Sick BP, HELP!

[Bbrazee]

Hi, I have a few questions...

I have a sick ball python. My little guy, he will be 2 in may, is sick. He is making bubbling noises from his mouth and halfway down his body. He's having a hard time keeping his mouth closed, and i can see mucous along his gum line. I believe this to be a RI.

1. Besides a vet, how do i care for him and treat this at home?
2. He has been caged with my other, older and larger BP and she is not showing any signs of being ill. Once i discovered he was sick, I separated them right away. I have not sanitized either tank, because i don't know how to do that properly without harming them.
3. How do i sanitize the tanks? I have dawn dish soap and bleach on hand. wash with the soap and spray with a bleach solution and let it sit then rinse?? what?
4. How do i sanitize their hides? They are those half wooden tree hides. Do i soak them? If so, how?
5. If i use a bleach solution, i read that a 5% solution is how to do that, but i'm not sure how to make the solution (do i use gallons, liters, what?) and what is the ratio of bleach to water?
6. How contagious is this? Is it likely that my big girl is going to get this too? Is there any preventative measure besides separating them and sanitizing the tanks that i can take so she doesn't end up sick too?

Thank you for any advice!

[Sauzo]

1) Raise the temps to about 88F ambient 24/7.
2) Snakes are not communal so should be housed separately. If one is sick, I would be watching the other very closely and would raise it's temps to 88F too.
3) Put all the cage accessories like water bowls, plastic hides and anything else able to be put in water into a bucket and pour boiling water on it and let it soak there for 30 mins. I mix in F10sc with the solution and let it all soak. Take the tanks outside and spray them down with F10sc or F10scxd. Can also use bleach but you need to rinse very well and then I would let it dry out for a day.
4) Any wood can be baked in the oven at like 250F for 20 mins or so but you need to watch so it doesn't catch fire. I personally use RBI plastic hides as I can just spray them down with F10sc and clean em.
5) Not sure here as I don't use bleach.
6) Depending on if its viral, bacterial or fungal, it can be very contagious. Again raise the temps to around 88F ambient and pray.

Bottom line is you can try to do F10sc fogging or nebulizing as some have had that work but my advice is you need a vet. You need to get a culture done to find out exactly what the germ is and then that will also tell which antibiotic will be most successful at killing it. Reptiles don't take antibiotics very well so you don't want to guess with that stuff. Plus snakes take a long time to recover anyways because they have slow metabolisms.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

1. Besides a vet, how do i care for him and treat this at home?

You don't, it's too late for that, you have an advance case, you MUST make a vet appointment ASAP, get a culture and get the proper course of anti-biotic treatment.

2. He has been caged with my other, older and larger BP and she is not showing any signs of being ill. Once i discovered he was sick, I separated them right away. I have not sanitized either tank, because i don't know how to do that properly without harming them.

You clean and bleach everythong, dispose of the old substrate and replaced by the new one.

3. How do i sanitize the tanks? I have dawn dish soap and bleach on hand. wash with the soap and spray with a bleach solution and let it sit then rinse?? what?

Clean with soap than let soak in bleach solution for 30 min, rinse well and let dry.

4. How do i sanitize their hides? They are those half wooden tree hides. Do i soak them? If so, how?]

Same as above.

5. If i use a bleach solution, i read that a 5% solution is how to do that, but i'm not sure how to make the solution (do i use gallons, liters, what?) and what is the ratio of bleach to water?

You use whatever measuring unit you are comfortable with it does not matter, the ratio is 5% of bleach, for example 1 liter solution would be would be 95 cl of water and 5 cl of bleach. (That's simple math)

6. How contagious is this? Is it likely that my big girl is going to get this too? Is there any preventative measure besides separating them and sanitizing the tanks that i can take so she doesn't end up sick too?

Too late for that sadly they should have been house separately to start with, and now since one of the snake has an advance case I would get a culture on the second animal as well, they were both drinking from the same water dish which means the chances of the second animal being infected are pretty high even if for now she appears fine.

[Bbrazee]

Thanks for all the advice, going to be sanitizing the tanks as soon as my husband is home to help. I think housing them is a matter of opinion. Saying they should never be housed together is personal preference. They have always been together, and even in separate tanks they are each on the side that is closest to the other, because they are trying to be together. Besides that one is a male and one is female, after all its breeding season. I've never had an issue, they both have their own hides and use them separately. Vet appointment has been made for this evening, so i will be taking them in to get checked out. Thanks for the advice on sanitizing.

[Bbrazee]

Took him to the vet, he does in fact have a RI. We got antibiotic shots for him and hope he starts feeling better soon!
We took both tanks, the tank both snakes were in and the tank we put him in once we discovered he was sick and trashed all the bedding, rinsed out the tanks, sprayed with a bleach/water solution, let them sit for an hour like that, rinsed those out, and then dawn dish soap washed them. New bedding, sanitized the hides and water dishes. For now we are housing them separately until my little guy is better. He's weighing in at a healthy 404 Grams. The vet said its perfectly fine to house together once they are well. She also said that my big girl would have probably gotten sick already since the little guys is in the advanced stages of his RI and they have been together the whole time. Since she is healthy with her eating, activity, pooping and urinating and showing no signs by this point with little guy being so sick, that's a really good thing. So chances of her getting sick are actually really slim, i thought i would share that with you all in case there are any of you out there who also house together. She explained how different snakes have different immune systems (some are stronger than others just like us humans). So i thought that was interesting. And relieving to know that she is most likely in the clear, although there is STILL a chance she could get it, odds are that she wont according to the vet, and the reasoning makes sense to me.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Total vet cost was minimal in my opinion. $45 for the visit and $58 for the 6 antibiotic shots he will be taking.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Did you vet perform a culture on both?

What were the results?

Did the vet prescribe a 30 days course of treatment?

What the vet failed to explain is that RI are often the combination of improper husbandry and stress, having animals house together can be stressful enough to bring this on, something you want to pounder, your male is not big enough to be housed permanently with a BIG female, and if he has been trying to breed her the RI is pretty common for a young (too young of a snake) male being bred without proper breaks (breeders only pair their animals 2 days at the time and are VERY cautious with males that small.)

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[M.P.C]

Saying they are happy being together is whats an opinion... You being told they shouldent is more fact then it is opinion, they are very solitary animals that are extremly prone to stress witch causes health problems, there is absolutly zero benefit to housing snakes together other then being benefical to the keeper.

[SKO]

I understand you love your animals but your anthropomorphism of them is not good for them. Ball pythons are solitary and realistically very basically minded animals. This is not an "opinion". They do not "want" to be near each other. Housing together also creates a battle for dominance for the best spots. These are not loving, happy to see you, miss you when you're gone animals. Those would be dogs and other furry friends. It is what is with snakes.


Also, unless this vet has some serious experience and credentials dealing with herps, especially snakes, I would not take their word over the vast amount of experienced keepers on this Forums. There have been plenty of people who have been told wrong information by vets. It is tough to find a qualified herp vet.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Thanks for all the advice, going to be sanitizing the tanks as soon as my husband is home to help. I think housing them is a matter of opinion. Saying they should never be housed together is personal preference. They have always been together, and even in separate tanks they are each on the side that is closest to the other, because they are trying to be together. Besides that one is a male and one is female, after all its breeding season. I've never had an issue, they both have their own hides and use them separately. Vet appointment has been made for this evening, so i will be taking them in to get checked out. Thanks for the advice on sanitizing.

Actually....... Its for the animals heath more than anything you want to think.
For your sake I do hope that only the small two year old is the only one sick but you may want to be smart and get a swab done on the other one too.
You have never had a problem until now and that still doesn't make it right either.

[Slim]

The vet said its perfectly fine to house together once they are well.

I'm gonna' put this as delicately as I can... Your Veterinarian is an ignorant, uninformed, misguided, and frankly harmful human being. You should keep your snakes as far away from him or her as possible.