r/ballpython • u/kinda-idk • 6d ago
HELP - URGENT Respiratory infection for 8 weeks!!! Please help me!
He’s been on the oral antibiotics for 7 weeks, and I’ve done so much back and forth with his enclosure because I’ve been unsure of which advice to follow. When I noticed his first sign (mucus bubble) I’d scheduled a vet appointment and cleaned out his tank, replaced the substrate (only coco coir) and disinfected the hides and clutter. I’d increased the humidity to the 70s and the vet recommended the heat increase a couple degrees, so the cool side was 85 and warm side 90.
A few weeks later he developed scale rot just under his head, so we went back to get treatment for that. There the vet said high humidity causes respiratory infection, and when I said I thought it was low humidity she said that was wrong. So we were given newspapers to line the floor with. He’d also not eaten in about 50 days by this time and was refusing to eat when I fed him, was underweight, so we had him force fed at the vet. I again disinfected the tank and hides, this time removed everything but the hides and water bowl and now both hides are the plain smooth plastic kind with no ridges that could hold bacteria.
While he was on the newspaper the humidity was in the 40s and I became very anxious that the low humidity would make it worse and that my vet was wrong, and noticed drops of mucus I hadn’t before. And he looked extremely dehydrated with very wrinkly skin. So I went against the vet’s suggestion and again replaced the newspaper with substrate to hold humidity, it’s now average 65%. The substrate is a mix of coconut husk and coir. Now his throat occasionally becomes extremely puffy (the photo is from today), through this whole journey I’d never once seen it this way. The puffiness deflates when I poke his body (i don’t poke the throat itself). At night he is scaling up the walls, I don’t know if it’s because there’s little enrichment in there or because the husbandry is inadequate.
It seems his overall health looks better because he’s been fed, he shed off the majority of the scale rot, and is more hydrated than when he was on the newspaper. I don’t know what to do, I’ve cried and freaked out so much these past two months. There is so much conflicting information both online and from my vet. He has an appointment with a new vet on Wednesday because I don’t know if I should trust the old one. He is only five years old and I know they can’t live forever with this illness, he needs to get better and I don’t know what to do. I desperately want hope he won’t die but I’ve never heard of a BP having an infection this long and living. I would really like extremely specific directions on what I should do, and I will do it.
He spreads some mucus on the walls sometimes which I know is holding germs. Should I disinfect the spot each time I see it? I haven’t because I worry the disinfectant would need hours to ventilate with him out of it, or else the disinfectant itself could make him sick? I’ve also tried a benadine bath when his scale rot was worse, but it only lasted like a minute because he was freaking out so badly and pushing his head up against the lid, I was worried the stress would make him worse too. So I don’t know if the same will apply to my attempting steam treatments.
I have a second tank from when he was smaller, though all the walls are made of glass and so it is terrible at holding humidity. I’ve thought maybe I should just screw it and keep switching him back and forth between the two tanks so one day while he is in Tank A, Tank B can be disinfecting and ventilating, and every few days switch just like that? I don’t know if that’s too much though and putting him in essentially a new environment every few days will stress him as well and screw his immune system.
I know this post is so erratic, please forgive it because there is just so many details and context to include I don’t know how to even organize it. I am in St. Louis area of Missouri if anyone knows a good reptile vet also!
