sneezing

I gave Frank, my snake, a bath today. The water in the bathtub was lukewarm, deep enough for him to swim around in it (he's 4' long). He was coiled on my hands and I put him in gradually. He started drinking when he was just barely touching the water, and then sneezed. He kept sneezing a bunch of times while he was in the water, swimming around and drinking.

After a few minutes he pooed, so I took him out and drained the water. He wanted to go back in, so I filled it back up and let him swim some more. He didn't sneeze much at all this time, and crawled up onto my lap when he was done swimming.

Well, anyway, I've never heard him sneeze before, and he was sneezing a lot. Should I be worried about him? Can snakes catch colds like people do? Oh, and I don't think he's sneezed since I took him out of the water.

he probably just inhaled some water, if he's no longer sneezing I wouldn't worry about it, but if he does then it could be an upper respitory infection, give it a week, corns can usualy recover from a upper resp. infection without antibiotics, but if it seems like he's been sneezing for longer than a week or two call your vet who could tell you to bring him in or give it more time.

I must admit I have never seen a snake sneeze.(sounds like a Dr. Suess book). Mammals (people) sneeze to clear dust and dirt particles from tiny hairs in our noses. These tiny hairs act as filters for our nasal cavity. When we have a cold the hairs become matted with mucous, causing us to sneeze more often. Snakes have no hairs, however your snake,while drinking, may have aspirated a small amount of water. What sounded like a sneeze(and I suppose could be called a sneeze) was you snake clearing it's lung of water. Snakes are succeptable to respiratory infections. If your snake is sick-common symptoms would be: small bubbles out of the nostrils, gurgling when breathing(can be felt when holding your snake), gaping(holding mouth open to breath). Simple and obvious signs to watch for. I doubt you have anything to worry about, just watch for the signs.

Good Luck!

it also helps to raise the temp in the cage a little (maybe five degrees or so) untill the sneezing stops

Thanks for the help. My guess is that he must have accidentally inhaled some water. He hadn't been sneezing before that, and as I said, he stopped sneezing after a little while. He isn't showing any other symptoms of a respiratory infection. I'll take him to a vet if I notice that he starts to, though.

Snakes do in fact possess the same neurological reflex loop that causes sneezing in mammals, and the sneezing typically occurs for the same sorts of reasons that it does in mammals, including humans. I've seen my corns sneeze a few times when taking a swim, and as others have suggested, your corn's nostrils were simply irritated or tickled by the water in them, and the sneeze reflex was a method of clearing the water.

If you were to see sneezing spontaneously and repeatedly without having had their nose in the water, that could be a sign of an upper respiratory infection [URI], requiring a vet visit and treatment with antibiotics. But sneezing would be a very rare presentation of a URI. More often than not, breathing noises and/or breathing with the mouth open would be the usually signs.

Aaaachoooooo!
Doctor Mike