Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

Last week I noticed that my burm had some spit coming out of the side of her mouth. She is 3 years old and about 12 ft, don't know if you needed to know that or not. I checked the temps in the tank and I do that often, it seems that the sensor to the helix thermastat moved. I must have bumped it while I was in back of the cage messing with other things. So the heat went down. I would say it was that way for 3 days. So I read my book about it and cranked up the temps. Do I want to also raise humidity? Its been a week and I thought it was all cleared when I took her out this afternoon and squeezed her head and nothing came out but then tonight I took her out of her cage and the bubbles where back (not alot but still there)and then I observed her in the cage and a bubble came out of her nose.
Its been almost one week and I thought it was OK but its not. How long does it take to clear up? And do I raise the humidity and to what? And last at what point do I just go to the vet. I can tell she has discomfort and I want to clear it up? HELP.
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0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda

Yes, you can cure her up with high temps and high humidity levels but you'll have to be patient. Snakes don't heal overnight and it might take her several weeks to a few months to fully recover. I do think this is preferable to administering antibiotics for a mild respitory infection since antibiotics can be very hard on reptiles and their surprisingly sensitive organs. I would only recomend antibiotics when the snake has full blown pneumonia.

For your temps I would recomend 90 to 92 degrees steady and humidity levels in the 70%'s and 80%'s. If y'all don't have a humidity indicator you can pick one up at Walmart for 6 bucks in the digital thermometer section. To jack up your humidity levels afix plastic sheet over your vents gradually until you acheive the levels you want. Don't be concerned about her having less ventilation as long as there is some level of ventilation it's okay. For a respitory infection high humidity is more important than abundant ventilation. To give her extra fresh air open her cage a couple of times each day to allow a change of air making sure not to chill her.
Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Thank you for the advise.

I can't beleive how fast she got it. How do you know its full blown?
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0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda

She may very well have harbored a slight, borderline RI for the last several weeks or more just simply due to winter. During winter months relative humidity can be incredibly low and this in and of itself can lead to a mild RI. All it may've took to push her over the edge was a 3 day chill. Just a speculation but it makes a lot of sense. Don't let it concern you too much. Mild RI's are fairly common with these tropical species and if you catch them early they are relatively easy to handle. Full blown pneumonia can really only be 100% verified with cultures performed by a vet, but the symtoms are pretty obvious. It's been a long time since I've seen one so my memory may not serve too well, in which case I welcome being corrected or added to by someone that is more keen on this subject. But here's what I remember: The snake will become somewhat weak, the skin will appear very dehydrated, whitish, thick mucous is often expelled from the lung during wracking, labored coughing and struggling to breathe. The first third of the body is often distorted and bent upward in attempts to keep the fluid in the lungs from clogging the trachea. The belly scales under this section are heavily creased from inward, vaccuum pressure of labored breathing. It's just very apparent and very awful. Whereas a mild RI may involve just minor gurgling and occasional mild coughing. With pneumonia they will lose their appetite. With a mild RI they will still eat. I hope this helps.

I certainly welcome any opinions from anyone else that knows more about this than I do. I have had my share of mild RI's over the years and bouts with pneumonia a couple of decades back but there sure may be something I missed or overlooked or just plum forgot.
Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

n/p
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0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda

The main clue to the severity of the RI is the color of the mucous produced. If the mucous is anything other than perfectly clear, you have a severe infection and antibiotics should be started immediately. Don't put too much emphasis on the appearance of a lot of symptoms, as pythons are quite good at showing few obvious physical signs of distress until it is too the severe stage. David is correct in that mild cases of RI can some times be corrected by elevated temps and humidity, but you need to watch them extra closely because these mild cases can easily develop into a more severe type in a short time. Bacterial cultures will not confirm the severity of the infection because mild and severe RI's are both usually caused by the same groups of organisms and the difference in the two is just a matter of the degree of the infection. Good luck with her.

Kelly

Kelly

Thanks for the added insight Kelly. You would do the herp world a big favor and I would appreciate it too if you could go into a little more depth (a lot more) about the various antibiotics that are commonly prescribed for reptiles by most vets. I have some pretty strong feelings about this subject but don't really know enough about it to be posting my opinions on this for others to base their decisions on. But in my time I have seen very strong antibiotics prescribed by vets, such as Baytril .5% that seemed to actually be the cause of the snake's subsequent death and I have seen home remedies with high temps, high humidity levels and a lot of TLC lead to full recoveries. So I don't have an overwhelming amount of faith in the liberally prescribed antibiotics that even state clearly on the bottles are to be used "for canine use only", or something to that effect. But there must be milder, less severe antibiotics that actually work on reptiles to elliminate the problem, while not acting in an adverse, detrimental manner on the snake. How effective is Tylan? Or Amikcasin? Or Genomiacin. Or others I can't remember. Forgive my spelling on those, I was going by memory from a couple of decades past.

Any up to date info and any insight you can lend on this subject and these drugs will greatly benefit the herp community, including myself, since I myself would try them if I was educated on them in a real way that caused me to be able to believe in them as truly beneficial and not as potential added risk.

Thanks for your time.
Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com