View Full Version : New BP, gotta take her to the vet
Ok, I wanted to update you all on the new Ball python I got... I will send pics and everything later.
She seemed fine when i went to go see her. She's in shed, so I think I'll be able to make a better assessment after she sheds unfortunately. But she's very sweet, and somewhat active at times, no mouth rot or external parasites, she has a small dent on each of her eyes, but I think that's pretty common and easy to fix (so I've read).
Last night I noticed that when she breathes her left nostril looks to have some liquid in it, but there's no wheezing or anything. Maybe it's just water from her water bowl, or maybe it's mucous, I don't know. So I'm going to take her to the vet tomorrow just to be sure. She is only using a heat lamp right now...I have to get her an undertank heater I think...
I also noticed her anal spurrs (???) They are much more noticable than my rosy's. I wonder if the vet can tell if she's really a she from just that. I'm guessing she's about 3 years old and she's 36 inches....im wondering if she's a boy...lol. Her name right now is Hazel...and that just wont do...
She/he's beautiful!! I fell in love with her...and I swear I did not see her nostril thingy when I went to go see her. Oh well, other than that, and that her shed is very obviously going to come out in pieces, she seems fine...to me.
I will update as soon as I can!
Ok, im at the verge of freak here...I went home for lunch, and took her out, she seems fine to me. Seems curious, I was holding her, and she hung her head, as if she was going to try to get down from me and onto the floor, and LIQUID CAME OUT OF HER MOUTH!! It was clear, and like saliva, but not too mucousy....I'm so worried! :( She seems fine, but I'm on the phone with the vet right now, I want to know if I should leave work early and take her in today, or if I CAN wait until tomorrow.... It came out of her mouth, not her nose...and it was a lot....it was like drool.....HMMM :( :( :( OMgosh....
Congrats on your new addition :)
Sounds like a good idea to just have her looked over by a vet. Does she have anoy other symptoms of an RI (wheezing, mouth open, sneezing, clicking, popping, etc)? Also keep in mind that when they are in shed there nostrils get a little clogged with skin which can make a whistling sound. If you suspect she has a minor RI then up the temps until you can get her to the vet. Good luck ;)
Unless she's already started to to shed her skin, it may not be too late to save her shed. Just up the humidity a fair bit until she's shed and you should be fine.
Sounds by size alone that she could possibly be a he. When you take her to the vet you can have him/her sexed to be sure. Spurs on a snake are not a very accurate method of sexing snakes, sometimes females have spurs jsut as large as some males do.
Good luck and keep us posted ;)
<B>Part two....lol :p By the time I finished posting you had already posted an update....hehehe......</b>
Is it possible that she had takena drink a fwe hours before you handled her? Sometimes a snake will regurgitate their water, it isn't anything to worry about if that's what it is but I would defintiely take her to the vet to get looked over anyways ;)
Well, she was not wheezing, but I thought I saw her "yawn" twice the day I got her. I assumed she was yawning, I hope she wasnt just trying to breathe.
So I am very alarmed..should I be so alarmed? <whimper>
I dont know if I can take HIM/her to the vets until tomorrow.
Thanks Linds! I have been chatting with some friends, and I may or may not take her/him to the vet today. It's a $$ issue, It'd be much more feasible tomorrow, we shall see.
Wrath,
When we first got Lilith our ball, we thought the same thing too, turns out she was stressing and needed worming as well. We were terrified that she had an upper respiratory infection. We used Panacur (horse wormer) cut with distilled water, injected her mice and she's been fantastic every since, growing like a weed. But we keep her humidity in the 50 - 60% range and heat from 83 to 88 degrees with overnight temps only down to about 75 degrees. For that shed, offer her a humidity box of some sort, we used an old Shed's Spread Country Crock container, cut a hole big enough for her to crawl through about two inches up from the bottom, filled it with moist paper towels and put the lid on, put it right in the warm area of the cage. After the worming and addition of the humidity box, her sheds have been perfect.
On the vet though, it's still a good idea, perhaps you can call one who will accept a fecal sample without an office visit, that will save you about half the money, or call the universities and see which ones have herpetology departments and see if they'll see her for you, they do this on the cheap, even sometimes for free in order for the students to gain clinical experience.
Tay
well, good luck, you should get a heat pad too, otay! Hope all is well, okay!! god bless
Tim_Cranwill
09-09-02, 05:43 PM
I hope it all works out for you and the snake. I know Vets are expensive and might seem like a last resort, but it might not be the worst waste of money in the world.
I hope all goes well, and good luck.
jason h
09-09-02, 07:27 PM
hope all goes well but try to get him or her to the vet asap, good luck.
Jeff_Favelle
09-09-02, 08:23 PM
'Cause 99 times out of 100, this would NEVER happen with a captive bred Ball.
Ok, the vet said she's probably fine. Said that it was probably water. He looked in her mouth and said that there was a slight possibility of a respiratory infection, but to monitor her for a foamy mouth, and to up her temperatures to 90-95 for now. He said to soak her because she was really dry (her former humans did not do much in the way of humidity for her). I soaked her, she really liked it! :) He also said I should mist her, which I'm sure she really needs.
How often should I soak her? Cuz she really liked it, and I don't want to overdo it, hehe.
I still don't know the sex, but I guess she's been a 'female' forever, I should keep it at that. How difficult is it to sex a ball python by just looking at the spurrs? She has very visible curved spurrs.
For now, I only have a heat lamp, but he advised me to get heating strips for the base. I guess I have to go ask around in some hardware stores, although I haven't got a clue how much that will cost or what that entails.
Is there a way that I can open her mouth myself to check her every once in a while? The vet used a stick, but I don't know if you guys look in your snakes mouths or if there are other ways.
<b>OH and I don't know if she is captive bred.</b> She has been through 2 owners in her 3 years, so I don't really know. I know that she was owned as a hatchling, so maybe she was CB, the person from whom I adopted her "did not know".
I'm supposed to take her back to the vet in like 10 days after she's shed and hopefully with a fecal sample. Can someone run this by me again? I recall something about refrigerating it, or some time limit for getting it to the vets...
Ok, enough of my ranting and questions. :p I am going to see if my bf will snap some pics of her so I can share! :) She needs a name too, this is getting silly.
Tim_Cranwill
09-10-02, 11:00 AM
Glad to see things are getting back on track. It sounds like she'll do fine with you as "master".
Sorry I can't answer any of your questions at the moment. I'm just researching bp's myself at the moment.
Big Mike
09-10-02, 12:07 PM
If you are only heating one snake enclosure...it may be easier to get an Under Tank Heater than to bother with heat strips. You can find them at pet stores. You will need a thermostat or rheostat or something to use as a dimmer for the heater because they can make the enclosure a lot hotter than you want to make it.
Good Luck
I use an undertank heater for my rosy right now. He told me to get the heat strips and use them on the whole bottom of the tank, no gradient.
I don't understand the difference that it will make (undertank heater, or heat strips)
glad things are ok!! :rsmile:
I'm no expert on rosy's but no gradient sounds like a bad thing to me....even desert snake hide in the shade to cool off a bit...better double and tripple check that
I have a gradient on my Rosy...but he said no gradient on my ball.....
Yeah, I agree, it sounds odd, but what do I know....
no gradient on any snake sounds wrong. I don't own a ball, but I;d still have a gradient on them...like all cold blooded animals its gotta be able to pic what temp it wants. I;d wonder about that vet. I;d ask him to show me something stating no gradient for ball pythons, just because everything you;ve heard is contrary to that.
you'll either do one of 3 things
A) piss the Vet off
B) teach the Vet something he didn;t know
C) heck maybe he has the lastest info on then and can teach us something....but I highly highly doubt it lol
Yes, I guess gradient is better safe than sorry.
reverendsterlin
09-10-02, 07:14 PM
as far as soaking why not just use a waterdish large enough for the animal to crawl into. I had to move to rubbermaid blanket boxes for the boas finally (both argys fit in one, cocoa the common don't leave much room by herself) the corns and milks love it. The crots don't get to soak, and lol seems like the gaby only moves if prey enters his area.
Onour BP's tank right now there is a heat lamp and and undertank heater....and also our corn's cage on top. Have you read about this in any BP books, Wrath? It's worth a try rather than spending money on taking her to the vet.
Well, yeah I have a UTH now, and a lamp as well. She previously only had a lamp.
I originally took her to the vet because she was a new pet, and she regurgitated all that water on me, but she seems fine now!
As it turns out, she needed to be de-wormed according to the vet upon examining her <i>fecal sample</i> yuk!
Yeah, I also have a UTH and light on my Rosy enclosure.
Now I just have to figure out how to make a screen and plexiglass top so that I can put my BP in her new big enclosure, the one shes in now is teeny.
:-D
Hey, as far as the sex goes you should have asked your vet to probe her. Thats the only real way to tell if its a girl or a boy.
Other then that I would still stick with a gradient for temps, He might be talking about keeping no gradient for short periods of time. Just in case she has a RI.
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