Hmmm,
Couple of points.
Carpet is a horrible substrate - it gets filthy and stinky and harbours the smell even after washing. Not to mention the chemicals etc used to wash it.
Also, while it will absorb the fluid it may not be particularly good at allowing it to evaporate again - I have never tried ot use it so I cannot be sure about that though. I suspect diapers would be even wose in that respect.
I would suggest trying shredded aspen instead.
I take it you double checked for excess mucus etc to diagnose the RI? The reason I mention it is that the swelling of the skin around the nostrils during shed ( and stuck peices after a bad shed ) can cause them to make the same sorts of noises when breathing as an RI.
Somebody probably already mentioned it but I thought I would put it out there just in case.
And I think you misunderstood what I meant when I said the cause was already inside the animal - I meant it is normal for those bacteria to be there. All snakes have a bacterial load - some good some bad. So do we as a matter of fact.
So it isn't as though you were shipped an ill snake - just a normal one.
The stress of a new enclosure could have been enough to slightly lower the immune response and let the existing bacteria grow to a level that produced the sickness. Lower temps can also cause it.
A lot of the time you will read that low temps/ low humidity cause RI - they are, more accurately, making the snake more succeptible to problems from current conditions that were previously not causing any.
Does that make sense?
dr del
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