Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of Jungle carpet Pythons my female seemed to develop a respitory infection and I made a vet appointment for today, April 22,2005. I raised the temperatures and kept a close eye on her. Here is the question, do snakes get colds or can an RI heal on its own? My snake seems to have stopped wheezing and open mouth breathing and has shown interest in feeding again. I have no reason not to bring her to the vet, Money isn't an issue, but I would hate to stress her if she is better. Any thoughts or ideas??

RI's will go away on their own if temps and humidity are high but why risk it. If the snake is interested in food again that is a good sign, vets will often judge the level of infection by a reptiles willingness to eat. Anyway, I would take it to the vet just to be safe, especially if you have no reason not to, but I know quite a few pet shop owners not willing to pay the vet bill who will keep the heat way up for a week or so and many of them recover perfectly. Good luck, Eric-

thanks for the advice, she did see the vet last night and he said that he doesn't see the need for antibiotics at this point. He gave 2 reasons for not putting her on antibiotics, one her weezing was gone and she was alert and also he thinks she is GRAVID!!! so he wasn't sure if the antibiotics would damage the eggs. I think the RI was originally brought on by the cooling I did before the male was introduced and now that the heat is back up it may have healed on its own.