Whats up will my BP???

[firedoug]

The last week my 2 feet male is acting very odd. Started leaving head + 4" of neck sticking erect out of hide? He was due for a meal, so I fed him and he ate fine as always. Now for the last 2 days instead of his usual reclusive behavior of hiding all day he has been sitting in his bowl with his head and neck straight up in the air about 6" erect, and yawning every once in a while?

So today, 2 days after he ate I thought I would get him out and give him the once over. Normally when I take him out he is totally chill. As I approached he was a touch aggressive.... neck s and focused on my hand.... never his style..... he is always very shy curling up in withdraw as i give him touch on his back coils before picking him up.

So I take him out and he is mad dogging me? As I settle down in the chair to observe him he goes into a cobra stance mad dogging me and then yawns and half hisses half squeak out of his fully open mouth? So I put him back in his cage.

Any thoughts?

Doug

[steveboos]

Sounds like the guy is stressing out like crazy. All the symptoms you described ( yawning, defensive posture, weird behavior) all are showing me something recently is not making him too happy. Is he in a high traffic area or what are his living conditions and husbandry?

[dr del]

Hi,

Does he have a lot of bubbly mucus in his throat when he yawns. Does he make any sounds when he breathes. Are there any signs of mucus in his waterbowl or smeared on cage furniture?

What are you feeding him?

What are the temps in his enclosure?


dr del

[CoolioTiffany]

The last week my 2 feet male is acting very odd. Started leaving head + 4" of neck sticking erect out of hide? He was due for a meal, so I fed him and he ate fine as always. Now for the last 2 days instead of his usual reclusive behavior of hiding all day he has been sitting in his bowl with his head and neck straight up in the air about 6" erect, and yawning every once in a while?

So today, 2 days after he ate I thought I would get him out and give him the once over. Normally when I take him out he is totally chill. As I approached he was a touch aggressive.... neck s and focused on my hand.... never his style..... he is always very shy curling up in withdraw as i give him touch on his back coils before picking him up.

So I take him out and he is mad dogging me? As I settle down in the chair to observe him he goes into a cobra stance mad dogging me and then yawns and half hisses half squeak out of his fully open mouth? So I put him back in his cage.

Any thoughts?

Doug

By the things I bolded, there is some evidence that it could be a respiratory infection.

When a Ball python (or any snake) has RI it will stick its head straight up in the air to clear their nose and mouth of the mucus, so it goes straight down into their throat. Sometimes snakes will act aggressive when sick because they are stressed out.

What do you mean by mad dogging you? Normally, if they do that cobra stance, that would be called parascoping (sp?). Ball pythons do this to look around the area they are in. So if the snake's neck is straight up in the air but the head is looking straight forward, then that is most likely parascoping.

When a Ball python opens its mouth and yawns A LOT, that could also be a sign of RI. When the snake cannot breathe out of its nose, it will open up the mouth so it can breathe (open mouth breathing).

The half hiss and half squeek thing seems very odd. If I remember, I was watching a video of pythontricker's (I think) and his albino had a very severe case of RI and when it opened its mouth it made this hissing/squeeking noise.

So, to me, it CAN be an RI. I would definitely keep an eye out, this doesn't seem right. You may want to take him to a vet to get him checked out, this could be something extremely severe or it could be nothing.

To check if your Ball python has RI, check inside the mouth for any large or even small bubbles that may spot the entire mouth and throat. If so, try to get the saliva on the tip of your index finger and once you do press it against your thumb and slowly spread them apart. If you see a strand in between your fingers, that can most likely be mucus, which means your BP may have RI. Also check for open mouth breathing, wheezing, sneezing, oozing from mouth or nose, large bubbles in the mouth (that have a greenish tint to them), two ends of tongue stuck together, and clicking/popping noises when the snake exhales.

[Vypyrz]

The keeping the head elevated, excessive yawning, hissing/squeaking noises suggest a Respiratory Infection. Try to check for mucous or bubbles in the mouth and schedule a trip to the vet....

Have you done anything to the enclosure as far as changes?

[firedoug]

What great replys, you guys are awesome, thanks.

I took CoolioTiffany advise and did mouth exam. Boy that was fun... he really did not like that. So the mouth does not look excessively moist, I am no expert but there were no bubbles and noticeable level of muscus.... just looks damp. I used a plastic pin to hold his moth open during my observation and the pen shaft was totally dry when I went to examine the portion that I used to hold open his mouth.

The only thing that I could add that was odd is the last two rats he ate got coiled by him in his water dish during his ritual killing of his rewarmed frozen rat. So the rats were soaking wet when he ate them? Not sure if that is of any value.

The husbandry is pretty stable, other than we have had a week of rain here in SO CAL. Making RH higher than normal.... in the house the RH is 56% His enclosure RH was 65% hot side temp 95 ambient temp is 72. Heat is with two UTH on thermostat and rheostats. I decided to give his cage an extra cleaning tonight after my first post just to error on the side of safety. Cleaned everything in hot water and replaced bedding with fresh aspen.

I guess I will just watch him a little closer the next few days

[CRAZY]

As everyone else is has mentioned, its most likely an RI, which you should get checked out immediately. But also, the sitting in the water bowl makes me think hi might have mites. Any black dots around his mouth/eyes/ or butt? Those are easy to get rid of though.

[firedoug]

Okay took my BP in to Vet today. Doc agrees it is a RI. So gave him two injections in the office and sent me home with the gear to do it at home.

Doc prescription is 2 shots a day, 1 is Baytril and the other is vitamin c for 10 days, also wants me to increase the temps in the enclosure. While the Doc likes my setup of two UTH in my 40g. He advised not enough in winter to keep the heat up. So I added a singe lamp over hot side. He also wants the UTH turned up so the top of the substrate is @ 90 degrees, which means that the UTH is @ about 100 degree at my thermostat probe.

He snickered when I voiced my concern about the snake getting burned... He committed that in 20 years as a herp vet never treated a burnt snake but treated thousands of RI due to lack of proper heat.

So I guess lesson learned, I will now be erring on the side of upper temp limits for my BP.

I think my error was that I tend to keep my house to cool in the winter... 65 to 70 and the BP cage ambient was only 72. So I will likely be running a 3rd heat source in the winter, being a heat lamp or CHE

Godspeed to Heimlich for quick recovery!

[RichsBallPythons]

Since your giving meds you want your temps on the higher end of the gradient to help his immune system to work with the meds better.

Aim for a 84 cool side and 94 warm side wit hat 60-65% humidity till the meds have all been administered.