Garter popping/clicking update

[drache]

any herp vets are still hard to find
this one looks promising
good luck and speedy recovery

[RedSided]

It just gets worse , I phoned today and they guy is on holiday for two weeks .

[adamanteus]

And how's the snake doing? Has the raised temperature made any difference?

[RedSided]

I havn't noticed any worsening conditions and she still seems lively as ever, no more sticky stuff.

[Cazador]

Tim,

It's not generally recommended to leave the temp up around 90F day and night for over a week to 10 days, so you should start thinking about dropping the temp at night and/or recreating a thermal gradient. One end can remain up near 90F until you see a vet, though.

Rick

P.S. Glad to hear it's looking a bit better.

[Josh]

hope he gets back to normal

[RedSided]

Got the gradient back now, basking spot is about 85+ it varys and I try not to let it go over 90.Cool end is about 67-72 it fluctuates mainly due to weather.

Will just be monitoring her until I can get her seen. The next closest vet is 3hr+ drive and I realy don't want to stress her out that much, shes a nervous snake as it is.

As it has been said before and is what im hoping is that huffing is just a habit of hers .The mucus or what seemed to be, seems to suggest otherwise.

She can still open her mouth, she just gave me a little yawn for some reason, that mean anything?

[GarterGuy]

Sometimes snakes will just do that....not sure of any real reason for it. It could be though because she's having some difficulties with what the respitory condition she's got. I've seen snakes before that would "gape", because they were having respitory problems. I know I'm not a vet, but I have treated snakes that had respirtory problems with Baytril (it's a common antibiotic use by vets)...I'm not sure of the dosages right now(it's been over 10yrs. since I've had to treat anything for it, so just don't have it laying around, readily available right now), but this might be something that you could do through a vet that doesn't specifically work with reptiles. It would just be matter of getting them to prescribe you some of it to use, until your herp vet gets back from vacation. If I can find the dosage rates or if someone else knows them, I think this might be something to take a look at. Respitory infections can usually be treated fairly successfully, but at the same time you can loose a snake to them if it ends up turning into something like severe pneumonia.
Roy

[adamanteus]

Just a quick thought on respiratory infections.... These can frequently be caused (in captive reptiles) by foul or damp air, through having inadequate ventilation in the vivarium. I think that quite often ventilation is overlooked, or is at least low down on the priority list when people are building or buying vivs. I know that many of the store-bought vivs I've looked at are not properly ventilated. (In my view).

I'm not saying this is the cause of the problem with RedSided's snake. It's just an observation, and maybe something to consider next time we're building or buying snake accommodation.

[RedSided]

The Viv is perfectly ventilated, its got 4 vents in the back spaced evenly about the size of the bottom of a mug.The viv is not jammed up against the wall, so the air can circulate. If anything caused the suspected RI it was probably the cold winter.

But rather than speculate I just want to get her to the vet asap.Some way of treating her at home would be great, I don't know how willing a vet would be to perscribe them to me as many vets in the area havent the foggiest on snakes because its still not the most normal thing here in wales, although it is getting a lot better.