Respiratory infection help

[slowhite03]

So I made a post awhile back about how my variable kingsnake showed signs of a ri, well I took him to the vet and got shots for 3 weeks and took out the aspen and started the shots. Now he went into shed during this time and before he shed he was making a lot of popping noise, my initial reason for thinking it was a ri. After the shed, he was fine. He was no longer making the popping noise and seemed good to go. I took him back to the petsmart vet, yeah I know not the best vet but only one in town. Vet gave him a clean bill of health. Took the poor guy home and reapplied aspen to his tank and thought he was grand. Well a week after that, he started making the popping noise again, needless to say I wasn't happy. I took him to an actual vet and he gave him a thorough check thru. He checked his mouth, heart, and lungs. Said nothing was wrong that he could see. The vet recommended that he may have grown an allergy to the aspen. I took him home and put him on paper towels and it seemed to work but today I picked him up to change his paper towels and he started "popping" again. It wasn't often but more periodically. I know none of you are vets and are reading this really long post with a ton of grammar mistakes but has anyone expierenced anything like this before?

[slowhite03]

And I know this will be asked so here are the details

Thayers king snake or variable king snake
40 gallon breeder
Hot spot 85-89
Humidity 40-60%
Blue shop towels as substrate but reptile carpet is on order and will be here in a few days
Feeds on weaned mice and has never missed a non shedding meal
Always active day and night

[Concept9]

Good morning.

I do not think its RI if both Vets checked him out. Does it has any little bubble coming from his nose and/or mouth when it breaths ?

And were is this popping sound coming from, is it from this mouth when he breaths or his body when it moves ?

[Kimmie]

I have heard my snake do that, it can be dust or just a noise they make, it is not always RI, a snake with RI breath very heavy, normal you cant see them breath to much, and get spit/bubbles out of the mouth the noise can be taken for RI but if 2 doctors say he is fine I dont think he would be sick.

3 of mine got RI this winter and now I have a normal with it I give here meds everyday to the spit is gone but it is easy to see.

[slowhite03]

Yeah he didn't make much noise last night when I was going to bed. Hopefully it's just dust in the nose.

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by slowhite03

Yeah he didn't make much noise last night when I was going to bed. Hopefully it's just dust in the nose.

If it is RI, and it's had this problem for this long, I think it would have gotten worse or you would at least have been seeing bubbles come out it's nose and hear him weeze very hard. I had an experience with a snake with RI years back. That being said, I hear popping noises sometimes with snakes that have dusty bedding such as aspen. It's probably just built up inside it's naval cavity.

Washing aspen in a draining bowl like this and then drying it usually helps get rid of dust and even the smaller particles.

[slowhite03]

I had him on paper towels and I just received the reptile carpet. It's in there now and he doesn't seem to mind. I think he should be alright now since he never burrowed that much.

[shaunyboy]

how long has he been off his aspen ?

i and a lot of other carpet keepers i know stopped using aspen as its high dust content,as it was causing mild respiratory issues with the carpet pythons

i have carpets who make similar noises to a RI when coming up to shed,then it goes away after the shed (its usually shed in the nostrils causing the noise imo )

cheers shaun

P.S.it took roughly 2 to 4 weeks after they were off aspen,before the noises stopped and the issue sorted itself out

[slowhite03]

He's been off about a week. He doesn't pop anymore but he does sneeze every now and then.