Respiratory Infection ! help!

[Them and Us]

my ratsnake " Fox" is his name. he has the systems of early sages of a repiratory infection. i am told that it may be helped with a heat gradient. any suggestions on the best way to have a good gradual heat gradient. he will still be having a trip to the vet this week though.

[J.J.]

umm, what do you have as a heat sourse for him now??? Heat lamp heat pad??? let me know, and i will let you know what you should do!

[Syst3m]

Some of the common ways are to use under tank heaters. that only cover one half of the cage and watch how much heat is generated by the lamps I know my pet store sold me a bulb that is way to much for my snake at basking temps. I'm able to get a floor temp gradient of 12 degrees or better with an under tank heater in only half of the cage. We do need to know a bit more about your snake cage setup before we can give you any tips that will benifit you.

[Linds]

A proper gradient is an undertank heater or a lamp (though for terrestrial snakes a bottom heating device is preferred) that covers 1/3 - 1/4 of the enclosure on one side. To aid in killing off an R.I. in its early stages you can blast it out of their system with heat. High heat in snakes acts like a fever does in humans. Now I'm not into colubrids so asides from basic feeding and care requirements I'm not much help and don't know what the treating temp would be for them, since I know they cannot tolerate high temps as well as boids do........ :confused:

[J.J.]

I thought that Boas needed the extra heat???

[J.J.]

wait i read that last part wrong, lol! nevermind that question^^^^ lol!!

[reverendsterlin]

raising temps and lowering humidity are what I have always done if I suspected a RI.