Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok im not 100% sure but i belive my snake may have a uri. i was pokin around checkin on him the other day and at first i thought he maybe hissing at me. which would be weird since he has never done this before. but then i did some research and i dont think that is it. its kind of like a slight whistile when he exhales sometimes. he hasnt eaten in 14 days (unsure on exact age but hes about 3ft long) but he looks a little dull like hes coming up on a shed so im not too worried about the eating. but i hear that whistling and it scares me a litlle. any ideas? temp right now is currently at 78 humidty is at 70.

on a side note it seems like when he does eat its not as often as he should. when he was smaller he would eat a fuzzy every 5 days. then when i got him up to small mice he was eating one every 8 days. now i have him on adult mice and it seems like he only eats maybe at most once or twice a month. it seems like for the size of the food he should be eating a bit more. any thoughts?

I don't know about the respiratory infection, but it sounds like your temperatures may be at the low end of the range. I set up my GTP cages so that there is a gradient from about 78° on the cool end to 88° or so on the warm end. My snakes tend to bask in the low to mid 80's.

I have noticed that when I keep snakes too cool, their feed response slows way down. This makes sense, they are not processing food and using nutrition as quickly so there is no need to eat as much.

I would check the temperatures and consider raising them. This may stimulate your snake's appetite. Higher temperatures can also help boost the immune system to help fight off mild respiratory infections.

Remember not to go too high. If given their preference, I'm betting your snake will seek out 84° F.

Good luck,

Mike

thanks that was my idea. i read about the heat boosting the immune system and upped the heat earlier today..believe its just about 84 now. thanks.

If you feel comfortable, open the snakes mouth, make sure theres mouth trachea are clear of mucus.

Take the snake out, handel it for a bit, pay attention to its breathing. If theres a any popping, clicking or wheezing sounds, you need to see a vet asap.

An RI is a very serious condition and you need to address it ASAP, as your snakes life is in jepordy.
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Julian Garcia
Chondros Exquisite
Seattle,WA

I have had a snake make strange whistling, and what sounded like sneezing just before they shed, but with your low tank temps it could very well have an R.I. As Julian stated, you need to get it taken care of right away as he learned from personal experience.
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right before a shed u say? i said that in the first post. he is most deffinetly going to shed in the next week. i had him out last night and didnt hear anything the one thing that seemed odd was he for lack of a better description yawned? he opened his mouth real wide for maybe a second then closed it. had him out for an hour and that was the only weird thing at all. that and he was slighty deffensive but he normally dosent like to be handled this close to a shed. so i kind of expected that.

You got a resp there. Yawn and breathing noises equal a resp no doubt and it can kill your snake if you don't act fast. Put it under a heat lamp on a branch about a foot under a 40/60 watt bulb and keep it on all the time until the symptoms get better. Remove every item from the cage except a big waterbowl on the bottom or near it so it can drink. The removal of every item is important as you do not know if the resp was from a bacteria or fungus, or mold or what ever, so clean the cage in hot water and whipe it out good and put it back together again and run the branch under very hot water for a while to kill any germs. If symptoms continue, go to a vet for medication, but heat will often make it better and try to figure how it started in the first place and avoid cooler temps and bad air flow. Good Luck.
Oh, and do not handle your snake while it is sick. It takes a good month to clear it up. Mist heavy while it is basking to keep the humidity up.

Dan