Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I checked on my 3.5 year old female boa tonight and I found her with her head twisted upsidedown. Like her head and her body are not aligned so her head is always the opposite direction from her body. She seems disoriented and a little weak. My roommate cleaned the floor with clorox cleanup tonight and her cage is just around the corner from the floor that was cleaned. Is it possible that the bleach in the cleaner has affected her this way? She lives in a 2 x 2 x 4 melamine custom enclosure with good ventalation, undertank heat pad buffered with plexiglass and several sheets of newspaper and the ambient room temperature is between 70 and 75 constant. She isn't tasting the air at all. I've only seen her stick her tounge out once. She's responsive when touched but doesn't have a strong coil like normal. As soon as I thought about the bleach, I moved her to a rubbermaid and brought her upstairs to the computer room so the temps are warmer and we have a fan circulating the air. I checked her mouth and there is no mucus or mouth rot, she had water. She has been with a male boa and did see some mating activity but at most that was two months ago. None of our other animals are sick or exibiting any similar signs so I'm doubting that it's anything like crypto or IBD. Does this sound like something from the bleach or should I ask the vet about tomorrow when I take my dog to him?

Any advice would be great,
Thanks,
Sarlina

Well if you are already on the way to the vet see if you can mention it and get a vet's take on it but as far as i can say, Steve and I keep away from strongly scented cleaning supplies for our cages and floors, BUT i wouldnt thing that just cleaning the floors would do something like that to your snake.. I would make sure that there was a good strong heat source, i noticed that you mentions a heat mat but the only temps you gave were ambient air temps... Just thought i would state it... I think that you could try giveing the snake a nice luke warm bath and see if she will perk up for you another thing would be if she just ate, or is going into a shed cycle..... sometimes there are just days where they feel bad too... i would try a few things and see if you can get her to perk up... maybe a good round of food would get her going... just my thoughts.. I would try a few things before haveing to make a second trip to the vet for something like dehydration..just my .02 cents.. wish you good luck!!!

Sincerley,
Rose Hipskind
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www.srsnakes.com

Thanks Rose for the input. I'm not posstiive what the temps are. I know they aren't as high as 85 or 90 but they arent low either. I'll try giving her a bath this afternoon, I hadn't thought of that and it's almost feeding day anyway. This morning she still had her head at an angle, but she's curled up otherwise normally. I'll see what the vet says today and hopefully she'll start to pull through whatever is ailing her.

Sarlina