Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tonight when I was holding my baby milk snake every so often I'd hear a tiny little "tick" noise come from him. Could this have been a cough? He did it every 2 minutes or so. Real subtle and barely audible. He seems other wise healthy and lively and eats readily.

Anybody have any ideas?

Get this little guy to the vet ASAP because I can almost guarentee you it's a respirtory infection. Until then, up the temps in his enclosure. This isn't something that will go away...but it will most likely get worse. Soon you'll have gaping for air and bubbles. My baby carpet python had an RI that I found early, and I had to give it injections every 2 days for a few weeks.
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0.1 Irian Jaya carpet python
0.1 Ball python
0.3 Crested Geckos
2.2.7 Leopard Geckos (male-jungle, hypo tangerine carrot tail. female-normal, albino. babies-leucistic, blizzard, normal)
0.1 Western Hognose snake
1.0 Eastern Milksnake (currently free roaming in my home =/)
1.0 Albino Lavender California Kingsnake
1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.2 Water turtles
1.0 Umbrella Cockatoo (belongs to my mom and I)

Sometimes they will do this when a shed is coming up. Loose skin around the nostrils. If the snake is indeed going "blue" or is already, then don't worry about the ticking. Give the snake a moist area over the heated area. A washed cottage cheese container with a sector of the lid cut away and filled with moist sphagnum moss works well.

Hopefully that's all it is. His eyes were blue the day before yesterday. I've seen him snea king up in to his water dish twice just now in broad daylight so he's probably wanting to soak before shedding.

Thanks

also check your rh(relative humidity);you always hear how high humidity can cause resp. problems....well too low humidity can cause problems too-and kings and milks are esp. sensitive to humidity being too low....sort of like how in the winter,if your house is very dry,people can get nosebleeds(nasal passage/sinuses get too dry and that leads to bigger problems)

I agree with Mark and Just. I don't think you have much to worry about, hope it all works out. Maybe the last pink some how had a lttle peanut butter on it. That will make dogs do that ticking thing....LOL.

Thanks for the responses. Everything seems to be OK. He shed perfectly and is very lively and curious. Constantly flicking his tongue and checking out everything I walk past when I handle him.

Other than that one day no more "ticking".