Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My boa, who has only had an R.I. once from the shipping when i got him as a baby, is now making a pop every couple of breaths....ive heard it maybe 5 or 6 times in a 10 minute holding, but it sounds like early R.I., definitly not bad yet, but still something to look into to. Nothings changed in his housing. Its getting colder around here, and his temps have droped some, but not enough to cause this. The only thing ive changed is he has a new hide box now, a larger one that is made of card board. I've always spot cleaned his bedding and its pretty clean inside, the humidity is around 55% all the time. Any help would be appreciated.
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"Stupider.....like a FOX!!" -Homer Simpson

earlier this summer my breeding colony of rats got RI's. it took about a month and a half befor I could feed any of thoes rats to my boas, but one of my boas managed to get the RI. Perhaps your boa got it's RI from a prey item. Also a sudden drop in temps could have caused it.

Oh well thats just great, the last couple of mice i bought, 1 of them was nasty, had crusty eyes, and spots on his tail. I let that one go of course and didn't let the snake have it, and fed him the other normal looking ones, i bet he still caught it though. Hopefully he'll feel better soon, hes been treated with tylan which i hear will stop chronic R.I. so maybe it wont last too long in him. Thanks a ton

>>earlier this summer my breeding colony of rats got RI's. it took about a month and a half befor I could feed any of thoes rats to my boas, but one of my boas managed to get the RI. Perhaps your boa got it's RI from a prey item. Also a sudden drop in temps could have caused it.
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"Stupider.....like a FOX!!" -Homer Simpson

Make sure you keep the tank clean and warm. Make sure that your boa has access to a heating source such as a ceramic heat lamp. Also you may want to increase the humidity to between 60-70%. These are steps I took to get my Dumeril's boa well after catching a pretty bad RI. I also added more hide boxes along the temperature gradient with some damp moss in selected boxes. Hope this helps
Pat

...It still could be a moderate temp drop precipitating respiratory symptoms. EARLY resp symptoms usually will respond to thermotherapy (raised temps). Try this for a week or so and you'll nip this in the bud. Scott J. Michaels DVM