Gail's garter - the snake kind silly.

[kueluck]

Zena shed today and it was not an easy one. First the end of her tail started, then small holes in the center started. She looked like she was wearing a loose fitting pant leg but the head seemed to be tight. I watched her open her mouth like a yawn, but I think she was trying to loosen the skin, then she did slow rubbing laps in her cage. I put her in the warm moist hide this morning for about 30 min then back into her cage. I came home and found lots of pieces parts of shed in the cage, but the head was still attached, loose, but still attached. So I "helped" with the removal. I held her head down and very slowly started to peel the skin, neck to nose since it was not loose any where else. I saw both eye caps come off, and then checked her out with a lighted magnifying glass. Not sure why all the issues since the cage humidity stays 50-60%, there is also a moist hide in there all the time but I have not seen her go into it. She also does not soak in the dish, none of mine do. When I do put them in water, be it their dishes or the tub they seen to hate it and just want out. If in the tube they head for the float I have in there for them. I guess they didn't get the memo on being water snakes. After all this she was breathing kind of hard and was kind of, sort of wheezing, or maybe more like a whistling sound, then stopped once she calmed down. She's got a 10 am appointment tomorrow at the Vet.

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[ConcinusMan]

After all this she was breathing kind of hard and was kind of, sort of wheezing, or maybe more like a whistling sound, then stopped once she calmed down. She's got a 10 am appointment tomorrow at the Vet.

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I don't think that's anything to be concerned about. The breathing symptoms you mentioned is most likely just because the old skin is very tight which is why they need to shed in the first place. It's very common for snakes at shedding time to require extra effort to breathe, especially when oxygen demand is high. Sometimes this is accompanied by a whistling sound.

I'm more concerned about why she is consistently having shedding issues. That often indicates an underlying health condition.