Listless snake

[Manda]

I just returned after being away for the weekend, and saw that my 1.5 year old snake's tank temperature had dropped to 72 degrees due to a change in the weather. She still had a hot spot around 88-90 degrees, but when I found her she was laying with her body in the cool hide and her head poked into the warm hide. I picked her up and she seemed alert/aware, but definitely weak. Her body is mushy, rather than its normal firm consistency. One of her eyecaps also appears dry, even though the tank is plenty humid and she shed fairly recently. She hasn't eaten for a little over 2 weeks, so I was planning to feed her tonight. It's nighttime, so I can't take her to a vet. I'm very upset and worried. Any thoughts or advice?

Thank you

[melcvt00]

Soak her in warm water for a few minutes? Keep in mimd that this is coming from a newbie snake owner......

[chrid16371]

You will need to buy a rhp or ceramic heat emitter and another thermostat to control it to make sure that your temps never dip below 80 again. Kinda makes me wonder why she didn't move. Does she always seem to be in the cool hide? Are your hides identical so she can't choose the more secure one? What are you using as a heat source? Are you using a temp gun for temps? A thermometer with probe? An analog thermometer? If your using an analog you need to get rid of it. If your using a thermometer with probe where are you placing the probe? I'm not sure how to fix her being mushy and weak but finding out why it happened and preventing it from happening again is just as important.

[Manda]

I do have a heat lamp attached to a dimmer switch that I adjust. This normally works fine, and her hot spot is on a thermostat. I'm quite confident that the setup is good - I'm much more worried about her health at this moment. I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me some advice - should I bring her to an emergency vet, or is it better that I leave her undisturbed to warm up on her own?

[piedpipper]

From my experience with snakes that have arrived cold in the mail they do just fine after a few minutes of warming up.
Also, are you sure she is really going "listless"? Granted 72 is too cool for a cool side but its not so low that a ball python would have problems from just one weekend. And if the hot side was still good and she was of her own will on the cool side it kind of makes me think that she is fine. BP also just have different body consistencies Ive noticed. Some are a little more "mushy" or relaxed than others.

[KMG]

I do have a heat lamp attached to a dimmer switch that I adjust. This normally works fine, and her hot spot is on a thermostat. I'm quite confident that the setup is good - I'm much more worried about her health at this moment. I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me some advice - should I bring her to an emergency vet, or is it better that I leave her undisturbed to warm up on her own?

You have found the issue with dimmers. They are dumb. Your dimmer had no idea the room got cooler so it kept the light at the same output which didn't warm the cage appropriately.

A tstat on the other hand would have know the room got cooler and kicked up the power to the lamp which would have kept the cage an the set temp.

Going the other way if your room got much warmer the dimmer again would have no idea and keep pumping the juice instead of cutting it back. This would over heat the cage instead of keeping the cage at the set temp with a tstat since it would have registered the temp change and cut back the power to the light.


Boost the temp to where it needs to be and your snake should be good. 72 is not that low for just a couple of days. I was just without power for two days and my snake room got to 74. I didn't even do anything about it and they were all just fine. If it was out for a day longer or got a bit cooler I was going to need to take action but all was well.

[Manda]

Thanks, everyone. She is back to normal in terms of alertness and activity level. Her body still feels less firm than it usually does, but I'm sensing from your reactions that this isn't a huge red flag. I'll keep an eye on it.

Thank you!