Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I sadly think my Ball Python has a RI . I noticed that when she breathes it makes a whistling noise so I called my vet. They said it's probably pneumonia so I'm bringing her in tomorrow for an inspections and probably to start an injection set.

I'm trying to figure out how she could've possibly gotten sick.

Shes a little over 3 ft long and a little over a year and a half in age. I keep her in a 50 gallon tank with aspen shavings, an overhead bulb 12 hours a day and an undertank heater 24/7. She has a hide spot on both ends of the tank and her water is kept on the cool side. I keep thee measurement gauges in the middle of the tank where heat reads 80F when light is on (usually no lower than 75 when it's off), and humidity is around 60% usually.

She shed 2 months ago I believe and seems to be due for another (her skin is starting to get flakey on her belly). Since December she hasn't been eating as much, she ate 1 adult mouse a few days ago, a month before the last time she ate she had 2 adult mice, time before that was 2 weeks previous and she had one mouse. I figured her lack of food (she was eating 2 adult mice a week) was due to the weather change (winter).

She lately has been hiding her in hide spot on the cool end of the tank, or burrowing under her aspen shavings.

Any ideas how she could've become sick? Also I would like some opinions as to how often I should clean her tank and how thuroughly. Thank you so much!

You see any mucus or bubbles from her nose? It's possible there is a stuck shed in her nostril. Sometimes it causes them to whistle and sometimes alarming to a RI. You can never be too careful. Good luck!

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your problem ball. You have offered a lot of info in your post, however you've raised more questions than you answered. How long have you had your snake? How big was it (grams) when you got it? It certainly is not eating much now, even two mice a week is not enough for a three foot ball. I'm assuming you haven't raised it from a baby, since it's too big for a year and a half, especially given how much its been eating.
I think temperature and humidity are also contributing to your problems. The air temperature should be around 85 during the day, and no lower than 80 at night. The light you are using may be drying the air and causing shedding problems. The skin should not flake off, but come off in one piece (more or less). Try misting the snake with warm water and wet the substrate around him to facilitate shedding.

If an RI is suspected, have the vet do a culture so you know exactly what's going on. You also need a culture to determine what meds are indicated to combat it.

Careful with that undertank heater. How do you control it's tempature?

Sorry to hear that I'm going through the same thing I have 4 with r. I. I had a culture done and know what type of bacteria I'm dealing with this is caused by stress it lowers the immune system and lower temps and bad husbandry I'm using the pill form of baytril to treat and it's making them better it's taking a little while but they are 50 percent better now if your vet gives baytril shots or ask you to just as a caution repeat injections of baytril could cause absecces I clean my cages now every week completely and disinfect everything the post below talking about the temps is correct one thing you can do is raise the hot spot 5 degrees higher this helps the immune system work better if you go to the vet just follow his orders and the snake will get better hope this helps and good luck

But you may need to change the cage.

I know you said that your humidity is at 60%, but do you know that this may not be true, according to your humidity gauge?

In such a large cage, i think you need more hides placed about, and something covering the screen top. may be even an extra water bowl in addition to covering up the screen top.