Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t updated for a long time. Phantom was doing well, but my own life was such a whirlwind I didn’t have time to update. I did get the vet records and I have notes indicating he was visually healthy respiratory-wise even though they didn’t do in-depth testing.
I say “was” because he’s taken a turn for the worse lately. A few days ago - right after his second round of medication finished - he started occasionally opening his mouth slightly, as if to get a breath. Obviously this concerned me a lot because I immediately assumed RI - but there are a few things that are confusing me. I’ve always heard of snakes with RIs (or mouth rot for that matter, even though I can almost guarantee he doesn’t have mouth rot) opening their mouths for a longer period of time. But for Phantom, it’s been a few days and he still only does it for a single breath every few minutes (if that), then closes his mouth again - which is to say, it hasn’t gotten any worse. Still, to me this seems like an expression of a less severe RI rather than something unrelated. But what really is confusing me is that he doesn’t have any mucus in his mouth? Even after drinking water his mouth seems clear. I would expect some level of saliva after drinking but it looks almost completely clear - if anything, its too clear. In fact, I’m definitely concerned because his body is showing signs of dehydration, despite him drinking every few days at least - his skin is wrinkly and I cant seem to do much to help it. His occasional wheezing/whistling has also become more of a sputtering noise, which again, seems like an RI. At the very least he doesn’t seem to do this when sleeping in his cage - at the very least, I’ve noticed him doing the open mouth breathing in his cage while he’s awake, but not while he’s asleep. Of course, opening and closing your mouth does probably require being awake so it makes sense, but I still think it’s better than the alternative at least.
I know he’s sick - if he wasn’t already getting treatment, I would be rushing him to the vet as soon as possible. But because this coincided with his latest medication round ending, I don’t know what’s going on. The round of meds ended on Tuesday and he started this behavior on Wednesday, almost too close together to expect a correlation (however I did give him his meds a few hours late both Monday, and then a few hours later than Monday on Tuesday, so I wonder if that could be the culprit?) but also so close together that I feel like there is one.
I did talk to the vet about the potential RI symptoms using your advice (thank you!) and she said that we can try treating that if the current medication doesn’t help. And the thing is, it did seem to be helping. He wasn’t any worse for wear after the first round of meds - if anything, he was doing really well. And the majority of his behavior is better, it’s just the breathing concerns me and his body hydration level seems worse. He’s officially eating a hopper every meal (bare minimum - I might be able to get him to eat a full mouse if I tried since he’ll also eat pinkies in addition sometimes. I was just feeding him whatever he would eat out of the mice I defrost for my other snakes, but obviously I’m being a bit more careful after this diagnosis so sharing food is a bit harder) and I think he’s maintaining a good weight. He might be a pinch drowsier than normal (harder to wake up) but he’s absolutely normal once he does wake up and he’s honestly pretty alert, for him at least. He still rights his head (so immediately that I cant even flip it over for a second) but is slow to right the bottom half/two thirds of his body.
I really feel like part of the problem might be his lack of shedding, but I’m not sure what to do to help with that. He actually has been spending more time outside of his humid hides than normal (aspen bedding and its California during the summer, so its bone dry if he isnt in his humid hides) although he’s in one right now. In fact I noticed it while he was resting outside of his humid hide. It did seem like after the medication the first time he had the same behavior of not sleeping in his humid hides, but I’m not sure why. I do know he’s not a big fan of the medication - as expected. Like I said, he doesn’t bite or hiss or even tail buzz, he’s not even running away, he just wants me to let go of his head so I don’t give him medicine. And he’s gotten really good at spitting as much of it up as possible. Like, “how are you doing this I thought snakes couldn’t do this anatomically” levels of good LOL. I get most of it in but I did have a few instances where he spit it out through his nose (including at the vets) and while I always wiped it off I do wonder if that could be causing some of the problems, especially since I don’t see any mucus anymore. Because that’s the thing - I was seeing excess saliva before, but now that he has worse RI symptoms, I’m not? I keep checking to make sure I just didn’t get unlucky and yeah, no, I don’t see any. I’ll keep checking but yeah…I’m just pretty confused.
I guess my question is, do you guys think this is a medical emergency and I should take him right away? I’m really conflicted, because I was planning on taking him in during his followup fecal (even though I dont have to) to do another check and see how he’s doing, but that won’t be for another 3 weeks. Like I said, if he wasn’t already in treatment I’d be making an appointment ASAP. There’s also the problem that I don’t drive, and my mom took me last time, but unfortunately she and my dad came down with covid last thursday (although thankfully they’re okay) and while I’m safe because I don’t live with them (college city apartment), that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have a ride to the vet’s. If it’s a medical emergency, I’ll either book an uber or see if my parents are still infectious by the time the vet can get me in anyways (I feel like the quarantine period for covid is always changing so idk if its a week now or back to two weeks…). I do have a friend with a car but she’s got a job that’s kept her busy enough that we haven’t had time to hang out so I’m not sure if that’s feasible either. But either way, I’ll make sure I get Phantom to the vet if you guys think its a medical emergency - that or the vet thinks it is. I thought about just calling the vet but because I often forget to ask questions and the vet isn’t super detailed (plus the receptionist doesn’t ever seem to know much about snakes so they have to have the vet call me back hours later and I hate getting phone calls lol) I thought I’d bring it up with you guys first and see what you think. I’m definitely going to go to the vets in 3 weeks at the latest so its not like he won’t get checked eventually, I just need to figure out if I should check him now or wait until his treatment is done so we can talk about further treatment options. I may just call the vet anyways since she’s the one who would know if his medication helps with RIs or if we should add a new medication but yeah, I think all advice is useful!
As for the others’ fecal samples, well, my parents went on vacation for a week so things kind of got delayed, aaaand now they have covid so it got delayed again. I haven’t gotten any fresh samples yet anyways but still, whoops. They’re still acting normal and eating well (actually I need to defrost food for my middle child [Cynder] right now because I fed her dinner to Phantom yesterday - oops!) so they aren’t as high of a priority but it would be good if I can at least turn them in by the next time I go to the vets.
I’m thinking about replacing their substrate with sterile paper towels but idk. The aforementioned middle child is a big fan of burrowing (despite having the most hides in her cage out of all of my snakes…) but her stools are usually big enough that I can find them, its just a matter of finding them quick enough. My littlest’s stools (Spyro) are, well, little, and I dont always see them right away because of it, but he also likes to burrow sometimes and I feel bad taking away his hiding spots since he’s simultaneously so shy but also very active. Phantom doesn’t need me to collect a stool sample from him yet but simultaneously it might be a good idea so that I can monitor if he’s urinating a lot, because as it stands I cant figure out how he would be dehydrated. He maybe poops a little too much (maybe twice a week at the most, probably less) but that doesn’t seem that unusual to me? Plus every time I let him swim and he poops in the water, it looks normal to me. I dunno though. I do know from personal experience that cleaning up paper towels is a lot harder than cleaning up aspen. I think I’m going to try the water soaking method for Cynder to see if I can get a sample from her, and for Spyro…idk, he’s never pooped on me and he’s so skittish I havent ever let him go swimming before. Not sure what I’ll do for him, maybe I just need to be more proactive. If nothing else, his cage is the easiest to take apart and access the bottom floor so maybe I’ll try the paper towel method with him. He’s due for a substrate change anyways.
Thanks for reading, and I wanted to say thank you to @noodlehaus and everyone else for all the kind words! You guys have been really helpful throughout this whole process and I appreciate it a lot.
, but I’ll wrap up by saying quickly that I am really, really happy to read that you’re keeping the faith and continuing to help improve your snake’s life.