Heat tape malfunction. Hoping our girl isn't fried..

[TheSnakeGeek]

long story short because i'm on lunch break at work.. and worried.

half our collection is kept at my father's house. half at mine. i have racks with bigger tubs so the bigger animals stay with me. i go out to my dad's house once a week or so to check on the critters, usually on sunday. dad doesn't have a temperature gun, just an acurite thermometer with the probe taped to the center of the heat tape on the middle shelf so he can get a second reading on the temps. he always checks the temps on that, but not each individual shelf.

anyway, i went out there sunday to see them all and when i went to pull out our female queenspin i noticed she was REALLY warm and not acting right. her body was kinda limp and her motor skills were way off. she never showed very much of the spider wobble but now she's corkscrewing like crazy and if you look at her head close enough it seems to be twitching, or more so kind of vibrating sometimes. all the other shelves seemed to be fine, so i ran home real quick to grab my temperature gun. when i got back and checked the temperatures of the heat tape all the shelves seemed just about normal, but the bottom one was up to 120 degrees in some spots, then 2 inches over it would be 80 degrees. not sure how long she had been sittin that hot, but it could've been for a couple days seeing as my dad doesn't pull the snakes out every day, just pulls out the tubs to make sure they're all still alive.

i couldn't find too much information on snakes overheating via google or the search function here, granted i'm on my phone and couldn't search too hard. i've seen that overheating can cause "the wobble" in non spider animals and that's about it.. nobody says if this is permanent or not.. as of right now she doesn't even look like she would be coordinated enough to eat. i feel so bad. basically, does anyone know if this neurological damage from overheating is permanent or if she'll eventually get better..? or god forbid.. she might not make it..?

i have some video on my phone of me shooting the drastic temperature variance with the temp gun and some of her head "vibrating" and her horrible wobble now.. if i can figure out how to get it uploaded to the internet when i get home i'll try posting it.
i just hope she's gonna be ok..

[TheSnakeGeek]

bump for my girl. anyone..?

[Anya]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! That sounds like a nightmare. Your poor girl. I know how awful that would be on just a normal animal, let alone such a valuable one...I have no experience with this kind of thing, but I would get her to a reptile specialist. Hopefully someone can chime in and be more informative...

[OsirisRa32]

Snakes overheating can cause brain/neurological damage....especially if they were overheated for long periods of time....as for its duration...my understanding is that it all depends on just how hot it actually got for the animal and the length of time that that particular temp was held at.

[ewaldrep]

Heat Tape or Flexwatt? I was concerned about this after the switch was made and people started using the Heat Tape that is not UL listed. It sounds like neurological issues and my limited understanding is that you are going to have to get her safe with stable temps. With neuro issues, you are going to have to give her time, probably 1-6 months to fully recover to see if the damage is going to be permanent. With humans I usually give 6-12 months recommendation. Hopefully someone with more direct experience and advice will chime in soon.

[Kensa]

That would be terrible to find. It is never easy when a pet gets injured. I hope that she will make a complete recovery, but unfortunately I don't have any experience with these sorts of things. Hoping for the best.

[angllady2]

I have some experience with this. I had two different wicked temp spikes in my incubator. It caused birth defects in one clutch that had not hatched, and neurological symptoms in a second clutch that had all hatched.

The second clutch is the one that pertains more to this issue. There were 5 babies in the clutch, 2 pieds and three hets. All showed various amounts of neuro damage. From very minor to super extreme. Four of the five gradually lost their symptoms over the course of a few weeks. The fifth did not. He was the most severely affected, and his damage is permanent. His neurological damage is so extreme, he wobbles worse than 90% of spiders and will actually tie himself into knots which I have to untie physically as he cannot once he gets that way. I had to assist feed him at first, striking and coiling food was totally impossible for him, his nerves and muscles simply would not function to allow such coordinated movement, however as he got older he got stronger and adapted to his improperly functioning body and can now eat just fine on his own, though it can take him up to an hour to get enough control to strike and coil his prey.

Your girl may or may not be permanently damaged. Only time will tell. Once the heat is corrected, just give her time and as much peace and quiet as you can. But do try and move her where she can be visually inspected at least daily. In my experience, she will begin to improve slowly right away if she is going to improve. It will take a long time for her to recover, perhaps as long as a few months. For your sake I hope she does come back from it. But if she doesn't take comfort in the fact that she can still be a good pet if you help her along.

Gale

[4theSNAKElady]

Gosh I hope your poor girl is alright.. I actually lost a het pied to a similar situation as yours, but the heat tape got so hot it actually caught on fire and smoked her

[TheSnakeGeek]

Snakes overheating can cause brain/neurological damage....especially if they were overheated for long periods of time....as for its duration...my understanding is that it all depends on just how hot it actually got for the animal and the length of time that that particular temp was held at.

i know neurological damage was done. you can tell that just by looking at her. that was the first thing that came to mind. i've read horror stories of peoples thermostats failing and it frying their whole collection.. and some of the snakes that survived passed a few days later.. i was more so wondering if anyone had had experience with this and if their animal had gotten better over time. pretty much just looking for someone to give me hope. lol :/ doesn't look good though.. she's still alive as of tonight though.

[TheSnakeGeek]

Your girl may or may not be permanently damaged. Only time will tell. Once the heat is corrected, just give her time and as much peace and quiet as you can. But do try and move her where she can be visually inspected at least daily. In my experience, she will begin to improve slowly right away if she is going to improve. It will take a long time for her to recover, perhaps as long as a few months. For your sake I hope she does come back from it. But if she doesn't take comfort in the fact that she can still be a good pet if you help her along.

Gale

thank you SO much. this is exactly what i was hoping to hear. just some sort of good news i guess. or hope. seeing her like that is awful.. just another reason it's so important to check temps daily..