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Greetings

I have a red-tail boa born 2/2/08. Unsexed--I call her "Brigid", my bf calls him "Twilight". Last night, and again this morning, Brigid appears to me to be star-gazing: head and 5-6 inches of neck are raised for an extended period of time ( I have not actually been timing). I know that I have some husbandry issues to resolve: a) room temp is constant 79/ 81 degrees, over the tank ceramic heater (only heat source) is reading 86; b) humidity is stupidly low (28%); bedding is a soil/bark mix bought at the pet store a while ago (may need replacing at this point); c) she just [bleep] and passed urates yesterday or Wed, which I just cleaned yesterday, and is now due to eat again (jumbo frozen rats from Petco). So I probably need to up the heater a bit and the humidity a lot. She is somewhat responsive to tapping on glass, and is responsive to my contact. When I took her out last night, her grip is good, she seemed pretty curious (especially about the snake in the bathroom mirror), and generally seemed to know which way was up. I did not actually try to flip her to see if she could really right herself.
She's not open mouth breathing, and I did not notice anything wrong with her breathing (wheezing etc) when I had her out. No noticeable mucus/discharges.

One other significant fact: her father, Midnight, died of IBD, and her mother Freya, was put down for a RI which I can only presume was also part of IBD. I posted at least a couple of times here about our situation--- this is our one baby that I kept and who has been going strong now for 3 years.

So the Qs are: 1)how much should I be worried at this point?
2) once I adjust the heat and humidity, if she continues, if star-gazing is the only symptom, how long should I wait before taking her to the vet? And no, I've not had her to the vet yet at all---if I had, we'd know what sex she/he really is.

Thank you for your time. Any input would be appreciated. The support and information I've received here in the past was, and continues to be, deeply appreciated. We lost a lot (3 adults, 50 babies/ 2 litters) to IBD. I don't wish that on anyone.

Sincerely,
Antigone

I'm not a Boa guy but what are you waiting for with the humidity. Don't Boa's need a lot more. You should up that today. I would go right to the vet given the snakes history.........Mike Bodner
Link

I would normally say that this sounds like a pneumonia or other respiratory problem. "star-gazing" isn't an on/off type thing. On the other hand, with your history, it is very possible that it is IBD or at least related.
Unfortunately nothing has changed in the past year as far as anti-mortem diagnoses of IBD. So all that you can do is perfect that husbandry, treat the symptoms and potentially diagnose a different cause for the current ailment. And as you know, quarantine, quarantine, quarantine. It's in your collection and as long as you have boids you'll have to keep things closed down.

Good luck,

Ian

Hello again

So I did up the heat and the temps, and my bf said that she stopped the behavior. I haven't noticed it in the last three days either. Tonight I'm trying to feed her, and this is the first time in a while that she hasn't immediately gone for the food. Maybe that needs an increase in temps too. I'll continue keeping an eye out for more respiratory distress, but she really wasn't wheezing at all.

We have two ball pythons and this boa. I always handle her last and wash before handling the others. We're not getting others.

Thank you again for responding. It really is appreciated.

Sincerely,
Antigone

I'm glad I ran into you again. I come to kingsnake less and less nowadays as I have responsibilities elsewhere.
When this behavior is seen in association with respiratory problems, it is often of a deeper nature and there may not be an "upper respiratory" infection to cause any wheezing or produce any visible discharges.

This may be an explaination if she doesn't turn around completely with the higher temps. Keep doing what you are doing though, watch closely, record weight and appetite and when she's showing symptoms. Also work on that humidity. A misting system is awesome, but in the mean time you can get a pump hand sprayer from 5-25 dollars.

Ian

Ian:

Cool- I'm glad that I caught you stopping in I have no idea what Brigid's weight is, but I think it's pretty healthy for her size. She was a bit slow to eat this last time, but ended up eating both the large rat I thawed for her, and the small rat that Hopey, my female ball python rejected. If Hopey wasn't still in pretty good weight I'd be even more frustrated by her lack of appetite most of the year-- I do wonder if she's had her growth stunted because of it.

I'll work on getting better with the spray bottle

Thanks again for all your time and support.

Antigone