Reptile & Amphibian Forums

her neck gets all swollen and she was drooling out the mouth like snought or like a dog drooling.I just had her out 3-4 days ago and she was fine.I called my vet and found out he passed away at a young age of a heart attack.I couldn't believe my ears.Not only have I lost my vet for all my animals he was the only one that I know of who works on birds and reptiles.I'm wondering if this is a RI, but nothing is coming from her nose.Any help or suggestions would be appriciated. Thanks, Ethan

I have seen that happen before. Nothing was wrong with our snake, but he sure did spit out a whole lot of water.
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sue

Yah, she was in the water bowl prior to getting her out, but I've done this before and this had not happen.She must have dranked alot of water this time as gogoo151 mentioned the same thing about drinking water and handling them can cause this to happen.She seems to be ok now, just weird as I have never read anything about this happening.

Ethan,
I found one of my babies doing this when I got her home. In my case it was a respritory infection, and it is very likely that you are experiencing the same thing. I think the discharge from the nose is just that fluid being blown from the mouth out the nose. Mine dont really have much coming out of their nose because its a very muckusy(sp?) discharge. KLG was nice enough to pass on this website to me http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm Just click your state and it has vets with herp experience in your state. For right now the best thing to do is just increase the heat and humidity, read up on treatment for RI, and keep this snake away from your others! I found in my area not many vets are open on the weekends, so you may not find one on the list open today or tommorow. You might want to check your snakes mouth for stomitis as well. If you can get some of the fluid out without causing too much stress it seems to help them breath as well. Good Luck.

-J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

So far so good, seems like she just coughed up some water mixed with saliva from her mouth.Nothing was coming from her nose and she wasn't weezing at all.Just caught me by surprise and scared the ---- out of me.

It really does sound like she was just drooling due to being handled after drinking, but keep a close eye on her just in case.

Sorry to hear about your vet - hope you're able to find someone else in your area who's skilled with reptiles.

K
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"Remember the days of the old schoolyard?" - Cat Stevens

She was fine last night and today, and she was in her water bowl prior to grabbing her, so seems like that was the case, thank god.Just got scared as now I have to find another local vet incase something bad does go wrong one day. Thanks, Ethan

Ethan,
Glad shes ok! I had never heard about water discharge after drinking, it makes sense tho. All the best.

-J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

Hi Ethan –

Great news if that was all it was! It’s a funny thing about snakes, water and gravity, huh? I try now not to pick up any of my snakes immediately after I see that they’ve been drinking, ‘cause I know that most of it is just going to come drooling back out if their heads don’t stay elevated. And the first time you see it, you may not be sure what’s going on since the fluid that comes out seems so much more viscous than water.

-Joan