Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Theres a cloudy mucus coming from his mouth in latrge amounts...im thinking its stomache contesnts since he just ate a very large medium rat 2 days ago.....Anyone know what this is?

Has the snake been wheezing, sneezing, making poping noises when he breathes or opening his mouth a lot? If so the mucas is the advanced stages of an RI (respiratory infection) and vet care is immediately needed as this will kill your snake. How are your temps and humidity?

If RI is not the case then the rat you fed him was way too large and he may be getting ready to regurge it or have other digestive/stomach issues as a result of this. Why you fed him that is beyond me. Especially with young snakes, and really all my snakes, I NEVER feed them any thing that I have the slightest doubt may be too large. In captivity it is much better to error with food on the small size than too large. If he regurges the rat don't handle him for a while and don't try to feed again for at least two weeks and then give him a small rodent. If the mucas continues again go to the vet. Bill.

I agree with the previous poster. It may be an RI, but there is a great probability that he is about to regurgitate his last meal. I had this problem once with a boa and didnt know what it was until he regurgitated a half digested jumbo rat hours after (single-handedly the worst smell in the world) I noticed copious amounts of clear slimy mucous dripping from his nose/mouth area. Keep us posted.

>>Has the snake been wheezing, sneezing, making poping noises when he breathes or opening his mouth a lot? If so the mucas is the advanced stages of an RI (respiratory infection) and vet care is immediately needed as this will kill your snake. How are your temps and humidity?
>>
>>If RI is not the case then the rat you fed him was way too large and he may be getting ready to regurge it or have other digestive/stomach issues as a result of this. Why you fed him that is beyond me. Especially with young snakes, and really all my snakes, I NEVER feed them any thing that I have the slightest doubt may be too large. In captivity it is much better to error with food on the small size than too large. If he regurges the rat don't handle him for a while and don't try to feed again for at least two weeks and then give him a small rodent. If the mucas continues again go to the vet. Bill.

No its not RI the temps are fine at 92 on the hot side and 78 in the middle and 83 on thje cool side.....i think you are right about the regurditation.....but i dont undersntad this because at 3 1/2 ft everyone recoomended giving him medium rats and this is your adverage size medium rat...hmmmm???

I recently had to pick up a friend and run him to a vet the SECOND he noticed his little green anaconda make an odd noise. The symptoms were not even as serious as what you described and the snake didn't make it. Every second you wait is incredibly risky unless you KNOW what the problem is. From here it looks like you KNOW it is not an RI based on your temps? Maybe it isnt an RI but I highly doubt your reading of cage temps can tell you this. The anaconda was kept in great conditions by the way but only since he was purchased...who knows before then. We even did a necropsy at the vet and really could not come up with a good reason for its death from there (possibly if we sent tissue samples to the lab but it really was not worth the cost at this point to him on his stricter budget..which was not too strict to save the snake...just too strict for after death costs to start adding up). If anyone wants pics of a young green anaconda on the inside you can email me.

First of all take the snake to the vet as the highly expereinced people here have taken the time to advise.

Refering to your post of Dec 30 you state that your snake is barely 3.5 foot, the rat looked big for him, he took it live, and afterwards he had a huge lump. Snakes are all individuals. One at 3.5 foot may be very heavy and thick, another one slender. If the rat looked too big for the snake, it probably wss. I have seen a lot of variation in what different people call a "medium size rat" Some are much smaller or a lot bigger than others. Some rats are long and slender, some very fat and heavy/girthy for their "medium" classification. I can take a comercially packaged bag of 100 frozen medium rats out of my freezer right now and their sizes differ. Feed a rodent no larger around than the largest section of your snake. And with baby/juvenile snakes do not push the food size. And plese do get him on frozen thawed instead of live. A noticable lump after feeding is one thing. A huge lump is another. Bill

I too have seen huge variation in rat sizes in what they call small or medium. I have some small I purchased that are what many people would call even big mediums. I will still feed to a snake eating small rats but if the meal is large I can tell. My feedings today actually were moving many snakes up to the next size item (after taking multiple smallers to make the switch) and some have nice big bulges in them. This means I will wait longer between feedings. Like some snakes I may bot feed more than one or time this month even at less than 2 years. A burm especially is going to be one to suffer from over eating as many live shortened live due to owners irresonsibly overfeeding.

Even if the prey item isnt that big, a burm can regurgitate it if he is unable to digest it properly due to a number of factors, specifically insufficient heat. If your temps that you listed are accurate (although Im assumming you meant 83 in the middle and 78 on the cool, not the other way around), then it may be something else. More the reason to make a vet visit asap. Good luck.

>>No its not RI the temps are fine at 92 on the hot side and 78 in the middle and 83 on thje cool side.....i think you are right about the regurditation.....but i dont undersntad this because at 3 1/2 ft everyone recoomended giving him medium rats and this is your adverage size medium rat...hmmmm???

Although I tend to agree with both posts, the ONLY person who should make a diagnosis is a qualified vet. If someone keeping a burm isn't prepared to spend money in taking a potentially sick burm to a vet, they shouldn't own one; PERIOD. The conditions described by the original posts ARE NOT NORMAL and could be symptoms of something very serious that only a vet should make a determination on and waiting for advice on this forum only puts the snake in greater danger. GET THIS SNAKE TO A VET.

Rick Crowley's post was very appropriate for many folks on this forum to read. Personally, probably less than 5% of the people who own burms, including this forum (sorry, but based on what I read, I am probably guessing high), are qualified to properly care for them....and that's based on many years of accumulated statistics from burms coming into our facility.