Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today as I came home from work I was sitting in front of my tank and my snake was fine. Sat on the floor and started to watch T.v, but I heard a loud weird sound coming from the tank. I looked at the tank and my snake was making loud hissing sounds for no reason. Sounded like maybe she was going to throw up(never seen one do it so I'm guessing)or like she was trying to breath. She made the noise like 3 to 4 times. Temp is at 80-85 in the day and 70-75 at night. Does anybody now what could be wrong, I hope it's not respiratory illness. Someone please let me know what this could be.

Well, just taking a guess here, but you said in a "tank". I'm guessing you have a screen type lid. First, I'd raise the temps. and atleast run some heat tape to avoid those night time lows. If your ambient ROOM temp. is in the 70's then you constantly have 70 degree air flow through the cage....ie a cool draft in the cage so a Resp. infection is entirely possible. You might want to cover some of the lid if you do in fact have a screen type lid. Also 80-85 is a pretty good range, and if your high is probably closer to 80 more often than 85, that's too cool IMO. Give her a good hot spot and monitor her behavior. If she's always on the hot spot, increase it...if she's always on the cool end, drop the hot spot a bit. Hope this helps a little bit, but remember it's just an opinion on a forum. If symptoms persist contact vets in your area and find a vet that works with reptiles regularly. Good luck, take care

Paul

You say "loud hissing"..I would say..just my thoughts here....But your snake may have just been just a little PO'd and was just hissing at you...Did it sound like it was "blowing" hard out or did it sound and look like breathing...If it only happened a few times and then returns to normal...I would its not medical....

Just my $.02

Terry Ballard
Prairie Creek Reptiles

I would say the same - if your snake was startled, he'd hiss for a few breaths - puff up really large and hiss... then breath in and hiss again... until he calmed down a little.

The one time my snake had a swollen nose due to a bump from a splinter, when he would try to breath (before I got him to a vet), he's just kind of gasp quietly and then open his mouth to breath. He's fine now after having the bump removed.

But if you do not see any fluid coming out of the nose or mouth, more than likely you might have just startled him out of a sound sleep.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

Thanks for all your replies, and I really appreciate it. I think she might have been startled by something and I really don't know what it was. I have to temp gauges in my tank and use a towel to cover half of the screen lid and usually my temp is always at 85degrees at night and around 90-95 in the afternoon with about 50-60 degrees in humidity. She's fine now and hasn't done that sound ever since. And yes I think she hissed four times, caught her breath in between each one and then calmed down. I was just concerned as this is my first boa,I also opened her mouth to check for mouth rot and to see if she was weezing but she is doing fine, once again thanks for your help.