Second time I have tried posting...

[chase556]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Your hot end temp should be 91-95f and your humidity should be 60+ and the snake needs a vet not advice from a forum

91-95f? I have read so many different guides on the subject, it's hard to tell which one is accurate, I've seen ones ranging from 68-73 at night when he's more active, to 78-83 w/ a 90F basking spot. With how it is now, I can change the change to 90-95 without much issue, but are you sure on this information? From everything I've read the temps are all over the place


Before I call animal control on the place, I want to go back in there to see if anything has changed. It seems like my snake just has a little bit of a cold now, instead of having me massively worried.


This whole ordeal has been beyond stressful, I've had to rearrange my entire sleep schedule just to keep constant vigilance on him to make sure it didn't get to the emergency stage. (He's still putting his head up a bit, but the wheezing/popping is almost completely gone now and he's very active again, I think he actually went to the bathroom too)


I've been a big pet owner for most of my life, and dealt with a lot of sick and injured animals and this has to be the one that worried me the most. I mean hell, if this had happened a few months down the road, taking him to the vet wouldn't be an issue, I'd actually just have the antibiotics on hand, but this came out of nowhere.

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by chase556

91-95f? I have read so many different guides on the subject, it's hard to tell which one is accurate, I've seen ones ranging from 68-73 at night when he's more active, to 78-83 w/ a 90F basking spot. With how it is now, I can change the change to 90-95 without much issue, but are you sure on this information? From everything I've read the temps are all over the place

That is actually the recommended temperatures on most of the books and caresheets on ball pythons that I have read.

Give it those basking temps and a cool side of 80-84 during the day. At night you can but you don't have to, drop temperatures about 5 degrees. I give my snakes a night drop.

This whole ordeal has been beyond stressful, I've had to rearrange my entire sleep schedule just to keep constant vigilance on him to make sure it didn't get to the emergency stage. (He's still putting his head up a bit, but the wheezing/popping is almost completely gone now and he's very active again, I think he actually went to the bathroom too)

Well now you know, don't buy a pet that is around other sick pets. Also you should be certain of husbandry before buying an animal. This way all the hassle comes before the snake is in your care.

[MDT]

Originally Posted by chase556

This whole ordeal has been beyond stressful, I've had to rearrange my entire sleep schedule just to keep constant vigilance on him to make sure it didn't get to the emergency stage. (He's still putting his head up a bit, but the wheezing/popping is almost completely gone now and he's very active again, I think he actually went to the bathroom too)

When you have to adjust your airway to breathe (putting your head up/"stargazing" or whatever), It's at the emergency stage


I've been a big pet owner for most of my life, and dealt with a lot of sick and injured animals and this has to be the one that worried me the most. I mean hell, if this had happened a few months down the road, taking him to the vet wouldn't be an issue, I'd actually just have the antibiotics on hand, but this came out of nowhere.

What antibiotics would those be? A macrolide? A quinolone? A penicillin? What infection are you actually treating with those? What if it had a virus and didn't need antibiotics? How do you dose the meds based on the renal clearance of your snake? Has the renal function been impaired because of the infection? Or, are you just gonna "shotgun" it? Funny how illness just "comes out of nowhere"....

To quote from a reptile vet: "good medicine isn't cheap and cheap medicine isn't good"...

[chase556]

I'm not sure whats with the hostility here. Someone in a bad situation due to forces outside of their own control comes asking for help, you make a bunch of assumptions and attack?


Sheesh, this is what I usually do in similar situations; when there was a nasty case of parvo going around (like what happened in my city a few years ago) I take preparatory steps, not go buy random stuff that may or may not help.


Steps like.... finding out what sickness they are at risk for, then going to a local vet and getting specific antibiotics, not the full spectrum, but the targeted ones. My dogs did end up getting a very nasty strain of it, but came out fine because of what I did. Precautionary measures and all.


After buying the animal, a new tank, hides, new lights I was short on cash. Pretty simple to understand, no? I do like to prepare for what I'm doing but you get blindsided at times and it can get costly. Know what? since I'm being attacked here so blatantly, let me state this:


One of my dogs, a jack-russel got off his line, and my neighbors dogs ended up getting lose (which is another story) and attacking the heck out of him, by the time I found him he was on the ground, dying. Know what I did? Took him to the vet and blew a grand on two surgeries. I'm no stranger to these situations, and admittedly this is the first one where I got caught with my pants down, so to speak.


I just wasn't expecting to buy a sick animal from a pet store And I didn't automatically assume I would HAVE to take him to the vet within a WEEK of owning him


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On the plus side of things, my ball python is doing much, much better. He's doing very little of the stargazing unless it gets overly stuffy in my house. He's not having the same breathing problems he was before (He still has a tiny bit of exhaling noise) so he's still congested up a little, but other than that seemingly healthy.


He's moving around a lot more, wanting to be very friendly with me since he's doing better I want to see if he will eat tonight, hopefully he does and another hurdle can be cleared.


One thing I am mildly concerned about (though he's shown zero symptoms) would be mouth rot, because of the length of him being sick, from what I have read puts him at a higher risk of it.


On another note... The tank 30L/20H/15W~ wide doesn't seem to make him very comfortable, so I'm either going to have to buy one, probably twice as big or convert a table I have into another tank.


Anyway I'm looking forward to this snake having a happy life in his new home, even if getting him through this has been relentlessly taxing. hopefully me (and him) can get back to normal.