So it all started when our landlord moved out. He had the upstairs and we had the downstairs. He always tried keeping the heat around 72 F and that was fine for me and my snakes. Now the people living upstairs turn the heat off in the dead of winter and on one cold day last week (when they shut off the heat because apparently its spring and the upstairs is warm[sarcasm]) it falls to 56 F downstairs, and that is too cold for us, never mind the snakes. I use all heat sources I can and I find it still doesn't work. My poor snakes! I feel like giving them away to someone who can at least control the heat where they live.
One of them passed away all of a sudden. He was still in quarantine and eating fine. His heat was ok if not a little cooler and he was active, had good appetite and looked healthy. Then one day I found him dead. The morning after the really bad cold spell. It was a horrible find and I am just glad he was still in quarantine. (Landlord has been notified about the snakes and cold basement. We cannot control our own heat and our landlord is an animal lover so justice will be served!)
Now today I took Buddy the texas rat snake to the vet for an emergency visit because his snakie equivalent of a tear duct is blocked and there is fluid build up behind his eye cap. So there is more money gone, but my snakes are worth it so I paid the good vet.
So I go home with Buddy and set him up in a new tank with quarantine standards and place him in a different room. I go to feed my other snakes after cleaning my hands a thousand times and when I get to my Gopher snake she starts hissing at me like mad. That is when I noticed it. A weird flap of skin sticking up in her mouth. I got so worried that something was out of place I thought I needed another vet visit. I wanted to do a check on the net to see if this is a common ailment and I couldn't find anything. Then I looked up flap in snake mouth and google throws at me a picture of a gopher snake with its mouth open. Apparently it is a "cartilaginous membrane flap or preglottal keel jutting upward at the front of the glottis" To amplify the hissing noise my snake makes.
unch:
I nearly fainted with relief.
One of them passed away all of a sudden. He was still in quarantine and eating fine. His heat was ok if not a little cooler and he was active, had good appetite and looked healthy. Then one day I found him dead. The morning after the really bad cold spell. It was a horrible find and I am just glad he was still in quarantine. (Landlord has been notified about the snakes and cold basement. We cannot control our own heat and our landlord is an animal lover so justice will be served!)
Now today I took Buddy the texas rat snake to the vet for an emergency visit because his snakie equivalent of a tear duct is blocked and there is fluid build up behind his eye cap. So there is more money gone, but my snakes are worth it so I paid the good vet.
So I go home with Buddy and set him up in a new tank with quarantine standards and place him in a different room. I go to feed my other snakes after cleaning my hands a thousand times and when I get to my Gopher snake she starts hissing at me like mad. That is when I noticed it. A weird flap of skin sticking up in her mouth. I got so worried that something was out of place I thought I needed another vet visit. I wanted to do a check on the net to see if this is a common ailment and I couldn't find anything. Then I looked up flap in snake mouth and google throws at me a picture of a gopher snake with its mouth open. Apparently it is a "cartilaginous membrane flap or preglottal keel jutting upward at the front of the glottis" To amplify the hissing noise my snake makes.
unch:I nearly fainted with relief.
