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Overheated snake room

bekers71

What addiction?!
Well, this season has been a real trial for me in this hobby and I think today Mr. Murphy was trying to push me to my limit. I try so hard to make sure every this is done just right when it comes to my animals. But today some thing went horribly wrong.

This morning, as usual, I checked the temp in the snake room and it was barely 78 degrees. So I tapped the heat up just a tad. The only reason I did this was because the windows were going to be open and a cool draft would be pulling through the house cooling things down a bit. So the day goes on and we are busy outside with the kids, cleaning the yard and burning an old stump. When we come back in the house my husband complains of a smell. He said it was a snake smell, almost regurge smell but he thought it smelled more like death. I smelled some thing but wasn't quit sure what it was. So I made my way to the snake room. As I opened the door the heat and smell hit me. When I looked at the thermostat it was reading 99*. I immediately shut the heat down and left the door open. Considering heat rises I knew the totes higher up would be warmer so I started pulling them down. Not to my surprise, I was seeing regurges and non moving snakes in a few of those totes. My husband was at the door taking them from me as fast as I could pass them to him. He sat them on the table as I kept checking the rest. I opened every single tote to release any heat that may have been in them and to check the animals.

Sadly, I lost a couple breeders and there's 3 that regurged. There is one that was so hot he wasn't moving. He has since cooled down and started moving. But is behaving strangely by moving his head back and forth and his mouth his opening and closing. I'm afraid I might lose him too and he is part of an important project. In the end, I realized that the probe part of the thermometer was laying in the floor. Which means the temp I was reading was cooler than what the temp really was for the higher totes.

It's not the fact that the loses were breeders or projects, it's the fact that these are also my pets. I devote so much time to them and then mistakes like this happen.

Murphy may be kicking me around this year but I'm not going down with out a fight. :devil01:
 
OMG Becky! I'm so sorry! That is absolutely terrible! I'm really pulling for the rest of them to be OK.

Keep us posted!

Wayne
 
Sorry to hear of your losses - I hope the snakes that have regurgitated survive and recover... sounds like the snake you mentioned might have suffered nerve damage, but I guess recovery is possible, I hope he's ok

It might be an idea to have two sensors reading the temperature in that room, since if you check both and for example you get a reading of 78 on one and 88 on the you know there is an issue somewhere and can act accordingly...

I think you can also get audible temperature warning devices as well - they are often used in computer data centres since servers are pretty sensitive to heat as well - and 99F would have a similar effect on those as it did on your poor snakes :(.

Im really sorry to hear of the problems you've had and the pets you've lost - I was pretty worried myself when we had a short powercut here recently - I ended up taking the lil ones out in their fabric hide and using the heat of my hands to keep them warm - i didnt want to take any risks.
 
That's horrible, Becky. I am so sorry.

OMG Becky! I'm so sorry! That is absolutely terrible! I'm really pulling for the rest of them to be OK.

Keep us posted!

Wayne

Sorry to hear of your losses - I hope the snakes that have regurgitated survive and recover... sounds like the snake you mentioned might have suffered nerve damage, but I guess recovery is possible, I hope he's ok

It might be an idea to have two sensors reading the temperature in that room, since if you check both and for example you get a reading of 78 on one and 88 on the you know there is an issue somewhere and can act accordingly...

I think you can also get audible temperature warning devices as well - they are often used in computer data centres since servers are pretty sensitive to heat as well - and 99F would have a similar effect on those as it did on your poor snakes :(.

Im really sorry to hear of the problems you've had and the pets you've lost - I was pretty worried myself when we had a short powercut here recently - I ended up taking the lil ones out in their fabric hide and using the heat of my hands to keep them warm - i didnt want to take any risks.

Thanks so much for the kind words. I've had a lot of tears shed over the past few months. I hope things will brighten up with new hatchlings.
 
I'm so sorry this happened and I'm sorry you losses. I hope all your other snakes will be okay. I have also been having a few bad months pet wise myself and it does push your limits but I'm sure things will get better for you real soon.
 
I'm very sorry to hear that. What a devastating thing to happen, especially on what sounded like such a beautiful day. Take care, Bekers!!!
 
Oh Becky I am sorry to hear that! We have been worried too because our heat temps on our flexwatt have been reading close to 100 at times and we turn them down and they drop to 80. The weird thing is that the temp probes are reading about 15 degrees higher than the actual inside temp shown with the temp gun so we have no idea what it really is. And all 3 snakes on that rack are not eating so that worries me more.
I hope the rest of yours are ok.
 
Ahhhh, I am so so so sorry, I don't even know how i would respond to something like this. I think this thread has bothered me more then anything else right now, as this has been one of my fears for a long time.

Oh Becky I am sorry to hear that! We have been worried too because our heat temps on our flexwatt have been reading close to 100 at times and we turn them down and they drop to 80. The weird thing is that the temp probes are reading about 15 degrees higher than the actual inside temp shown with the temp gun so we have no idea what it really is. And all 3 snakes on that rack are not eating so that worries me more.
I hope the rest of yours are ok.

Happens to me ALL the time with my flexwatt, and I too have a temperature gun. It was around 85-87 this morning, then without adjusting anything was down to 75 this evening. I have seen it do the opposite and hit 100 too. My biggest fear is that it is going to have a problem like this while I am at work and I would realize it too late. I thought it was just the rheostat I have in series but if others are having the same problem then maybe it is the flexwatt?
 
I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. I've lost quite a few snakes to heating malfunctions over the years so know what you are going through. The ones that regurged will probably be okay with a little TLC, but I am concerned about the one showing neurological symptoms.
 
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