disinfecting boa cage with uri

[kuester]

How do you keep that warm? I'd rather make the cleaning quick and just be able to have my snake back into the cage within the day. I wonder why the vet suggested just a hot water rinse and scrub?

[reptiledude987]

If its going to be in a tub for an extended period and the room isnt climate controlled to the the requirments for the needs of the snake a uth heater with a tstat can be put on one end to give the required temp gradient required for the animal in it.
As for the advise of using hot water I really dont understand. Unless the water was asctually at boiling point its not going to actually "sanitize" anything.

[kuester]

She thinks using a cleaner will only compromise hes immune system further...

[kuester]

Also i need something that i can use on the reptimats.

[reptiledude987]

I understand the train of thought on the compromising of the immune system but if the snake has a bacterial infection, without removing the bacteria causing it from the enclosure its just going to keep coming back.

[kuester]

Here the snakes full story. I was going to send this to a vet in the cities.

I have a 7.5ft, 16.5lb. aregentine/columbian boa cross i rescued back in april. The previous owner knew he had a URI for 3 + years and did nothing about it.... he was open mouth breathing all the time, had mucus constantly clogging his trachea, his fork in his tongued couldnt even split the mucus was so thick, his mouth was white all over.... i brought him to the vet and they said even with antibiotics it could go either way, after a month of daily injections he was healthy but still made some strange noises at times when breathing i was told this was due to scarring on his respiratory tract. I cleaned his cage with a 10% bleach solution, rinsed 5 times with hoy water and air/fan dried for 3 days. I keep his hot spot at 95F, cool side is 78, humidity is around 55-60%. I moved 2 weeks ago into a basement and he has a URI again... so i got him on injections again for 2 weeks starting 12/22/15. His mouth still has good pink color, theres quite a bit of mucus, he has swelling on the top of his nose but hes eating good still. I asked the vet if i should purchase F10SC(as its been recommended by other herp keepers) to clean, sanitize and disinfect the enclosure. My vet said not to use it and just use hot water to clean the cage. She said the F10SC could be enhaled but the tender, irritated respiratory tissues and since it seems like he has chronic URIs to just use hot water. I need to know what will be the best for my Gluttony. I have no other enclosures to put him in for now, I'm hoping for a quick method so i can do it all in one day and place him back in the same day i start cleaning. When should i do the cleaning(before hes declared healthy or after?) What should I use? Can it be used on his water tub, enclosure and reptimat?

[Snakesitter]

I would respectfully second the skepticism over your vet. Are exotics her primary practice? How many snakes a year does she see? Two points in particular cause concern.

One, if your boy keeps getting RIs, that makes me wonder if they are a secondary symptom of an undiscovered primary problem that is weakening his immune system. I would check it out.

Two, hot water alone is pointless for disinfecting. It will kill nothing and is a waste of time. In fact, it might make things worse by spreading bacteria around more...if the snake's immune system is already weak, other microbes that gain access might cause a secondary (tertiary?) infection. There are products, some already listed above, that are perfectly safe for your animal but will kill the bad germs.

I would clean both as he begins medical treatment and as he finishes it.

Good luck!

[Nightflight99]

Originally Posted by kuester

Why? She said since its kind of a chronic thing disinfecting the cage will only reduce his immune system

These kind of threads are always a bit difficult, since there tends to be a strong temptation toward providing an "Internet diagnosis" of the condition, which--without ever having examined the animal in person--can be very hit or miss for even the most medically-experienced keepers. Based on what you're describing, it sounds like the boa is susceptible to respiratory infections. This can either be a consequence of husbandry conditions or it may be genetic. Assuming that we can rule out the former, here is how I have dealt with snakes that were susceptible to developing respiratory infections even under the most ideal husbandry conditions:

• provide 24-hour heat, especially in the Winter
• avoid/minimize stress factors, such as having the enclosure in a high-traffic area
• keep the enclosure sparkly-clean to minimize unwanted exposure to pathogenic bacteria
• keep appropriate antibiotics on hand & treat aggressively and thoroughly when needed

With regard to the proper way to disinfect the enclosure, I would grab some F10SC and call it good. Alternatively, I would not hesitate to use a 10% bleach solution to spray down the enclosure, briefly let it sit, wipe it dry, and then let it air out. Depending on the size of the enclosure, the entire process takes less than an hour.

As for the idea that using a disinfectant would further compromise the animal's immune system, that type of statement by a licensed veterinarian would seriously challenge me to keep a straight face. While it certainly wouldn't be a good idea to raise animals in a completely sterile environment (not even labs do this), an animal that presently has a bacterial infection already has a compromised immune system, and must therefore not be exposed to any additional pathogens. The advice of just using hot water to clean the enclosure is analogous to being told to eat a cookie when you're thirsty--not only is it pointless, but it actually could make things worse.