Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I rescued a burm almost a year ago and haven't had any trouble with her what so ever until today. Today for some odd reason I herd her making a gagging sound and when I looked into her cage she had her mouth wide open and was moving her body in the way she does when swallowing food but in reverse, she did this for a good 45 seconds until she spit up. The liquid was clear( looked like spit). Is this normal or should I be concerned? Please any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin

When was the last time it was fed?

Any signs of respiratory distress such as noisy, raspy breathing?

Without seeing the snake firsthand, what jumps in my mind is respiratory infection, especially with the changing seasons. If the ambient temps in your house have dropped, have you adjusted temps in your house? I'd bump the heat up in her cage a bit just in case, being sure to give her the ability to thermoregulate. If you think there are any signs of RI, I'd take her to a vet as well.

Just my $.02

I have had that happen with one of my Columbian Red Tails. I can only feed her Prekilled or rats that I have frozen. I bought a batch of colossals from RodentPro(not to diss them or anything they are quite good)last year and anytime I fed her one she would puke it up several days later and then for the next time she had a bowel movement it was runny and reeked!. But she was the only one that did it my other snakes were fine eating them. Maybe your snake has a sensitive stomach (as much as that sounds weird). Or it could have just been a bad rat, maybe been frozen too long and had freezer burn or it wasn't thawed enough. Wait two weeks and try again. Do it too ealy and it may just keep puking it up.
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1.1.0 Pastel Columbian Boas
1.2.0 Burmese Pythons (Albino. Green, Labryinth.)
1.4.0 Cal King
1.1.0 Corn
1.0.0 Red Tegu
1.1.0 Ball Pythons
1.2.0 Dogs (English Mastiff. Jack Russel, lab mix)
1.0.0 Cat

I think you probably fed her a Zuker rat that has much larger amount of fat. Boas especially have a hard time digesting it, and as a result can get sick with runny feces or much worse. They're the type that rodentpro.com sells as their 2 largest rat sizes (and they'll even say in the product list that they are a different strain if you look).
It's much better to stick with multiple smaller normal rats than to feed one of these morbidly obese Zuker rats.

Most pythons don't have a problem with them, although they certaintly aren't as healthy as a regular rat, but I've heard that some do so the poster may have fed their python a zuker and the python is reacting badly to it. Certaintly sounds typical of such a problem.
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~Sara~
"If you look down on me, I am evil, If you look up to me, I am God, if you look straight at me, I Am you"
-Charles Manson

I did buy my rats frome rodentpro this last feeding was the first time she ate there rats, befor that i feed her home raised rats. I bet it is the diffrent rats that made her sick. I had her temps up just in case of it being RI but have droped them back to normal.(80 on one end and 85 on the other) But the humidity is still low. I'm able to keep it up in my smaller cages with out a problem by misting with a spray bottle. with her cage being so big it doesn't seem to do much good. any ideas?
i thought about a misting system maybe? but i don't want to over do it. Well thanks for your help and I'll keep ya'll posted on any changes.
Thanks,
Kevin

I recently ordered rats from RP for my BCI and have had no problems with them. They are either M or L though, less fatty than the XL and up.

What kind of cage set-up do you have? That will determine how best to increase the humidity.

I last feed her on the 30th, she took down two XL f/t rats.liek normal. Her breathing is normal no noise or anything. In my snake room the temp is set at 85 and in her cage ther temps are 87 on one end and 96 on the other right now, and the humidity is right at 37% (to low i have a hard time keeping it up). I don't see any signs of RI (my first thought too). Last night she pooped the ficies was kinda runny and stank real bad, ther are no signs of parisites or blood, everything seems normal, she seems fine so far today. I don't know of any vets arround my area that deals with reptiles or ealse i would of taken her yesterday. Does any one know of a one in Missouri? Thanks, Kevin

Howdy!
RI is the first thing I thought of as well, and just to make sure people are aware, one of the first signs of RI is usually laying with the head elevated, nose up. Sometimes it's slightly up other times straight up.

Sounds like it just missed a total regurgitaion of it's last meal from the timing of the last meal, spit up & defecation.

You said; "...in her cage her temps are 87 on one end and 96 on the other right now, and the humidity is right at 37% (to low i have a hard time keeping it up)."

If those were the conditions when she spit it's possible she might've got too hot, especially if there's not a thermostat on her heat source. Not to criticize you or anything but why do you have the temps so high? I don't let me temps get that high even when I'm treating a respiratory infection. If running high temps the humidity has to be kept above 65% or you're asking for trouble.

So, it's possible, I think, that she got too hot & dehydrated.

I wouldn't be too concerned at the moment if she appears to be OK now. Like someone said, wait about 2 weeks and feed her again, but I would make it a fairly light meal so it won't overwork her system since it's been weakened and needs to rebuild on it's own.

Please keep us posted.

Hang in there!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American