New Ball Python Owner Having Some Trouble

[PastelMagick]

My boyfriend and I recently bought a ball python a little over a month ago. We immediately sensed something was wrong and took him to the vet. The vet said he was very sick with pneumonia and hasn't eaten in a really long time. Our snake has been on antibiotics since then and we had been seeing improvement and even got him to eat two weeks prior (he has just now started refusing food this week). But just recently he has been showing the same bad symptoms (puffy sounds and bubbles coming out of the mouth). We think he has gotten worse again because he has been spending all day and night on top of a climbing branch we put in his enclosure. The climbing branch is above where we have our heat lamp set up so it stays at our cold ambient of 75 degrees. We can't figure out why he has started staying up there when he has been doing so well before this. We have seen him use his hides and self regulate temperature in the past, but now he doesn't move from this cold spot. I have tried to do some research but have only gotten more confused. People say that if that ball pythons are ground snake and climbing is a bad sign, but I've also seen people say that ball pythons love to climb. Sorry for the long post but I really just need some advice. What should I do? I'm at a loss for if he's unhappy or not and what steps I should take to improve his happiness.

[ClockwerkBonnet]

Welcome to the forum! I'd suggest you check the humidity levels and turn them down.

[phenyx]

I would take him back to the vet if you haven't already. Also, what are the temps under your heat lamp? Not the ambient air temp, but the surface temp on top of the substrate which should be measured with an IR temp gun. If your heat lamp is too low in the enclosure then the substrate could be uncomfortably hot for your snake.

[chairman]

Did your vet do a culture? They usually don't and just treat with panacur, baytril, or some other broad spectrum antibiotics. The problem with this approach is that you often need to treat a specific bacteria with a specific antibiotic.

I'd go back to the vet and get a culture. If your husbandry is on point then your snake should be ok untreated until the results of the culture come back.