Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I told you guys yesterday about the symptoms my BP has had(mouth breathing at times, nose rubbing, head tilted up in the air a lot) and some of you brought up that it's probably a RI.

Well, I took him to the Vet today to have him checked out. Well, he did all the standard stuff I guess. Opened up his mouth and took a good look at the windpipe, and the inside of the mouth in general. Then he felt the body and checked a bunch of different places with his stethoscope, Listened to his breathing, etc. Well, according to him, their is nothing wrong at all with him. He said that he didn't hear any wheezing or see any bubbling. He said he didn't see any evidence of a RI and told me that he looked very healthy and that I must be taking very good care of him. I asked him what might be causing him to do all that stuff and he said it's a possibilty that just the overall conditions in my tank maybe need some changing and my BP is reacting in those ways because of it. He said The tank could be too warm and that's why he's doing those things and to make sure my gauages are reading accurately. Plus, he told me that I need to start giving him supplements since I told him that I just feed him the rats/mice and that's all I do.

Does all of that sound strange to you guys? I've always heard a lot of you on here say that a BP should be able to get all the vitamins he needs from the rat or mouse. Did he mean to try and give him supplements if he's not eating? The doctor was foreign so I did the best I could to understand what he was saying.

And I noticed that after I got home my BP started doing those things again. He doesn't do it continously but he'll crack his mouth open for several or more seconds and then stop. Plus, I tried to listen to him breathe right after I got home and I thought I heard a couple of little noises. Plus, he tends move his mouth around like their is something in there. Now, I looked with the doctor and it looked clear to me too! At the time we looked I didn't see any problems either! Any ideas and what this could possibly be? I am so puzzled over this right now. Could they get things like this that come and go where at one point in the day they are clear and another point they clog up a little?Sorry for the extreme length in this post and thanks for reading.

I personally don't know enough about RI to be of any help. But I'm just curious..is this guy an exotic vet? Do you know if he specializes in reptiles or works with them a lot? Not all exotic vets have a lot of experience with reptiles - they may deal more with birds, etc.

Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in here.
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not that im an expert on snakes by any strech of the immagination but it sounds like your temps are to hot i have a adult female ball that was posturing and basically doing the same stuff yours was and it was the temps were to hot. i was told by the vet at cornell that the temps are relative to each snake another words 90 degrees may be to hot for one snake and just right for another. 90 degrees for my snake was to hot i had to lower them to 85-88 on the hot side and just like that she got better. he also said to only lower them untill the symptoms went away so that the snake doesnt get to cold. also ive never heard of giving a ball a supplement unless it was emaciated. just my 2 cents
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So, he was holding his mouth open at times, rubbing his nose on things and pointing his head up a lot just like mine is? I'm about to run to radio shack to get some digital thermometers that have sensors to go along with them. I have a UTH on the one side. What should the sensor read if I put it directly over the UTH right on the glass? I want to make sure it doesn't get too hot but it still warm enough to help raise the air temps in that area. Thanks.

You should get a second opinion on your snake's health. I would say anyone who tells you that you that your snake is perfectly healthy but still suggests you give him supplements might not be a vet who is specialized in reptiles. Like someone else stated above, not all exotic vets deal with reptiles more than once or twice a year... Well I wish you the best of luck and I would take that guy to see a new vet, call the vets and talk with them about how many reptiles they see and sometimes you can ask for a recommendation in the area of who would be the most qualified to work with reptiles. You need to be very proactive in the search for a good vet and i wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,
Rose Hipskind
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If you live near a Vet school maybe they will see your BP if there is no other vet in your area that will see it.

A foreign vet who doesnt speak clear English and recommends vitamin supplements for a ball python? Sounds like you need to find a more qualified reptile vet. Mark

I'm definitely going to get a second opinion on this considering how I was already feeling and how you guys have reacted to what I was told by this guy. If anybody knows of a good reptile Vet in the Pittsburgh area please let me know of them. Otherwise, the search continues. I just want to make sure I won't have to get a 3rd opinion or I'm going to go broke over this!

Their is a post down below by "Wideglide" where they put a link to the page for The Association for Reptilian and Amphibian Veteranarians. Well, I clicked on PA and guess who I found in there? The doctor that saw my BP! So, this guy appears to be very qualified going by that page anyway. I don't know. I guess anybody that happens to have a degree in that can have their name put on that page. Just thought that was interesting. I think I need to find somebody locally that has a reptile and takes them to a Vet to get their advice on who's good and who isn't!

are there any reptile stores in your area? That is how I found the animal hospital that has 3 vets that see snakes in my area. They might be able to help you also.

When my regular vet was away for the holiday I had to see a vet. Well the guy I was able to see on short notice, who was a very nice "exotics" vet, turned out to be on that list.

He turned out to be the best exotic bird guy in the area, but his knowledge about snakes was outdated and dangerous.

His course of treatment would have probably killed my snake, but I won’t get into that right now.

TomChambers

My vet is very good; he sees the most reptiles in my area.
Anyway, I took in a boa this winter, and I knew it had a RI, so I brought him in for a check up and some meds.
My vet did the same types of checks that your vet did, and to my surprise he said he is in good health, but skinny.
I'm not a vet but I knew this was wrong. I thought to myself, I deal with the snake daily, he sees it for ten minutes, maybe he missed something???
Well about two weeks later he started to blow bubbles out of his mouth, so I cranked up the heat and made another appointment to see the vet.
Here is the good part of the story.
So the snakes symptoms start to get a little better from the increased heat, and the bubbling wasn’t constant. Get this, my vet checks him over and says he is in good health. We both looked in his mouth and it was clear, so now I’m saying to myself “am I losing my mind??? This snake has a RI you know it does”. I was the Dr.’s last appointment for the day, so we stood around and BS’ed for a 15 min. or so. I was holding the snake the whole time, and after about ten minutes of the snake climbing on me he started to wheeze and blow bubbles. I showed the vet, and we looked in the mouth, and it wasn’t clear anymore.
The conclusion of the story, 1) vets can make mistakes based on severity of the symptoms (even good ones). 2) Symptoms can hide themselves so I always take my snakes out and handle them for about ten minutes before I look in the mouth and check them out.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps with your situation.
TomChambers