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Ball Python Making Funny Sound????

Jeagleston91

Jeagleston91

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Hi Fauna, I just bought a Stinger Bee ball python from someone...and once I got home I kept hearing this weird sound coming from her. I put her head closer to my ear and can hear something that sounds like the squeak of a squeaky toy, but on a much quieter level. What could this be from? I am starting to get scared that maybe she has a respiratory infection.
I have never had a ball python with a wobble before, could it be related?
Any input would be great, because I don't want to freak out if I don't have to. lol
 
It sounds like me when I have boogies in my nose haha...if you just got it, I'd just put him/her in the proper humidity and make sure it goes away after a day or two. If not, then I'd start to be more concerned.

Also, we have a queenspin and an axanthic spider, neither of them have this issue so I don't think it's related to the spider gene.
 
Definitely could be a respiratory infection. I would get her to a reptile vet ASAP if you don't have the means to deal with it yourself. Since it is a holiday and chances are slim you can do it today I would suggest washing out the entire enclosure, change the substrate and then raise the humidity until she can be seen.
 
Thinking back, we did get a breeder size female het pied a few months ago that we actually picked up in person. I didn't notice until a couple days after we got home that she had a little bit of what you're describing, just a very faint wheeze. We obviously were concerned, but since she seemed healthy I decided to just monitor her and see how she was after a few days. We made sure conditions were correct and didn't bother her too much.

A few days later I didn't notice it at all, and a month later she laid a clutch of 5 eggs that we weren't expecting :p.

I think it's normal to expect/think the worst, and a lot of people will tell you better safe than sorry...personally I feel that it's best to just give it a little bit of time. I've never heard of a snake dying of a hardly noticeable RI after a couple days, but I could be wrong. If I have to question whether or not something is a problem I should be very concerned about, it probably isn't.
 
MCMB-2 said:
I think it's normal to expect/think the worst, and a lot of people will tell you better safe than sorry...personally I feel that it's best to just give it a little bit of time. I've never heard of a snake dying of a hardly noticeable RI after a couple days, but I could be wrong. If I have to question whether or not something is a problem I should be very concerned about, it probably isn't.
Click to expand...

The problem with "giving it a little time" is that sometimes you'll do that and find your snake dead the next day, especially if you don't know how bad it is by simply looking at the animal. Animals can die quickly or slowly from an RI, just depends on how bad it is. An RI is something that needs to be dealt with immediately and I'm sure if you look up other threads in this forum you will see the experiences people have had.

I'm not sure how much experience you have with reptiles Jessica but I would definitely suggest you bring her to a vet if you haven't dealt with it before.
 
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RoyalPythonPros said:
The problem with "giving it a little time" is that sometimes you'll do that and find your snake dead the next day, especially if you don't know how bad it is by simply looking at the animal. Animals can die quickly or slowly from an RI, just depends on how bad it is. An RI is something that needs to be dealt with immediately and I'm sure if you look up other threads in this forum you will see the experiences people have had.

I'm not sure how much experience you have with reptiles Jessica but I would definitely suggest you bring her to a vet if you haven't dealt with it before.
Click to expand...

Again, I totally understand that approach, I just have a personal tendency to over-analyze things and think that they are worse than they are. I think I used to go to the doctor every week for an STD test until finally I realized I was probably just worrying a little too much.

As far as this situation goes...neither of us are there to hear what this snake sounds like and determine how bad it really is. I don't know if this is a constant wheeze, but mine was only every once in a while that we would hear it (at first I thought she was hissing at me). Without being there, no one knows how bad it sounds except you, and at the end of the day it's your call whether you think it warrants a vet visit or not. I personally wouldn't be freaking out if I just got her and it's very faint, but again, I'm not there to know how bad it really is.
 
Alright, I will take her to the vet...but either way I won't be able to take her until Monday, the only reptile vet that I know of I believe is closed on weekends. I will call tomorrow to make sure. Until then I will keep a close eye on her and keep her humidity up.

I have kept all sorts of reptiles for several years now and have never had to deal with any sort of diseases or anything like that. If she does have RI will antibiotics need to be administered? Is there anything else that I could do for her until the vet is able to see her?
 
I'm not a fan of generic medical advice - especially the way it is offered on forums. To begin with, respiratory symptoms do not automatically mean respiratory infection. Most of the time, at first appearance, they are indications of a husbandry problem...generally humidity, but temperature can be a factor as well. The keeper needs to be aware of this, and hopefully be able to identify/correct the issue. Too many people make blanket recommendations, such as raising or lowering humidity - and, in any given situation, they've got a 50% chance of being correct...the problem being that, when they are wrong, the advice will result in the animals condition worsening.
(Rest of my response removed before posting - no need to get on that soapbox)
 
What Harald said. Especially when you factor in that most of the people giving advice may have no more experience than you have. Or even less. Lots of parrots out there.

Before rushing her off to the vet, I'd have a good look at her nares. A teeny piece of stuck shed in there can cause a whistle sound. Wouldn't you feel silly if you ran to the vet and incurred a decent sized bill, only to find out it was a simple fix?

Noise isn't always worst case scenario, but definitely look further.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. I just try not to jump to conclusions unless it's something very clearly serious/life threatening.

I'm not sure if the experience/parrot thing was directed towards me, but I will be the first to admit that there are thousands of people out there with more experience than I have. I simply responded because I have personally dealt with a similar situation with a snake and wanted to share my opinion.

Also, I could tell that the OP was obviously freaking out about it, and I think that someone stating the 99.9% probable situation that 'your snake is probably fine and I doubt it's going to die overnight' is a pretty reasonable and considerate response, rather than saying the opposite and making her worry more for no reason. If it was not directed towards me, then I apologize for taking offense.
 
Shadera said:
Wouldn't you feel silly if you ran to the vet and incurred a decent sized bill, only to find out it was a simple fix?
Click to expand...

Yes I would. Well as of now I have her temp and humidity just right, so I will wait and watch her in the mean time. Hopefully it is nothing to be worried about, and only if it worsens will I take her to be seen.

Thank you :thumbsup:
 
MCMB-2 said:
Also, I could tell that the OP was obviously freaking out about it, and I think that someone stating the 99.9% probable situation that 'your snake is probably fine and I doubt it's going to die overnight' is a pretty reasonable and considerate response, rather than saying the opposite and making her worry more for no reason. If it was not directed towards me, then I apologize for taking offense.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your opinion, I posted in a state of panic...hoping that I didn't just spend my money on a snake that had issues and had any chance of dying. It does make me feel better though knowing that you had the same type of issue, and nothing bad came out of it.
 
Shadera said:
Before rushing her off to the vet, I'd have a good look at her nares. A teeny piece of stuck shed in there can cause a whistle sound. Wouldn't you feel silly if you ran to the vet and incurred a decent sized bill, only to find out it was a simple fix.
Click to expand...

One of my males had the exact same problem. A piece of shed skin got lodged in one of his nostrils and it caused a squeaky sound. After a couple good soakings and a shed the squeaking stopped
 
Could be stuck shed in the nose... Could be RI - try raising temps and lowering humidty - also snakes with the spider gene will wobble sometimes - these do not make good breeder snakes as this can be passed off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Johnstud56 said:
Could be stuck shed in the nose... Could be RI - try raising temps and lowering humidty - also snakes with the spider gene will wobble sometimes - these do not make good breeder snakes as this can be passed off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This is what I was talking about - why recommend lowering the humidity when you don't know what the problem is? More often, a faint "wheeze" will respond better to providing proper humidity; and lowering it will be counterproductive. Different sounds mean different things; and without solid reason to believe the snake has a problem which will benefit from lowering the humidity, there's no reason to recommend that at this point.
 
Johnstud56 said:
snakes with the spider gene will wobble sometimes - these do not make good breeder snakes as this can be passed off.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but if the rest of the post didn't do it, this part sure did. Are you saying that the spider gene can actually be passed on to offspring? Like it's genetic or something? Wow! What an amazing concept! You're right, that sounds like a bad breeder snake to me -.-

While I'm not a fan of the wobble, I think that anyone involved in ball pythons already knows the issues that the spider gene has (I would hope so anyway, if they are intending on breeding). Sometimes I'm amazed at the things people post here.

Back on topic, do you have any updates Jessica? I was wondering if it had improved at all, or if you'd noticed any other symptoms to make it seem it was one thing or another.
 
I don't think there can ever be too much sarcasm :). To be fair though, I only use it when it's warranted.

I've just literally never seen someone say that anything with the spider gene is a 'bad breeder' because of the wobble. I think the question of whether or not they should be bred is an argument best left to a 500 page discussion (which I would guess has already happened at some point), but definitely not stated as a matter of fact.
 
Trust me - there's such a thing as too much sarcasm.

While I agree that an in-depth discussion of whether or not to breed spiders is best suited to the BP section, that doesn't mean it is restricted from being mentioned elsewhere. As far as whether spiders should be bred, that is an individual decision. You're right, it's been discussed ad nauseum; but most of those threads are old...and I never expect that any newcomer knows everything, no matter how basic I feel the subject matter is. Spider wobble is old news...enough so that it is rarely discussed - so how is one supposed to automatically know?
 
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