Respiratory Infection

[gladiator]

About a week ago I started to notice one of my male fires were making a clicking sound and now i notice he has mucus around his nose and his breathing is stuffed up and he breathes with his head up. So after trying to treat it myself to no avail, i set a vet appt. Unfortunately i'm crazy busy this week and the only appointment i could make is on monday, (3 days from now) and like I said I first noticed symptoms about a week ago. It's stupid that I waited on it but will he be okay until the vet visit?

Thanks

[shaneswife828]

If you have to wait till then bump up his cage temps and humidity a bit. It also wouldn't hurt to sit in the bathroom with the shower running on hot and let him breath in the steam a couple times a day or run a cool air humidifier on the room near his enclosure.

[Albert Clark]

Quarantine him right away from the rest of the collection. Super deep clean the enclosures of all your bp's. Put him on paper towels and throw everything in the original enclosure in a bucket with hot water and 1:10 parts bleach solution. If you have f10sc you can use that to clean the enclosures. If he has clicking, and mucus coming out his nose I would call the vet back and ask if I can come in as a emergency. This is a airway problem and should take precedence. Good luck.

[anicatgirl]

Quarantine him right away from the rest of the collection. Super deep clean the enclosures of all your bp's. Put him on paper towels and throw everything in the original enclosure in a bucket with hot water and 1:10 parts bleach solution. If you have f10sc you can use that to clean the enclosures. If he has clicking, and mucus coming out his nose I would call the vet back and ask if I can come in as a emergency. This is a airway problem and should take precedence. Good luck.

Pretty much this. I would be super concerned if it has already reached the visible mucus stage. I freak out if my girl whistles only a few times cause she's a fatty... Bump up temps and humidity.

[tbowman]

I personally would not rush to separate him from the rest of the collection (especially if you have a dedicated reptile room and can't recreate the environment successfully in another room, you don't want to expose a sick animal to inadequate conditions). I've heard a very experienced herp vet say that most typical respiratory infections in snakes are caused by opportunistic bacteria that are already present in our snakes and are not typically contagious. When the immune system is suppressed in any way it can allow the bacteria to become a pathogen, that's when your snake will come down with an RI.

I.E The bacteria causing the RI is most likely present in your other snakes too, it just hasn't been given the chance to become a pathogen. So I don't think your other snakes are at risk by being in the same room.

The only thing I would do is bump up the temps until you can get him into the vet. I believe too much humidity can loosen things up and potentially make them worse.

[bcr229]

I personally would not rush to separate him from the rest of the collection...

OP has had the fire for two weeks and it was showing signs of RI the day it arrived. It should still be in QT. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...53-please-help!