while I was holding him. It was like he wanted to get down. Then I heard the whistling. When I put him back it seemed like he was eager to get back in his cage and pretty much went straight into his warm hide.

I've seen no bubbling or discharge from the mouth whatsoever.

His previous owners didn't handle him a lot and when I got him he hadn't eaten right and had a bad shed and was pretty dehydrated, so it was basically a rescue situation.

Oh yeah, I didn't see any shed left on the head anywhere. I've made an appointment with the Vet for Monday.

[Kaorte]

He could have a little piece of stuck shed in his nostril (that you can't see) and when he breathes heavily it starts to whistle.

Personally, I wouldn't associate it with an RI unless there was at least one other symptom other than whistling. That alone is not enough to diagnose it as an RI.

Chances are he is just fine but it wouldn't be a bad idea to swing by the vet and make sure everything is in order.

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm glad you made an appointment! It's not normal for them to whistle/wheeze. It might be a RI that you caught really early. You don't want it to get to the point your bp is bubbling. Good luck!

[vjb]

Thanks for the advice. I'll let the vet see whats going on with him Because of his history its probably best for him to get a check up anyway.

[Timebider]

When you get a snake in from this kind of background, it's always a good idea to take it to the vet for a once-over. I was given an adult BP a year ago by owners who said he was too "nippy." He came to me crammed into a filthy 10-gallon tank with inadequate heat and humidity. Soon after I got him into a proper set-up he started doing weird behaviors like side-lying. There were no other symptoms, but it was too strange so I took him to the vet just to be safe. Turned out the snake had been brewing a bacterial infection for some time before I got him. It had just begun to manifest as blister disease the morning he saw the vet. So, long story short, you just never know when you get a snake from poor circumstances, and it's best to catch problems early while they're (relatively) easy to treat. Good luck with your new friend!

[BPelizabeth]

You might want to bump up your cool side to like 82-83 range

[Big Gunns]

You might want to bump up your cool side to like 82-83 range

This is a good idea.

And unless you have a really talented BP, it's probably developing an RI. Although BG guesses it could be possible that it has some stuck shed in his nostril like someone said, BG highly doubts it.


PLEASE...PLEASE.... do some research on the Vet you are taking him to and make sure they're qualified. We don't want your snake worse off than when it started.

[MarkS]

I sometimes get whistling noises out of my nose too. It doesn't mean I have an RI. This usually happens when I'm breathing hard and it's quite dry. I'll get a piece of dried snot stuck in my nose narrowing the nasal passages and causing hard forceful breathing through my nose to make a whistling noise. Usually a good hot steamy shower or a session with the neti pot will take care of the problem for me. For your snake you might want to try raising the temperatures and the humidity. Try a plastic shoe box with a hole cut in the side, stuffed with damp sphagnum moss and placed on top of the heat source. Some nice warm humidity could do wonders for your snake.


Then again, maybe he just doesn't know the words to the song...

[vjb]

You might want to bump up your cool side to like 82-83 range

I need to get a second UTH and Thermostat ASAP. Thanks everyone for your responses. I'll post what I found out at the vet.

[vjb]

Well I had my vet appointment today.
I was surprised that he was hesitant to pick the snake up from its container. he asked me to do it since the snake wasn't used to him. Is this unusual? Again it was my first reptilian vet appointment.
He said the whistle was actually a hiss. I think if its a hiss its a rhythmic hiss that mimics a breathing pattern, but he's the doc, right?
He did check out his mouth (wow, pretty nasty-sharp set of teeth in there) and said no RI.
There are some retained eye caps but he said give it two weeks to come off on their own, otherwise he will remove them.
So I've bumped the humidity up to 75-80%