Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im not looking to get flamed here so please refrain, if you can. My male blood and female yellow conda have both seem to come down with a respitory infection. The blood seems to have it worse than the conda. She just has some very minor weezing etc. The bloods is easily noticeable. Generaly i take the best care of my herps possible but i have been very busy lately ( still not an excuse ) so ive unfortunately slacked off on my humidity. I honestly CANNOT afford to take them to the vet at this momment with all the money problems, the vet here is like $2000 per snake just for a check up. Ive done a HUGE MAJOR increase in humidity back to the proper amount pluss a little more. Is it to late to fix the problem or do you think it can be fixed? Any help, advice, and suggestions are greatly apreciated.
Thank you!

You may want to raise the temps in their enclosures as well. The RI may also be due to the extra cold temps most of the country has been experiencing. Have they been exposed to cooler than normal temps lately?

What KevinM said. Raise both heat and humidity. Usually at the start of an RI you can pull bloods out of it and anacondas are resistant to RI. Also make sure the cages are real clean with no molding wood or substrate-that can contribute to a RI also. Sometimes the meds given by a vet for RI do more harm than good. Keep on them. If they start hacking and spitting up flem go to the vet. Bill.
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Manipulation of environmental parameters is the best, first choice when attempting to treat early onset and mild RI's in boids. Keep temps in the low 90's 24/7 and humidity at least 70 to 75% for tropical boas and pythons. In some cases, antibiotic use can be avoided if the condition is caught in the early stages. In the very initial stages of an RI, or the similar symptoms of lung irritation caused by low humidity, the condition can many times be reversed by simply raising the humidity. The problem is that this turns into more of an issue when you start raising temps to assist RI treatment, especially with low room humidity in the winter. Warm cage interiors rapidly drive humidity out into the low humidity room, and can quickly lower humidity levels within the cage. For this reason, ambient humidity levels need to be watched even more closely during the winter months. I firmly believe that sub-optimal humidity levels cause as many respiratory issues with tropical boas and pythons as does sub-optimal temps.

Bloods are very sensitive to low humidity levels, but anacondas are more tolerant of low humidity than bloods. It is also very rare to see an anaconda with an RI so you will need to re-evaluate your cage set up for humidity and temp control. General cage temps for both of these species should be in the mid-80’s with a slightly warmer hotspot. How are you currently heating these cages? Also remember that with bloods, it is also very easy to cause respiratory distress with cage temps in the upper 80’s to low 90’s with an ambient humidity that is below 50%.

If the above course of action fails to show any improvement at all within a week, you need to consider a vet visit. This is especially true if you ever see any cloudy or opaque material coughed up by either of these snakes. That indicates a type II RI and would require an immediate vet visit. Good luck.

Kelly

"the vet here is like $2000 per snake just for a check up"

HUH???,...C'mon.......$2,000 bucks just to LOOK at the snake??

Is he a mafia kingpin, or what??..LOL!. Sounds to me like there are a couple extra zero's there. Somebody on the cornsnake forum just brought their snake in with an RI, and after being treated, the vet bill was $33.00 dollars!.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com