Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have raised monitors for about 7 years now and I recently got a nile monitor and there is just something not right about his breathing. I was watching him a little bit ago and he seems to not be able to breath though his nose or something strange is happening. I soaked him in the tub and checked out his nose under the lights and did not see any blockage. So, I put him back on his log and he sits under the ubv basking and about every 30 seconds it looks like he tries to breath but he does'nt get anywhere and then he opens his mouth and gasp air in then repeats every 30 seconds or so. Also, he does the same thing when he sleeps, he will close his eyes and flatten out and sleep for about 30 seconds and then only to wake up opening his mouth gasping for air, thats when it started to bother me. He has been eating good, he ate crickets and ground turkey today and he is active. Basking spot is around 125 with 80-85 ambient temp with a 75 cool hide box. Substrate is Organic Top soil mixed with playsand 75/25. I am using the Petes stack layered box style as a leveled heat box with basking spot on top. The nile is roughly 10 inches long, so not very old at all.

Anyone have any ideas? I am completely stumped on this one.

Does he seem lazy or does he still have energy? If he seems to be really gasping or struggling to breath in any way I would say take it to the vet, a breathing problem seems like a serious problem.

He has plenty of energy and swam around the tube and chased crickets around. I just don't understand why he can't breath though his nose and has to open his mouth I guess.

My savannah had the exact same problem. More than likely it's a respiratory infection. All I had to do was raise temps and humidity. I also misted him a couple times a day. Make sure he's not sleeping in a cold place. Mine had the habit of sleeping behind his water container against the cold glass. Now he's too big to wedge himself back there. If he looks pretty bad off I'd take him to the vet and get some meds. I forget what they give for that usually. Flagyl?

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

During the day I have the UVB on the "retes stack" but he does have a cool hide he can go to. When he is done basking he usualy heads in there for a bit to chill. At night I use a infered 100w light on the hide to warm it up because thats where he sleeps, the hide is around 90 at night, top of retes stack is about 120-125 during the day and roughly 9 inches from 125 solar glo.