Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i dont really know if i should worry but she's making noises with her mouth and making like little bubbles at her mouth...is it a problem or is she just making noises at me ?

to me that sound like an ri respiritory infection....

get her to a vet.............

im not sure if there is an at home treatment.... i have never had one get an ri............

i would take her to a vet............

unfortunatly i cant afford that...she has all kinds of problems i just bought her from an online breeder 4 weeks ago...she sheds bad...doesnt eat...has bumps all over her body...doesnt hide much...and now she's pract. foaming at the mouth...how upsetting huh...

what part of the country are you in?

look for a herp organization and see if some one could take her that could and would possibly be willing to take her to the vet.

i live in kenosha wisconsin right by the illinois border and i dont know of any herp organizations and how to go about doing that

here you go..............
http://www.madison.com/communities/whs/

Dane Co. Contact:
Ed Stone, Dane Co. Events Coordinator
P.O. Box 55191
Madison WI 53705-8991
wireptileshows@hotmail.com

Milwaukee Co. Contact:
Craig Pelke

bigsnakeguy@earthlink.net

Why would you buy a snake if you are not prepared or cabable of providing the required care for it. Animals do get sick and the ability to take it to a vet when needed is a requirement. If you can't afford it you shouldn't have gotten the animal.

As for the help.... RI, bump up your temp and humidity. 85 - 95 temp and make the humidity 90%. That should help with the RI and the poor sheds. The shedding and RI are not necessarily the breeders fault. How long have you had her, what are your temps, what is your humidity and how are you measuring them? All these factors affect your snakes health. As for the bumps, are they ticks??? Is this a WC snake we are dealing with?? How old is it, baby or adult. The more info you give the more we can help.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

In the mean time you need to raise the temps slightly. what are your temps?

sorry about that i forgot to say that part

temps are fine ..85 cool side up to 92 on the hot side humidity is about 57 percent

To me it sounds as if you weren't prepared to take care of the snake. If you don't have the money to take care of it properly (vet visits, medication, etc), you shouldn't have purchased it.

If you can't take care of it, either give it to a rescue or send it back to the breeder. Don't let it fester and die slowly.
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.2 Ambystoma laterale
0.0.2 Ambystoma mavortium
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus

I think that you are being way to harsh.. This guy has had some bad luck latly at least he is trying.. I do not think you have a right to judge him at all..

what she is refering to, although i have offered help....
this thread explains what she was refering to.

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1141065,1141222

yea that explanation was of HOW i recieved the snake....i also have a male but i keep them seperated so he is fine and eating awesome

but if you read the whole thread you said you didnt have cash to take her to the vet, so you would have to take her to the animal shelter..................

yea...if she gets worse i will if i can find a animal shelter nearby that will take snakes

OK if she is in as bad of shape as you say - she need medical attention ASAP - you will not be able to get rid of the RI by simply raising the temps in her cage - she will need a series of anitbiotic treatments. If you cannot afford to take her to a vet (one that specializes in reptiles)- you need to give contact your local herp society and they will be able to find her someone that can take appropriate care of her. If she arrived from the breeder in this condition and it's been 4 weeks - it could already be too late so you need to act today. It's time to do what is best for the snake - if that means making payments to the vet to get her treated or give her to an appropriate home (NOT AN ANIMAL SHELTER) then that is what you must do - please don't sit around hoping this will go away that will lead to a dead snake.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.34.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizards of unknown origin

i dont see it as my fault the breeder sent it to me and it was already having problems ...not eating ...extremely skinny...wierd bumps

im talking through email to the breeder....are my temps to high...the breeder is saying my temps are too high thats why my snake has the bumps and mouth problems and not eating...but i have been told by many that i had to keep my humidity around 50 and above and my temp 85 on the cool side which i have done

how are you measuring your temps?
if it is a thermometer on the side of thenk the bottom where the snakes is sitting could be hotter............

put a thermometer on the area where the snake lays the most and get the actual temp.

i had some one bring me a snake a few weeks ago that had a problem on her belly, (thermal burns) because the heating mat was to hot....

this was his first snake...........

i advised him to get a thermometer, and a rheostat for the heating mat.............

that costed more money than he wanted to spend on a 10 dollar snake.......... so instead he bought a hot rock..........

the snake keeps having bad shed and he doesnt know why.........
i told him to mist the tank...........thats to much trouble.......

ok i use a actual ...flat white cleaned and baked rock for the heat rock cuz i dont like the electric rocks...and i have a digital thermometer i have placed on both sides..her favorite place is sitting in the middle which is usually around 90 degree's. these are not my first snakes so dont underestimate me its just i have never seen this before...i came to this forum hoping for help rather then accusations

no one is making accusations....

i mentioned the story of the other snake because new keepers, dont realize that the heat mats will get hot, i was using that as an example of how hot a mat can get if it is not monitered..

well i dont use heat mat or electric rocks just for that reason and i mist the cage well every day...i try to make them comfortable as i can

If you got the snake in such bad condition, why didn't you send it back?

A respiratory infection is usually a sign of bad husbandry, and if it's showing up after a month, then she probably didn't show up with it. It may just be because she's sick that she was more suseptable to the respiratory infection.

Again, if you can't afford to treat the snake, you need to surrender it to a rescue so they can either treat it or humanely euthanize it. You cannot just let it fester and die a horrible death.
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.2 Ambystoma laterale
0.0.2 Ambystoma mavortium
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus

you can look on www.craiglist.com under pet's....most of the time there are people willing to take your sick animal and resque it....im doing this right know for a snake with a ri and worms and the owner couldn't afford to treat it.. you can always post an add that your animal needs help..there are people willing to help your animal if you can not...but that snake will die if it's not seen by a vet..and it will cost between 100 and 300 to treat it...you can always get another snake and you will have to if that snake is not treated because its going to die...

100-300 dollars???

wow your vet is a theif!!!!!!!!!!!

I pay 40 bucks for the meds, and he doesn't even charge for the visit.

I do many rescues though, so I usually just call up and tell him the body weight, and pick up the meds in an hour. no visit required.

TomChambers

sounds like your a reg customer tho...for other ppl its vet visit charge then med charges...to get my moms 2 guinea pigs a shot each and visit at the vet it was 250 for when they both had lice

trying to send it back the guy is fighting with me over it

So you are baking the rocks and then rotating them out as they cool???? Do you have an undertank heater that the rocks sit on to keep warm?
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

baked the rock in the oven to get any bugs off after i cleaned it and the rock is set nearby the 60 watt black light heat bulb so that it stays warm i dont use heat pads i dont like the idea of it burning them since snakes cant tell when they are being burned

This sounds like a very unreliable source of heat. No wonder she's got a respiratory infection.

You need to provide a steady source of heat. A good quality heat mat or heat tape will provide stable, appropriately temperatured belly heat. You NEED a thermometer to measure this.

You need to measure humditity and temperature AT SNAKE LEVEL. Invest in a heat gun. Then you can measure the temperature of the snake, the substrate, the water dish, etc, all in one go.

Misting the tank before and during shedding should improve sheds.

Have you read any literature on how to take care of ball pythons? I suggest investing in a quality book, such as any of the NERD BP books. I'm also a big fan of "What's wrong with my snake?" These are invaluble tools for initial setup and simple problems.

But you still seem to be holding onto this snake. A respiratory infection can be DEADLY. Your snake will probably die without immediate treatment, especially now that we know it's a more advanced RI (as you haven't treated it since saying something about days ago). If you can't afford to treat it: GIVE IT UP OR GET IT EUTHANIZED! Then think hard about getting another snake.
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.2 Ambystoma laterale
0.0.2 Ambystoma mavortium
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus

i was going to buy a heat mat but i've heard lots of stories about heat mats and rocks burning snakes besides my rock stays pretty warm about 95 degrees to 100 if i put the rock under the light...should i keep my rock under the light ?...ive had it sitting off to the side cuz i was worried about burning the snake...its a flat rock thats really white...and shiny..looks like natural metal and some quartz in it so it gets kinda hot if im not careful

oh and btw alot of those suggestions i have been getting about my cage have helped...the female snake seems to be alot more active now and she's using her hide again since i moved it nearby the heat lamp...the ground level heat is 95 on the hot side btw and 87 on the ground on the cool side...humidity is a little higher on the cool side and lower on the hot side..but about 60 percent on cool side still

I highly doubt she will recover from the respiratory infection without veterinary intervention. It doesn't matter how you've got the tank set up. She needs medication.

Heat mats are used by almost all keepers here. Heat rocks provide severe localized heat, which can cause burns. Proper heat mats provide a wide space of appropriate temperature.

If you really don't want to take care of her properly, why keep her?
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.2 Ambystoma laterale
0.0.2 Ambystoma mavortium
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus

i was using zoo med heat mats, but i found that flex watt is easy to hookup so i have switched and bought up new thermostats.
what i did several years ago, because i knew about unexpected vets cost due to keeping ferrets for 15 years.

i started a savings account........then got a prepaid credit card everytime i get paid i put money in one of the accounts, i treat those accounts like they are regualr bill..... that way if i have an unexpected emergency, i have a credit card or a savings account or both to take money from....so far i havent had to use them, which is good.

is there a medication i can go buy that i can administer myself ?? and i will go get a heat mat then

i dont think there is anything you can buy for a ri in a reptile..

she needs antibiotics, which a vet will have to prescribe......

obviously i do want to take car of her if i am on here trying to figure this all out...if i didnt care i wouldnt be on here asking you ppl this

At this point - if you intend to keep this snake - the only thing that should be done is to seek veteranary care - it needs to go to a vet that specializes in herps - TODAY. Otherwise you might as well consider it dead. No - there is no over the counter medication that you can give this animal - it will need a series of injections and the vet will be able to provide you the proper medications as well as show you how to do the injections yourself if you feel confident that you can do them and advise you of the appropriate care during recouperation.

As for you cage set up it does not appear to be adequate for a ball python - if you are interested in finding more information on proper ball python husbandry there are plenty of good books, videos and websites as well as helpful people on this site to help you work out the kinks and get your animals set up right.

Best of luck!
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.34.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizards of unknown origin

!!!!! i have a friend that is going to take him to the vet then keep him !!!!!!! im keeping the male tho !!!!

Lights do dry out the air wich would be contributing both to the bad shedding and the respiratory infection. Heat mats are great you just need them attached to a thermostat. You only run into problems when you let it run unchecked.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

ok thanks a ton to everyone that helped