Arggh, Looks like a vet trip is in my immediate future.

[hamhouke]

My new BCI may have a RI.  My wife noticed a little rattlely noise three days ago while holding her.  We immediately dropped the humidity a bit, steralized the cage and all her stuff, and turned up the heat a bit.  But, today I noticed the rattle was still there and she is opening her mouth off and on.  No bubbles or puss and her mouth looks pink and clean but I don't think she should be "panting".  So tommrow I will make an appointment with the reptile vet to have her checked out.  If it is a RI, I am sure we are catching it early.  Wish her luck.  Also, if anyone has advice on this or if you think it may be something else, I would love to hear it.

[Donnie_K]

If there's no mucus, it's likely not an RI. RI's have bubbles in the nostrils and mucus in the mouth as you've mentioned.... it could however be stuck shed in the nostrils. What have the temps and humidity been like in her cage, and what kind of cage is it? If the vet does treat for RI, be aware that he will likely have you administering daily baytril shots which will hinder the snakes immune system in the long run, and really isn't necessary except in the most severe cases.

Also, you can try taking a rubbermade tub, fill it half way with 90 degree water (not boiling, not even really that hot.... don't forget our body temp is 98.6), put the snake in it, put the lid on and let it sit for a half an hour. See how she does after that. like I said earlier though... what were your temps and humidity like?

[Duff]

Another sign to look for with RI is holding their head straight up, or puffing out around the throat area.  There are other causes of temporary rattles or "yawning", as was mentioned, but can't hurt to be safe.  As long as the vet is competent and doesn't over-medicate out of uncertainty.  I just had one of my spotted pythons into the vet yesterday for an RI, so I'm with ya.  I don't have to give shots, I get to administer orally.  Not sure if it has anything to do with the smaller size, or just differences in vet preference as this is the first RI I've had to deal with.  Anyway, best of luck to both of you and hope it isn't anything to worry about.

[hamhouke]

She is our new arrival, the cage is a glass aquarium turned on it's side so that the opening faces front.  The front is a custom cut piece of plexiglass with vent holes routed through and a locking system to hold it securely in place.  I use flexwatt tape on the underside attached to a light dimmer for temp control.

I keep the "hot" side at a substrate temp of 90-95 degrees F.  The "cold" side runs about 70-74 night/day.  Ambient temp 1 inch off the substrate is a bit lower but she has a good thermal gradient on the substrate.  This may be part of the problem, I never really know if the care sheets I read are referring to substrate or ambient air temp measured 1" off the floor.  I use an IR contactless temp gun to test the substrate temps.

Humidity was initially too high for the first week I had her (around 92%).  I needed to adjust the ventilation to bring it into the 60% range.  With the problems I have noticed, I decided to replace her corner water bowl with a much smaller one to drop the humidity to around 50% while I figured out what was going on with the rattle.  She has been eating well, though I did not feed her last night because she may need to go to the vet and I didn't want to invite regurge. 

I am measuring the humidity in the cage with a analogue dial RH gauge from Flukers and a digital RH LCD unit for general home use.  They seem to agree within a few percentage points.

I am really trying to get everything right, from what I have read online and discussed with others, but I have only been keeping snakes for about a year and a half now, and have never kept a BC.  So, I would love to hear from those of you with ActualExperience(TM) LOL!

Also, this isn't a "how can I get out of a trip to the vet" post.  I have no problem at all making an appointment and shelling out the cash if it would be better for the snake.  I tend to be overly paranoid about the health of my reptiles, so this could be no big deal at all for all I know.  But having never kept a BCI before, I have a little new parent hypochondria.

Thanks everyone.

[hamhouke]

Oh yeah, and it doesn't look like yawning, at least not like when my Dumerill's or Balls yawn.  It's more of a slow opening of the mouth about 1 cm and holding it there for about 15-30 seconds before slowing shutting it again.  It really looks like she is panting like my beardie does when he has been setting under the basking light too long. 

[Donnie_K]

right, we try to avoid vet visits unless necessary because sometimes they can actually do more harm then good unless you've found a GOOD reptile vet (which is very rare... many "work with them" but not very many actually seem to know what they're doing). Your cold side is getting a bit too low though, should never drop below 75 degrees... and the hot side only needs to be between 88-92, 90 being ideal... though while she's not feeling well I'd keep it closer to the 92. Ambient temp only needs to be around what cold side temp is, 75-80 degrees... I'd recommend a small space heater in your snake room try that tub soak and see how she does afterwards, let us know.

[hamhouke]

That's good advice.  The vet I was looking at is actually located in Lawrence KS, a bit of a drive from me in Overland Park.  We have a vet that "sees reptiles" in Olathe, but the one in Lawrence actually sees reptiles regularly and has two vets on staff that specialize in them.  It's a big college town and apparently they allow reptiles in the dorms as "aquarium animals".  I figured that was my best bet.

http://www.gntlcareanimalhospital.com/doctors.html

But, I agree, I have gotten the feeling that a lot of "reptile vets" don't know much more than can be found reading the net, and some know much less than that.  I can relate.  In college I learned how to simplify Boolean logic equations with Karnough maps, but it's not something you do everyday, so I couldn't do one now to save my life!  The best advice I have heard about finding a good reptile vet is to get several good recommendations and see a vet that sees a lot of reptiles on a monthly basis.

I will definitely do the soak, and get the cold side temps up.  It sounded to me that the temps you are talking about are substrate temps, right?  Ambient (cage wide) should not be much higher than the cold side substrate temps?

Thanks for the help!

[Donnie_K]

right, I was referring to temps where the snake's belly touches the ground. air or ambient temps I don't usually bother measuring cuz they're usually whatever the cool side is.

[hamhouke]

Thanks a bunch.  I have pretty much stopped taking ambient temps too for the same reason.  Glad to see I wasn't screwing that up.  Most info you see on the net doesn't specify air or surface temps so you are always kinda left wondering.  I can't imagine what the surface temp would have to be to get the ambient temp to 85 degrees in my cages with under-tank heat!

[Donnie_K]

lol, I was very confused about that when I first switched to belly heat a couple years back too.