Question about Respiratory infection....

Hi Everyone,


I purchased a ball python and three days later it was spitting bubbles. I picked her up on when the temps were approx. 50deg and put her from the seller's car to mine where I had the temp blasting at max heat. She was in a rubbermaid with a towel wrapped around it 3 or 4 times. Drive time to my pre heated rack at 95deg was 15 mins.

The next day I fed her and she took a live crawler rat. Two days later like I said it was spitting bubbles.

My question is... what is the minimum time (considering my hot spot temp was 95deg 24/7 and it would be in that rack for the entire 3 days before it showed up) would it take for a RI to manifest itself to this stage of bubble blowing? PLEASE any information is more than greatly appreciated.

Thx
Dave

Dave,

It's hard to know for sure but if she ate when you got her she probably was not sick, especially given the stress of moving. I most likely would not even have considered feeding her for a week or so but that's a different matter.

95°F may be a bit high for a ball python, even one with an RI. You might want to lower it a few degrees.

How are you treating her illness?

Sorry to hear about the sick animal!

I am not sure how long it takes for RI to show up, but I would think that if the animal got too cool sometime thru the exchange, it could show up in a couple of days.

As far as temperatures go for ball pythons go, the video "Ball Python Breeding" by Dr Mark Seward with Dan & Colette Sutherland from the Snakekeeper recommends hot spots of 90-95 degrees. So I would think a ball python with RI should be safe at the upper end of 95 degrees as long as it has a cool spot of 80-85 degrees.

Usually at the beginning stages raising temps might be enough, but if the animal is "blowing bubbles" you might want to make a vet appointment. This is just my opinion, you will ultimately decide what steps to take. I hope this helps.

you might also want to consider isolating that snake so the infection doesn't spread to the others. I know that it is inconvenient, but if you have any way of doing so....
(it is easier & cheaper to treat 1 snake vs 6-7)

Boy O Boy



This is one of two. I took her to the vet within two days of finding the infection (had to contact the seller) Gave her back to the seller the next day with the meds. He as informed me that she died three days ago. Foaming bubbles in 72hrs with my temps at 95deg F 24/7 w/80deg cool spot? My temp in the car was about 90deg F and for only 15mins max in the car. I guess I should get all the info together and go though it line by line. Any one ever hear of this? I've kept BP's for over 3yrs now and have over 50 of them without an issue (expect mites over 1hr ago which are now gone).

Dave

Just out of curiosity, had you inspected the snake either prior to, or at the time of, the transaction? Was the seller someone you knew, or just someone close enough to deliver? So it was in your rack for about 6 days, then returned? and you have 2 dead snakes of your own, or one of yours + the initial one?. How much time did it take from the initiation of the new one to the death of yours? what about the onset of symptoms to death? I have heard of a particularly resistant form of RI that was infecting BP colonies - but interpreted it as being resistant to treatment, not necessarily fast moving. Hopefully, you isolated things quickly enough that it didn't spread further. If you get another with symptoms, I would get it cultured right away...and if it dies, have a post mortem exam done so you can hopefully get a handle on what is happening

I knew the person and we met in a pet store. He was waiting in his car for me. I took a quick look but they were a little cold so I put them back. One had a shaking head. Jumped in my car with the heat blasting for a 15min drive to a preheated rack. I noticed late on the third day after tring to feed her that she had the RI and bubbles. I didn't check in on them too much for the first 48hrs so they could settle in. I called him early the next day and left a message. Multiple messages left then I decided two days after contacting him to take it to the vet.


The second did not have any mucus when I returned the one to the seller. The next day she had it. Called him again, he said that he didn't really want to treat her if it wasn't that bad because Baytril was a powerful med. I kept the heat up, hum. up. 24/7. She wasn't all that mucusie like the other but a week later After I gave the first one back he said she was doing much better and that was just 4 days later, so this kind of blindsided me.

Thx for the help.
Dave

Dave,
My orange ghost had a R.I. so my first vet. started treating her with baytril injections every 48 hrs - meanwhile we waited for the culture to grow to make sure it was the proper medication. It came back sensitive to baytril - so after two weeks with little improvement, I went to another vet approx. 180 miles south. And he did a complete blood analysis , fecal exam, and another culture to make sure. This was a Friday afternoon and now the injections changed to piperacillin every 24 hrs and by Tuesday the mouth breathing ended. She's now feeding again and looking GOOD. During all this time she was in a rack with a hot spot of 95 and she spent little time on the heat, when I checked her temp. with the heat gun she was maintaining 89, I also was told to keep the humidity up to help loosen things up inside. She was sick enough that I could hear her lungs bubbling. I have over 100 ball pythons in this room and she was the only one sick and I think it was from the stresses of shipping that compromised her immune system. R.I. don't happen overnight but the symptoms can become noticeable overnight. Anyways Baytril is good but in my case the piperacillin was even better.
Mike Derks

Mike:

After 2 weeks without improvement on Baytril, what did the first vet. recommend as further treatment?

Or didn't you let it get that far?

-Scott

The first vet wasn't happy with the results so he referred me to the second vet, and I'm happy he did. I also didn't mention that I only had this ball in my possession for 18 days and I had two other balls in the same shipment with no ill effect upon them, leading me to believe that the shipping stressed her out which weakened her immune system. Also the piperacillin had to be kept in the freezer, then thawed prior to use, and the injections went on for two weeks (daily)
Hope that helps
Mike Derks