open mouth breathing

[Minkness]

Soooo, as most probably know, I rescued some sick hognoses recently. Ine is REALLY bad and was open mouth breathing. He still is but it's only been a few days. I have the injections that I give every 3 days and I bumped his temps and humidity. I really hope he pulls theough but even the vet wasn't sure if it had been caught in time.

Anyway, doing all that I can for the little guy and just would like to hear some stories of encouragement. A time you had a reptile that was so bad, but still made it. Extra love to those who have open mouth breathing recovery stories!

[Minkness]

Here's some pics of him. He is a high yellow cinda male. Age unknown, but he weighs all of 24 grams. Also, even though he's sick, he's proven to be a great eater!

Oh yeah, and his name is Osiris after the Egyptian god. =)

[Eggplant]

Hognoses seem to be resilient little buggers :) It's good that he still has a good appetite! My hognose had a mild RI for a while as well. Picked her up one day and she had a giant glob of booger hanging off her chin.. Vet gave me 5 shots of antibiotics to give her when I went in. Despite her wiggling, I managed to get the shots in and she fought off the infection easily. I hope that Osiris will make a speedy recovery as well! Best of luck :)

[Minkness]

Awww....glad to hear your hoggie got better! Thank you for the encouragement. =)

[prairiepanda]

Looks like he's got plenty of weight on him and an overall healthy look despite the infection, so he's in good shape to fight it off. A friend of mine once bought a pueblan milk snake off local classifieds, only to discover that the snake was in terrible condition. She took it anyway and had me help her rehabilitate it. The cage looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months, the snake was covered in its own excrement and super skinny due to being fed pinkies all its life(this was an adult!), and of course it had a respiratory infection. We cleaned him up, cleaned and disinfected his enclosure, and treated his infection with 4 rounds of vaporizer treatment(the vet recommended this course as he felt injections would have been too hard on the snake's system, being so skinny). The infection cleared up real quick, and we gradually got him up to eating adult mice. He's now strong and healthy, and has not had any issues since! Very friendly snake, although he likes to poop on strangers.

[Minkness]

Oh wow! Thank you for sharing this story! It gives me even more hope that this little guy will be just as strong! And yes, he is pretty thick and has a voracious appitite as well as still very active. The vet had suggested vapors at first, but I think that was because he wasn't sure how I'd do giving the injections. I believe I proved efficient when I gave both snakes the injection in less than a minute and showed no fear lol. Both were othereise in good health as well. Even had a fecal done just in case and even that came back 'clean'. So other than the open mouth breathing he's perfect. I didn't see the cleanliness of the cage he was in (he was in a back room and they brought him out to me), but I picked up my ivory bp from these same people and her tank was aweful. She was dirty and full of mites....so it wouldn't surprise me if his conditions were simmilar (but so far no sign of mites!)

Also, do you think changing out his paper towls on a daily basis is too much?

[prairiepanda]

Daily paper changes seems excessive given the situation, but if it's not stressing him out(he's still energetic and eating well) then it's not a big deal. I'd probably do it every three days or so, or immediately if you notice spilled water or excrement.

[Minkness]

He poops EVERY day. That's why I asked about daily changes. He doesn't seem at all bothered by it and has already eaten 3 meals with me. He will be getting his 4th tonight. Wish me luck that he takes it as well as the others!

[prairiepanda]

Haha well in that case continue with the daily paper changes. Hopefully the drugs won't dampen his appetite.

[Eggplant]

Not sure if this applies to you but vet told me to hold off on feeding while giving shots cause she was afraid snakie will get too nervous and puke up food.