Hey everyone, last night I was checking on all my snakes, separating males for a small meal and I noticed my one girl had some small bubbles at her mouth. I tried getting a picture but they are hard to see even standing in front of her. Is this a respiratory infection? Can I do anything or do I need to just get her to the vet? The small dots on her head are just small pieces of the reptichip.
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Aww, I’m sorry that your poor beautiful girl is having troubles! Bubbles indicate a couple of possibilities, either of which need a vet visit. The most likely cause of bubbles is a respiratory infection. A mouth infection is also possible. Unless the snake is in obvious distress, mouth gaping and/or gasping for breath, it’s not an emergency situation but she does need to see a vet. Chances are she’ll be fine with treatment.
Edit: I keep corns so I’ll let someone who knows about your species make husbandry recommendations in the meantime. Good luck and please keep us posted.
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Thanks for the quick reply, she isn’t gasping or anything like that, just very small bubbles and they don’t seem to be there all the time. Hopefully I caught it very early. She was breeding this season so I’m hoping for some beautiful boa babies in a few months, any concern taking her to the vet? She hasn’t ovulated yet.
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From what you’re saying, I would think you caught the problem as early as possible. She should respond well to treatment.
Obviously she needs to be completely healthy for breeding, and I’m not sure when your target time frame is. If she were one of my corns, I wouldn’t rule it out at this point. She may well be finished with treatment and good to go before long since you caught the problem early.
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If she were a corn snake, I’d bump her temps up a couple of degrees until she could get to a vet. Gonna holler for some boa people. @lumpy, @westridge, @eaglereptiles, @tommccarthy, what say you?
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Caryl, is spot on.
I’m not a vet and would not feel comfortable diagnosing from these pictures alone.
One little thing to try though is to filter the water you are giving her and see if it continues, you may just have “filmy” water in your neck of the woods, which antibiotics isn’t going to help.
But, a vet visit should still be sought out.
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I never thought of the water. My other snakes and lizards are all doing well so I’m hoping it’s not that but who knows.
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What a beautiful girl! Hopefully she’s not in pain 
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Thank you! She is one of my favorites, such a sweetie too.
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Aaaawwwww! Poor baby! She is a very pretty girl! I know her condition worries you but you caught it quickly. I use bottled water because we only have a water softener.
Sending best wishes for a speedy recovery! 
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More than likely, she has an RI problem.
When boas finally show RI problems, they have had it for some time as their metabolism is slow. So when you see bubbles coming out of the nose or mouth, they have had the problem for some time now.
You should take her to see the veterinarian. She will need medication for the RI.
Bump up the heat in the cage a little. Don’t go over 92 degrees. This will help until you can her the veterinarian.
You could be stressing her out with the breeding. This will cause her immune system to be compromised. You should also check the male you had with her. Keep an eye out for an RI problem with him. He may not be showing signs of it yet.
Here is a link to my care sheet page of my website.
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Thank you as always! I’ll be scheduling a visit tomorrow. I separated them and have the hotspot to 92.
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So she has different water now and there are no bubbles yesterday or this morning. Could this have just been crappy well water? I also took the male out and her hotspot is 92. I haven’t been able to get into the vet yet.
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I would still plan a vet visit. A lot of the times boas will avoid water thats out to many days, I change ours every few days. Id wager its a type of infection.
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Agreed- 100% think you need a vet visit. Make sure your vet knows you bred her- any drugs used may affect any embryos, and her body will be under more stress if there was a successful copulation. Also make sure the vet knows she was just in with another snake. Until you have seen a vet and they have resolved any issues and given her a clean bill of health, I would keep her and the male isolated from any other snakes.
Below you will find a link to a thread that may help you find an exotics veterinarian.
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I’m going to add my agreement that she still needs a vet visit. Reptiles are notorious for hiding problems, and you said that the bubbles are very small and don’t seem to be there all the time. If there is a problem, it’s much more easily addressed early. More successfully treated, more easily treated, less expensively treated. And even if it turns out to be nothing, at this point it would be worth it to know that for sure.
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Thank you everyone! She is going to the vet on Monday. I have them both separated and temps high, the vet is awesome though they have helped a few of my exotics in the past. I’m really hoping she is fine and that she does have some healthy babies. I’m fairly sure they copulated but I’m not convinced she ovulated yet.
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Best wishes for a speedy recovery for her!
Caron. 
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I def recommend using at least filtered (like Brita or something) water especially with well water. This is just coming from what I know about well water more than keeping lol. Microbes that may not harm us could be a new thing for animals that come from far away places, and well water in particular can have miniscule stuff.
Or it may just be an overabundance of minerals having some negative effect, even leading to RI or other stuff.
(Personally, and I don’t exactly recommend this extreme in it’s entirety, but I’m a paranoid neurotic and any bowl of water I use reverse osmosis filtered, bottled water. Spray I use Brita filtered. I also don’t use sticks/rocks from outside unless boiled or something, even spraying with chlorhexidine anything that goes into a cage/tub. I’m overboard, but hey - no issues, big small or weird lol.)
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I’ll be using filtered for now on. I don’t know what could have caused this but my male is also going to the vet he is raspy today. Something tells me they both have an RI. My temps and humidity are dialed in.
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