Taken a turn for the worst. I need help/advice..

[snake5007]

thats right. i dont know what the game is here, but he was at elles for a few weeks before he got this ri. she says he was given antibiotics for a week, then taken to vet. my understanding is an ri is extremely serious, and the rep should be isolated right away, and taken to vet right away. snakes only have one lung that really works, so it should be treated by an experienced vet as soon as symptoms are noticed. not a week later.
look at the picture above, does that snake look ill to you, cause he sure as hell doesnt to me. and that was taken by toyah.

Pythons have two lungs, whereas colubrids and other types usually have one.

 

[enigma]

it spreads quickly from snake to snake, which is why the said snake should be isolated and taken to vet same day as the symptoms are noticed. feeding tongs etc should be only used by sick snake, and others used by other snakes in house. hands etc should be disinfected before handling each rep. temps can bring an ri on. but as was stated he was at elles, or was it lyns??? i cant remember, for at least 8 weeks before this was noticed. he then got antibiotics, and when they didnt work he was taken to vet. where did they get the antibiotics from.
royals need a hot spot of 90 and a cool end of 80. i heat my room to give them the lower temp of 80.
i have had a non feeder and she looked terrible compared to windsors picture. toyah did a good job there i think to have a chronic non feeder look like that.

 

[enigma]

any snake that has two lungs, and there are some, has one lung lots smaller than the other, so in theory, only one works at the correct level.

 

[enigma]

Pythons have two lungs, whereas colubrids and other types usually have one.

if you read what i wrote, i said they have only one that really works, meaning to full capacity. the other is lots smaller.

 

[snake5007]

Yes, i read it. Somebody else might've taken it as you saying that snakes only have one lung, hence my post.

 

[enigma]

some have one, some have two, but those with two normally only use one as one is small and is practically useless. thats why ri's are so serious in snakes. thanks for correcting that, as you said some people could have picked it up wrong.

 

[Pruddock]

I've never heard of any snake only having one lung. As far as I know they all have two lungs, and one is just so inherently small that it is useless and they rely on the one large lung. They also all have only 3 valves in the hears (two atria and one shared ventricle) and in order for the blood to not mix there are very thin membranes that seperates the highly oxygenated blood from the blood returned from the systemic system. Snake anatomy is so awesome <----- Snake Nerd!

 

[enigma]

it sure is!!!!

 

[snake5007]

I thought it was only Boids that had two?

 

[enigma]

its mostly thr right lung that is the largest. and the only one to actually work. it covers a third of the snakes body, the left lung is so small its rendered useless or indeed, in some snakes is missing altogether. when feeding they extend a small tube under the mouse, rat or whatever they are eating, and this enables them to breath, as you will have noticed, they can take a wee while to get the food down. although i think my royals are far slower at getting food down than my corns.

 

[toyah]

Hang on though, surely all this is conjecture, without results from the vet's autopsy?
In any case, temperature at Toyah's,and the feeding issues are by-the-by, because he had no RI symptoms until he'd been back with Elle for 2 months?

Thanks Janine. I think it was getting a bit sidetracked here. The fact my sitting room is colder than the snake room is really neither here nor there, as far as I can tell. Temperature in my snake room was only ever an issue in the last couple of days in September, five weeks after Windsor left, and we rectified the issue as soon as it was noticed by introducing extra supplementary heating for the winter.

Temperatures were only really mentioned in this case as my temperatures have been repeatedly mentioned as a factor in both Windsor's refusal to feed while here, and then later in his respiratory illness.

Honestly, I have no boid experience, and thankfully no RI experience (yet, fingers crossed),but from what I've read it usually progresses very fast from an initial problem, even from a fault in heating for a couple of days. Would that be right?

Yes, that is correct, from what I've read and been told. For example, Casey (the lady who had three royals with RIs, who has been mentioned in both this thread and the one on RFUK) had a thermostat malfunction, and her snakes were left in too cold conditions overnight. Three of them had respiratory symptoms within 24 hours.

but as was stated he was at elles, or was it lyns??? i cant remember, for at least 8 weeks before this was noticed. he then got antibiotics, and when they didnt work he was taken to vet. where did they get the antibiotics from.

Sorry, just to clarify timescales here re: vets and medication (Elle didn't give him non-prescribed antibiotics!). Windsor was never at Lynn's.

19th August: Windsor left here to go to Elle's house.
End of September: Huffy breathing noticed, but nothing thought of it, no other RI signs.
5th October: Full-blown respiratory illness noticed.
11th October: Windsor is taken to the vets, and starts a two week course of baytril (I do not know what dosage/frequency)
25th October: Baytril course ends, no further antibiotics are given.

8th November: Second vet visit for euthanasia

 

[enigma]

what i meant was, i couldnt remember if windsor was at elles or lyns. i knew one of lyns snakes was there, when he was given the mouse, but didnt remember at whose house. and i certainly wasnt reading through all these pages to find out for sure, lol

 

[diamondlil]

If Windsor wasn't at Lynnes, where does the shared feeding tongs happen though?

 

[enigma]

i think one of lyns must have been at elles!!!!!!!!

 

[snake5007]

Yep. One of Lynns snakes, the carpet i think, was at Elles

 

[toyah]

If Windsor wasn't at Lynnes, where does the shared feeding tongs happen though?

Elle picked up Shug (the carpet python) on the 16th October. He was then offered re-washed food that Windsor had previously refused, using the same feeding tongs.

Shug was then transferred to Lynn's house/ownership sometime around the end of October. He then apparently was put in the same feeding tub as Lynn's royal, and both Shug and Princess (the royal) came down with RIs after this.

 

[snake5007]

So, did Elle lie about feedng Lynnes snake a mouse that Windsor refused? This thread has me confused, i thought Elle said she used the same feeding tongs for both snakes and that that was how the RI was spread?

 

[enigma]

the mouse wasnt mentioned till much later if i remember right. and it was another member that found this out.

 

[snake5007]

Yeah, but Elle denied it, if i remember correctly.

 

[enigma]

yes am sure thats the case.