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Rather Important... about RI's

P

piebaldpython

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I was wondering what the minimum time is you have seen a snake develop an RI. I purchased two ball pythons and it developed an RI to the point of where it was foaming at the mouth after a rather short period of time (this amount of time I will post once I recieve a few answers so I don't sway any answers). When I purchased the animal it was 50deg F outside (as the seller brought the animals to me) and and was in my car for 15 mins going home, the heat was on full blast and their container was wrapped in a blanket a few times, before they were put in a rack pre-heated to a hot spot of 93deg F 24/7 at home while they were in my possession. They developed this foaming RI and I really need to know other's viewpoints on this situation. Please help if you ever had a snake with an RI.

Thx
Dave
 
I've never seen a study done on the subject or anything, but based on what I've observed over the years I think that snakes become subject to developing a RI after exposure to chronic low temperatures rather than one brief acute exposure. It is the longer exposure to cold that depresses their immune system to the point that they can become sick.
 
Dave,
I picked up 3 ball pythons at the airport on 16 Sept. on 17 Oct. (4 weeks) 1 of the 3 had a R.I. but not foaming at the mouth. I have about 100 other balls in the same room subjected to the same conditions and she is the only one to develop an R.I. and in my case I believe that it was caused from stress during shipping and not from anything that I or the breeder did. Also, check this out in May I purchased a Spider and was delivered to my door (FedEx) It was only 43 degrees and the breeder didn't put a heat pack in the styro. When I opened the box she was listless and her mouth was open with some aspen in it, I really thought she was dead (she was only about 54 grams) so I rushed her to the snake room and warmed her up, today she's alive and well and never developed a R.I. and currently is pushing 900 grams. Just goes to show you that they react differently to the same stresses.
Hope that helps, Mike Derks
 
I agree with the above posts. Snakes are rather harder (in general anyways) and are more likely to develope an RI from chronic stress from whatever reason (husbandry #1). The symptoms can often go from zero to 60 in a few hours following an extra stressfull episode, but would probably occur in an already ill snake.

Because of the variability in the causes of RI's, such a study on how long it takes for symptoms to appear would be futile. You would need a much more specific field of study. Ie, what pathogens are involved in the study group, what temperatures are involved, what times, what level of health are the animals in prior too, and how is this tested... ect.

Ian
 
Animals typically have the infection for some time before you will notice symptoms as well. The symptoms will also start off mild (usually) and be very difficult to notice. "Foaming at the mouth" is a very advanced state and one that may often be avoided through basic steps like high temperature access for the animal and good humidity. Many balls will get a respiratory infection from lack of proper humidity and are more prone to one if they get stuck in a shed from that lack opf humidity. On the bright side, they are very resilient animals and will almost always bounce back very quickly with just a couple injections of anti-biotics from even the worst infections. Evan
 
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