Went to the vet -- some things he recommended

[Regius_049]

One thing he kept insisting adamantly was that I needed to drop the hot side 10-15 degrees at night, which seems super counter-intuitive to me. With the two different heat ranges on either side of the tub, it encourages movement and exercise and they get a sense of autonomy in picking what temperature they want to be at. When I said I had two different sides, he shot me down and immediately replied with, "They're not the smartest, so some stuff you kind of have to do for them or they hurt themselves." Which is just. Why would you let a reptile be in conditions in which they could hurt themselves?

So, here's the question: is there supposed to be a drop in temperatures at night? From what I've seen on the forum and various other sources, that seems to be an older style of doing things that isn't endorsed anymore. Why is that?

This sounds like a very judgemental veterinarian and seeing as your husbandry as you describe it is more or less "on point", he could have conveyed his thoughts in a much friendlier manner. As previous posters have noted, there are some great reptile veterinarians, but they are hard to find. For every good reptile vet, there are probably 10 poor ones. Veterinary school has also sadly become "politicized" to some degree and misinformation is being spread even among medical professionals in the veterinary field. For example, most vets will recommend spay / neuter in dogs, even though it has been shown that spaying or neutering a large breed dog too early shows a marked increased risk of osteosarcoma.

That said, there is some merit to what your vet has suggested. I will start by saying a drop at night time is not necessary for good husbandry in the vast majority of cases. The animal will thrive, especially following feeding with 24/7 access to an appropriate hot spot. In some cases of multi-animal encloses it can even be necessary as co-inhabitants will establish a "basking schedule" based on order of dominance. That said there are two things I will note:

1. If a snake has access to an area that is dangerously hot, there are many anecdotal reports of snakes burning themselves from prolonged contact even thought common sense would dictate that an animal burning itself would just move to a cooler / non-burning location. This is not to suggest you had a dangerous location in your enclosure, just that there is some merit to the "snakes aren't the smartest" mentality.

2. A night drop can be of merit to snakes fighting off certainly infections. Many virus strains have an optimal temperature at which they reproduce best, for example, reptarenaviruses (such as those heavily suspected of being the cause of IBD in boid snakes) reproduce best at around 86 F. This is right around thermoregulatory temperature for most reptiles so it is easy to see why they are a natural host. If a reptile hugs its hot spot 90% of the time, while create for digestion, it is also the perfect temperature for viral spread. I believe there was a report of someone with an ill snake and their vet recommended removing his heat for 24-48 hours and see if that helped him improve. The rationale for this suggestion is based on temperatures preferred by a variety of viruses. Thus, if the snakes body temperature is dropped to ~70-75 F, it can probably fight off such an infection easier. Now, there are a variety of viruses that have different optimal temperatures, so having a night drop that modulates the snakes temperature somewhat may help a snake in fighting off certain infections. I don't know of an academic study that has weighed the pros and cons of a night drop in captive conditions, but I suspect there are pros and cons to both approaches.