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Respiratory Help!!!

Joolissa

Joolissa

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Hello,
Everything of course has to go wrong at Christmas!! I recently discovered that my adult corn snake has a respiratory infection. Her symptoms are: sounding a bit clicky, gurgly, etc. when breathing or when her upper body crawls over my hand. I can imitate the sound very well with a tube of hand cream where the hole is covered with a bit of cream so it sounds kinda clogged, if that gives you a better idea. She only occasionally has any sort of discharge, she is not constantly bubbling or snotting. She may be resting with her head slightly elevated, but not all the time and she is not breathing with her mouth open. I got a look inside her mouth and there is no yellow or cheesy discharge, everything looked pretty clear and not too snotty.

The tank I believed was warm enough apparently wasn't. I am kicking myself for this. I recently moved and this is my first winter here so I wasn't used to the temperatures where the cage was placed. I have removed her from the tank (which is very large, 72g bow front) and placed her in a large plastic tub in a different room. I have two heat mats (one large on one end, and one small on part of the other end) hooked up to the tank. The temperatures are as follows:
Large heat mat area: 90
Small heat mat spot: 91
Middle area: 80-85
Ambient air temperature at floor: 80 or so
Ambient air temperature near top of cage: 70-75

Okay, so here's my issues. I cannot get her to the vet. First of all it's Christmas, and there aren't any available in my area. Second of all, I am leaving out of state for around a week 2 days after Christmas and have family events all day each day until I leave. Thirdly, being it Christmas time in a financially hard time I cannot spend the $52 for a vet visit +$$ for tests, +$$ for medications right now. Please don't flame me for this, it just happens to be the situation that has come upon me.

Does ANYONE have any ideas or remedies? I can move her to a small 20g high tank (which is really small for her) and put a heat lamp on if you think the ambient air should be warmer.

I have heard of putting Vicks Vapo Rub on the sides of the cage, and I have also heard mention of Terramycin. I previously worked at a pet store where we used Terramycin ointment & powder for kittens and other small animals that came in with goopy eyes and respiratory issues. I have found information about using the ointment for reptiles eyes, but I haven't found any information about using the powder/water mix for reptiles. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or have experience in this area?

Any suggestions are very welcome!
 
First of all, drop those temperatures. The warm side should be in the range of 83-85 (mine personally are kept at 85).

Smoketown Veterinarian used to have a very good exotics vet that I used to use. I'm not sure if she's there anymore, but it's worth a call to see if she is and if they still see exotics. They aren't far off of route 30 off the Old Philadelphia Pike exit.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I've never had a respiratory infection issue and even if I had, my suggestion would still be to see a qualified vet for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
 
What were the temps before the new setup??
Is the tank located in a drafty area?
(Personally, I don't have a problem with using those current temps for a short period, if the snake is thought to have RI - though I would keep the all heat on one side)

The phrase "pretty clear and not too snotty" is confusing....ordinarily, the mouth is dry looking. No mucous, strings of saliva, bubbles. Is there anything there, or is it clear?
Also, is it gurgling or clicking. There's a pretty big difference, with different likely causes & ways of dealing with it.


If you looked inside the snake's mouth, I'll hope that you looked at the nares....are they clogged? One thing that winter in the NorthEast does is create a lot of dry air in homes. Add an extra heat source (if there is one), and you can dry the tank even more. If that is the source of the problem, increasing the humidity a bit will do wonders. It may not clear the problem right away because, once the nares get occluded with (what is essentially) dried snot, the snake has to wait til it sheds to get it out (they got no fingers for picking, you understand ;) )
 
I'd recommend calling the vet ASAP, telling him/her your situation, and seeing what they can work out. IIRC, the most common drug for this is Baytril, which is actually quite affordable, and given that a) it's the holidays and b) the economy is in the crapper, I strongly suspect the vet will be willing to work out a payment plan of some sort. This is a fairly common ailment, and for any herp vet, RI's are pretty much the most common, mild, easily cured thing that requires their intervention. I strongly suspect your bill will be much lower than you expect.

As for finding someone on X-mas, maybe you could see if your standard vet (if you have one, a good exotics vet if not) can just phone in a prescription and set of instructions to a local 24-hour emergency vet? It's worth a shot, at least.

Mokele
 
Hey,
Thanks for all the suggestions. The previous tank was by a window, but I will not be putting her back in there until summer or I seal the window. She is no longer near any drafts and is in a warm room.

The Smoketown vet is right down the street from me, or where I usually am. Right now me and my corn are at my parents for the holidays. My father will be keeping an eye on her while I'm gone. I did call a vet nearby here, but they do not give advice or prescriptions over the phone without previously seeing the animal. As I just moved here the only vet I have been to is a domestics vet, whom I could ask, but I don't believe he's in today or tomorrow. The biggest problem is that tomorrow is Christmas, so there won't be anyone around and then I'm leaving for a week.

I will turn on the smaller heater pad when I leave, but I wanted it to be extra warm for a couple days to help boost her immune system.

The nares did look clear, but I will check again. The mouth did look a bit wet, but it was a clear liquid. No strings, no bubbles.

Let's see if I can clear up my description a bit. Have you ever had a small tube of hand cream get a bit of dried cream covering the hole and squeezed the air out of it to clear it? It sounds similar to that.

It is not very humid in the tub she is in now and was not humid in the tank either. She does have a large water bowl for her to drink from and soak in, but I haven't seen her do either recently. Should I mist her? I've read conflicting ideas about humidity and RIs, some say make it dry and some say make it more wet. I will check the humidity and get an exact number on it. What should it normally be? What should it be with an RI? Just to double check.

Again, thank you all for your suggestions. I've picked up some vicks, vitamins, and some Marvel Aid to try to support her immune system. I'm really hoping everything will clear up, or at the very least not get any worse until I could manage to get to a vet.
 
There is no universal answer to your question about humidity with RI (and your snake may not have an RI). A lot of people will automatically say to increase, or decrease, humidity if you even think your snake is having respiratory problems...but, more often than not, they don't know what conditions the snake is being kept in. If the problem stems from dryness, decreasing the humidity isn't going to help (and will likely make things worse). If high humidity is the problem, or if the snake has a lot of wet secretions, adding humidity may not be the right choice. If the problem is just from being cold, warming it as you have may be enough (again, IMO, the temps you described are not going to harm the snake if you keep it in that range for a few weeks). If the tank was allowed to get too soiled, ventilation was poor, etc, you are looking at different scenarios. One could even argue for different approaches based upon the secretions seen.

So the tank was by a drafty window...how bad is the draft? What were the temps in the tank? Was there a supplemental heat source, or was it being kept at room temp?
 
The humidity in her tub now is around 70%, It was dryer in the previous tank.

I don't think the draft was too bad above cage, but to the side of the tank it was probably a bit drafty. I think the majority of it was that the window spanned a good deal of the back of the tank and even though the room was warm the tank would drop, especially at night. It only got really cold the past two weeks and with finals and holidays I was a bit distracted. I had an UTH going and she wasn't spending the whole time on the heat. I would often find her on the cool side, but it could be the temp was dropping more during the night when I wasn't seeing her. I'll be sealing the window or keeping her in a different room until summer, though, so that particular problem is fixed. Both tanks are very clean.
 
I would try to let the humidity come down in the tub - 70% is higher than needed for a corn, and could cause further issues if the snake does have an infection.

Keep it warm, and observe* it until you can get to the vet...and if symptoms worsen, don't wait.


*I'm a big proponent of minimal stimulation for sick/quarantined animals. Leave them alone as much as possible. When you HAVE to do something, do everything & get it over with - ie, if you have to clean the tub, assess the snake thoroughly while you have it out. Don't be pulling it out to just hold it, or to see if it is still making noise...listen while you are close by (make sure you are close by for a while, at least a couple times a day).
 
Sounds like a good plan. I will see if there is a way to get the humidity down, I might have to cut part of the lid out, which requires some sort of screen to seal it with. We may have something like that here.

Thanks again for all the help! I really appreciate it!
 
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