burmese: wheezing or hissing

my burmese recently started hissing/wheezing and extreemely active. vet said nothing to worry about unless he shows other symptoms. im still worrieds though, anyone have any ideas?

without hearing the sound in person, it is difficult to say what is going on ( and how you should deal with it. Since your vet said NO PROBLEM, I would start there. If you are concerned about this being an early stage RI, the best thing you can do is check your set up to ensure that temp and humidity are appropriate. if you haven't already done so, increase the heat to the high end of the range. Is it going into shed? I only ask because I have had burms that would slightly "plug up" during shed, causing a wheezy-hiss sort of sound. It was probably just a humidity issue, and they cleared right up after shedding (you could see the nare plugs on the shed)

I would be worried about an RI, think about getting a second opinion if you can. I'd hate to see an RI go farther than need be before treatment.

I would have to agree that a second opinion is needed. It sounds like RI to me.

Any update? How's he doing at this point?

the hissing/wheezing stopped. but this is the second time my vet has been less than helpful so im looking for a new one

(anyone know of a good vet in the seattle/tacoma area?)

I'm not saying that you shouldn't look for a different vet, BUT...I'm not sure what more you wanted done in this instance. I mean, the vet said (according to your initial post 2 days ago) nothing to worry about, the symptoms are resolved without need of therapeutic intervention...sounds like he/she was correct. If your concerns are regarding your vets knowledge about reptiles, "bedside" manner, billing, or what have you - by all means search away. If it is just because he/she did not prescribe antibiotics/treat aggressively, you might want to rethink. Keep in mind that none of US saw or heard the snake (ASSuming that the vet did, and this was not based on a telephone call), and that "hissing" or "wheezing" can be used to describe a variety of sounds...not to mention the variables, such as frequency and quality of the sounds. Again, I wasn't standing next to you when you spoke to the vet, but "less than helpful" (in this case, at least) could refer to his not medically treating a 'problem' that did not require medical treatment OR you perceiving some sort of attitude.

Glad the snake is doing better

Originally Posted by aalomon

the hissing/wheezing stopped. but this is the second time my vet has been less than helpful so im looking for a new one

(anyone know of a good vet in the seattle/tacoma area?)

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