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Hi....clicking sounds/ substrate

C

crazyfire

New member
Hi im crazy and I have about a 6 month old normal corn snake. Now to the meat of my post.
So my corn snake is making a clicking sound...again. It happen the first time about 2 months ago and naturally I took it to the only reptile vet(she is more of a anything vet and does not specialize in reptiles) in town and they said it had RI and gave it shots over the course of about a week and a half. Now its making the same noise again but I don't think it is RI. I think it might be the substrate I am using. (Aspen but the really cheap stuff at Wal-Mart.) My reasons are as thrus.
1. The vet said the drugs that they gave my snake the first time should stay in the snake roughly 2-3 months.
2. Besides the clicking sound and labored breathing no other systems are presenting.
3. Its eating and drinking fine.
4. I literally had to pull out a small piece of aspen that got trapped in the snakes nose.
5. Hotspot is around 85-90 with a cool side of about 75.
So my questions are as follows
1. Am I completely insane and it is RI?
2. If it is the substrate should I go ahead and change it out with more expensive aspen or will upgrading to petco generic aspen substrate be sufficient?
 
Some snakes get sneezy with certain substrates - I have one that does fine on carefresh but sneezes like crazy on aspen. My vet will usually do a different medication on a snake that shows no improvement on a RI with the first medication (usually Baytril first). How are you measuring your temperatures (probe, dial thermometre, temp gun)? And what are you using to heat (UTH, lights) and do you use a thermostat?
 
I use an UTH and a light during the day to create daytime temps if 85-90(using a dial) deg with nights around 78 deg. No thermostat. The cool side stays room temp which is 75 during the day and 73 at night.
 
This probably doesn't have anything to do with it, but I'd ditch the lights and hook your UTH up to a thermostat ASAP. They can get up to 120 degrees if not regulated. 90 is on the high end for corns, and if you're using a dial, then it's likely way too hot. Grab a digital thermometre with a probe (can get them at WalMart or PetCo/PetsMart) and put the probe underneath the substrate on top of the UTH. By hooking up the UTH to a thermostat, you can set the 'stat to stay at a certain temperature. I set mine to 83 degrees.
 
I also have heard snakes "click" before a shed. If you want to rule out an aspen allergy, (well, irritation from dust- I highly doubt the snake is allergic to aspen) I'd go to something completely different for three or four months- like paper towels (yeah, I know...) maybe with some of the crinkly paper you can buy as bedding. Or CareFresh.
 
Tks for the input. The clicking went away today. I will switch to Carefresh after my next cleaning and will prob get the thermostat as soon as get my next paycheck comes in.
 
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