R.i.?

[TDent1]

Today I picked up my girl to pull some loose shed off. While handling her, I noticed a long stream of spit dropping from her mouth. Her mouth isn't swollen, she isn't weezing or breathing loudly and she isn't coughing. In fact, she seems to be perfectly fine. Her temps are between 84-86 and humidity is usually around 70%, all though lately it's been in the 80-90% range because she's shedding. I use newspaper as a substrate and the only thing that she may have swallowed, other than a rat, is sphagnum moss, all though I feed her outside of her tub and I didn't see any in the tub. Any ideas?

[Simple Man]

That could be the beginning of a RI. If you aren't seeing the other symptoms it might be in a super early stage. Usually they can be stopped or fixed by bumping up temps a few degrees. I don't know much about Bloods but hopefully someone with more experience can chime in on recommended temps.

Regards,

B

[TDent1]

Also, I should mention that she was VERY stressed, more than I've ever seen her. I know snakes can spit when they're angry, but this was definitely drooling.

[TDent1]

Okay, I'll be sure to bring her temps up. Would you suggest dropping humidity a bit as well?

[Simple Man]

I just read a few caresheets. It is saying daytime hot side should be 90-92 so it sounds like your temp needs to be up higher. I think your humidity sounds pretty good. Is she in a tub rack or aquarium?

Regards,

B

[Kara]

This is pretty common when handling a snake that has recently taken a drink. The snake esophagus doesn't function the same way ours does, and will allow water to escape the stomach and "drool" back out of the mouth if a snake is handled not long after drinking. The stress your snake was exhibiting could result from that water drooling back out and flowing over the glottis (windpipe in the floor of her mouth), potentially making it harder for her to breathe. Just a little something to think about there.

Going over the notes on your setup, it sounds just about ideal for a blood python in a shed cycle. I respectfully disagree with the previous post of providing a hot spot of 90-92. Bloods don't need temps that warm - what you have now is basically correct, and in fact could potentially be a little bit cooler. We maintain ours at 80-82 degrees & they thrive at those temperatures. If your blood is happy in the 84-86 degree range, then there may be no need to tweak things, but consider taking her temps down a small notch if she continues to act stressed.

Keep an eye on her for the next day or two just to make sure nothing else is out of the norm, but otherwise this isn't something to get worked up about. Keep snakes of any sort long enough & you're bound to experience it sooner or later.

[TDent1]

Thanks for the reply, that's definitely lowered my stress level! I'll keep an eye on her see how she does.

[Ham]

I have to strongly agree with Kara, I have seen many species of snakes drooling not long after taking a drink of water, if you handle them soon after a drink it is like pouring the water out of a tube, it just runs out of their mouth, but is thickened with their saliva, so it resembles a terrible respiratory infection. If you don't notice the drool in a day or two than I would say you have nothing to worry about, plus draining the content of your snakes stomach would have to be stressful for it, so that could be the cause of the stress. I keep one of my Blood Pythons at 82-83 for a warm spot and the other prefers 84-86, the one who likes it cooler will never go to the warm spot if it is higher than 83 degrees. I have noticed that if it is too warm they will definitely not hang out in the area, so just watch your snakes behaviour and determine the temp through that, but Blood's do not like it as warm as most species of pythons, it always surprises people when they hear the warm spot temps, I have been to vets who told me 90 for the hotspot with my bloods, but this is not the case.