Funny breathing Noises...

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D3pro

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I just got a jungle from my friends brother, he is a 2 year old and wasn't looked after properly at all. The day I first saw the jungle I felt very sorry about it and so I offered to care for him. I had a bit of a handle of him, and I noticed that he would make a wheeze noise every once and a while.

I had a feeling that it might be sick, so i took him home and put him in a separate room from my other snakes. I set him up so that the enclosure was quite warm. I have a Thermal gradient of about 27 to 29 degrees and 30 to 32 degrees in his basking spot. the reason that the latter cold temperature is 27 is because thats the temperature in my house.

Aaaanyway, back to the point. The jungle doesn't wheeze as much as before, only every once in a while, but if anyone has had this before and may have any tips I would be more the happy to hear from you.

(also, I'm quite aware that this could be a respiratory infection, that is why I have warmed up his enclosure just in case)
 
It could be an RI id also check that his nostrills are clear some times they can become blocked from unshed skin, mucus that has dried etc
 
may have something to do with the subtrate from previous owner.
 
Yeah I think it might be the start of an RI, so i'm bumping up the heat. I have checked him regularly, he is about to shed so I hope that a shed will make things better... tho better safe then sorry.
 
BKEVO:

The substrate was the snakes own poop over A4 paper... if this makes herp owners angry then you will understand why I felt that the snake would be better off with me.
 
I'd be careful bumping the heat up much more than what it already is..
 
some people use pine shavings instead of aspen snake bedding because its 'the same'
 
no the heat is what I have there, it's summer and my house can get hot, so I'm quite careful about the heat getting too high
 
appart from what you've explained is the snake in reasonable condition? and eating?
 
yes, he is an amazing jungle, eating well and shedding well. Another big plus is that he is very tame, hasn't bit me once. Very beautiful snake, so i am hoping he get well.
 
29-31 is not hot for a jungle carpet, it's hovering around heathly, undigesting, non-reproductive preferred temperature. You need to up the temperature at the warm end so he 1. heal and 2. digest optimally.

. If he's in a cage large enough to create a good gradient with a few hides at different temperatures bump him up to 33-36 at the warm end and room temp at the cool end. Otherwise keep the warm end at 33 and forget about the cool end. Snakes with RI need heat for a fortnight to give them any chance. I'd be opting for 36 Cs and watching him closely, if he was mine.
 
29-31 is not hot for a jungle carpet, it's hovering around heathly, undigesting, non-reproductive preferred temperature. You need to up the temperature at the warm end so he 1. heal and 2. digest optimally.

. If he's in a cage large enough to create a good gradient with a few hides at different temperatures bump him up to 33-36 at the warm end and room temp at the cool end. Otherwise keep the warm end at 33 and forget about the cool end. Snakes with RI need heat for a fortnight to give them any chance. I'd be opting for 36 Cs and watching him closely, if he was mine.

i might just do that mate, thanks
 
Are you saying they won't digesr properly at 30?I tend to keep all my jungles at 28-32 to whatever the ambient temp is obviously for the cool end and never a problem with digestion.I would bump the temp up a touch however not 36 but each to their own.
 
Are you saying they won't digesr properly at 30?I tend to keep all my jungles at 28-32 to whatever the ambient temp is obviously for the cool end and never a problem with digestion.I would bump the temp up a touch however not 36 but each to their own.

They'll digest just fine at 29-32, even lower. Their gut passage time will be longer, but their digestive efficiency similar at 30 degrees compared to 33 degrees. The "optimal" temperature for digestion is one which allows faster gut passage time whilst still absorbing all the nutriment from the prey item. This temperature is at least 33 degrees for the M. spilota group pythons, including M.s. spilota, the cold-adapted one! Actually M.s. spilota has an preferred body temperature of 35-38 degrees for digestion, which indicates thermophilic digestive optima.

I provide a gradient from 40 under the light decreasing to 25 at the cool end, or whatever room temp is, no higher. With enough shelters in the cage the python can happily regulate to it's preferred temperature. All my jungles will use a hot spot every now and then. They will also spend extended periods below 25 degrees, but they alway7s have the choice of heat. For a suspected RI, I've offer no cool spot but house the animal at 36 over most of the cage with 32 away from the light, only for two weeks!
 
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yeah right now the ambient temp is 28... (so damn hot) I think I'm going to get a better set up for it... getting confused guys, have you guys had experience in RI? I just want this snake to get better... Today he missed his feed... and he just got a colour back (when they go from milky to normal colour) so I had to give it a quick luke warm bath to help it shed... I am willing to take advise, but please give me examples of your experiences.
 
Thanks for that,I'm lucky due to my location and very rarely check temps anymore but will keep that in mind especially for cooler times and fast growing mu young ones.
 
I had a similar situation a while back where a mate had a coastal in very bad health I offered to take it as he'd lost all interest in it, it was very thin, had a bad case of mouth canker, light burns, and a crackle in its throat which I thought was going to be RI! It had light burns to the head and was having trouble sheding, after removing the old skin and treating the canker for some time it seemed like it was on the road to recovery, it still had a crackle in its throat and its mouth very slightly open in places and the canker kept returning! one of the nostrils seemed to be blocked but I never touched this as I thought it was part of a burn then the other nostril started to become blocked and I decided to get in there with a pair of tweezers and remove the blockages I pulled out two large plugs that had completly blocked it's nostrils and actually heard the snake take a breath of relief I treated the canker once more and noticed the snakes mouth was completly shut the canker never returned, the crackle in its throat was gone and the snake made a speedy recovery!
the blocked nose was causing it to open its mouth to breath and this was stopping the canker from healing the crackling noise was the snake letting out a casp of air and sounded similar to a hiss
Im not suggesting this is whats wrong with your snake im just giving an example of what I thought was RI and wasn't
 
Many snakes won't feed while in full shed,I've had experience with RI a few times now and for the immediate future I would do exactly as suggested and keep it warm for a couple of days get the immune system happening and wait till it sheds,then see what happens.

Is there any mucus around the mouth or nostrils?Is the animal holding it's head up?Is there any puffiness of the throat?If so I would take it to a vet and get a course of baytril which is an injectable antibiotic twice a day over approx a week from memory the vet will know the dosage etc.
 
the only sign of RI is it's wheeze every 15 20 minutes, I am bumping up the heat more and if it gets worse then it's off to the vet
 
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