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OBTkeeper

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I have a major problem. I recently got a pastel, spider, and normal ball pythons that are a little over a month old. Temporarily, I have them in sterilite shoe boxes, with small UTH's under the bottom connected to a rheostat. I had them in a separate room for the time being. The room stays at a constant temp of 75, using a small heater with built in thermostat. While I was at work today, my sister and nephews came over. One of my nephews messed with the heater and set it to a constant 95 degrees!! This room was at that temp for around 10 hours. By the time I got home and found this, there is no telling how hot the inside of the tubs got. The pastel was in the water bowl, the spider was curled up on what was the cool side not moving, and the normal was laying on what was the cool side not moving with it's mouth slightly open. I immediately got the snakes out of the room, and went outside to cool them off. The pastel and the spider seem Fine, I'm just worried they might have gotten burned, but they really don't look like it. The normal still has It's mouth open, drooling a little bit, and doing kind of what resembles a spiders wobble. Could this be a respiratory Infection because of the insanely high temps it was in for a while? Or could it be something else?

could these snakes have any long term damage?
 
Respiratory infection takes longer than 10 hours to manifest generally. Sounds more like heat stroke symptoms to me. It's possible the normal will have long term damage if she's already suffering neurological symptoms. Hopefully the other two will be alright, but keep a very careful eye on all of them.
 
Please somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it conceivable that ball pythons would be exposed to 95 degree heat in the wild? Maybe not consistently, but I'm sure somewhere in their range it has been that hot at times. I just don't think 10 hours at this temp would do them in.
I wouldn't be concerned about a burn since the heat source was the air temp, not a "hot spot" from a heater.

I can't speak about those symptoms you mentioned, but I wouldn't be too concerned about the ten hours or so it was 95 degrees in the room.
 
95 ambient + UTH = heat stroke. That snake probably has neuro issues that will be permanent IF it lives. The others might have minor issues too but I hope not. Hope it works out for you and the animals.

Regards,

B
 
Jack - You are correct in that 10 hrs at 95 wouldn't be a major problem...even though, in the wild, they would be spending the hot part of the day in a burrow, away from the heat. The problem is that the 95 degree room was only part of the picture...the heat pads were on a rheostat, meaning they wouldn't have shut off due to the high room temp. Figure another 15-20 degrees added from the heat pads (assuming they were set to provide 90-95 in the 75 degree room), and consider that this was in an enclosed tub.
Definitely enough to cause neurological damage. How's the normal doing today?
 
Thanks for the replies. I've been keeping a close eye on them, and the spider and pastel seem to be doing fine. The normal on the other hand, seems to be having neurological issues similar to a spider wobble. She seems strong, but will twist her head back and fourth when I hold her. She also has a slight smell to her that smells like feces, but her tub and herself have been spotless since she last defecated. I always thoroughly clean as soon as I notice one of my animals have defecated. I'm a clean freak in that way.

She already had a birth defect which was a cleft lip. She doesn't seem to be able to recognize food, so I have been assist feeding her the last four times with great success.
My problem is now that I won't know if she is ready for food come feeding day.

I have already moved the three of them in to the snake room in the new rack controlled by a thermostat. It kills me that this happened the night before they were to be moved in to the new home with a proper thermostat.

I won't have any animal suffer, so I'm content with the fact that I may have to put her down as much as I don't want to.

I will continue to keep a close eye on her until this upcoming weekend, and if she worsens Or doesn't get any better, do you all think it would be the humane thing to put her down?
 
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