Bredli not well

[sara_sabian]

Something's not right with my 6mth old bredli.
The past few days he has been a big lethargic, I wasn't too concerned, I thought it might have been paranoia on my part.
He's also been spending a lot of time at the bottom of his enclosure, this is odd for him as he is ALWAYS cruising around on his branches.
Tonight he's definitely lethargic and isn't gripping on to anything. He has refused the last two feeds, he has always been a very reliable feeder.

Only things I can think of:
Recently changed his substrate to reptibark, lot of my other pythons got th same reptibark and they're fine.
His last feed was a fair size, not huge but bigger than normal.

Can anyone please pm me the details of a good reptile vet in either the Toowoomba or Sth Brisbane area.

 

[Parko]

Is the snake strong when you pick him up? (ie; holds his head up, wraps around your finger strongly etc )

 

[sara_sabian]

No, not at all especially in the back end, he's not limp as such except for the last third of his body, there's no curling or wrapping at all. He doesn't look good and I'm hating myself a lot right now for thinking I was being paranoid. I'll be getting him to a vet asap.

 

[Parko]

Oh, yes certainly to the vet then, can't recommend a vet but can wish you good luck. And it would be a good idea to keep him quarantined from your other reptiles til you know whats going on.

 

[sara_sabian]

Thanks, he's been seperated from the others. He seems to be getting worse, I'm trying to leave him alone.

 

[carterd]

Have you taken him to the vet yet.
Did he become sick 2 days after last meal?
Be good for the Vet to have a faecal sample.

 

[sara_sabian]

His last feed was roughly three weeks ago and he only got sick about a week ago, and even then he was only very slightly off.
I've called around and the soonest appt anyone would give me is Monday arvo.
I'm not sure he'll make that long, he doesn't seem to be worse than last night but that's not exactly high praise.
I spoke to the vet and the vet recommended I bump his heat up.

 

[webcol]

Cant you get an emergency appointment? If you think he wont last till monday, call a vet and make them have a look. Emergency/ after hours appointment may cost more, but its worth it

 

[sara_sabian]

Might be able to get him in to see a wildlife vet today, she's worked with reptiles (I'm waiting to hear back). I'm really trying to get him in. Part of them problem s that I don't have a car here at the moment and my boyfriend can't leave work. If I had the car here I would be knocking down doors to get him in, as it is I'm 1.5hrs away from the vet we have an appt with on monday.
I checked him before and he still seems very alert, he's just very lethargic and still not climbing or gripping.

 

[webcol]

Might be able to get him in to see a wildlife vet today, she's worked with reptiles (I'm waiting to hear back). I'm really trying to get him in. Part of them problem s that I don't have a car here at the moment and my boyfriend can't leave work. If I had the car here I would be knocking down doors to get him in, as it is I'm 1.5hrs away from the vet we have an appt with on monday.
I checked him before and he still seems very alert, he's just very lethargic and still not climbing or gripping.

Its a shame you dont have immediate access to a car, lets hope its noting to worry about,
goodluck.

 

[Poggle]

hey thats no good to hear bout ur lil bredli... do you mind if i ask what size food he is being fed? also what temp is your enclosure?? have you in any way added or brought in any substrate from the out side of your house? and do you feed him live or frozon ?

 

[sara_sabian]

He is fed frozen (thawed) he is about 75cm long (possibly longer) eating large sub-adult mice. The large feed I gave him was a small adult. He's been growing like a weed lately so he's been changing food size every other week.
I changed his substrate to repti-bark about a fortnight ago, a few of my other pythins got the change as well and they're all fine.
His temps are 27/8 - 33, he can get closer to the heat source via the branches if he wants.

Didn't realise I hadn't mentioned; his bulb blew about a week ago and we couldn't get a replacement for 2 days so he wasn't heated fully, it's a warm room so he didn't get cold as such and he had an empty stomache at the time. His funny behaviour started about a day before the bulb went.

The mice he got were from picies (only stuff we could get our hands on, food can be hard to find in our area sometimes)
It was a bit of a dirty batch but I rinsed them off before they were fed to the snakes.

 

[sara_sabian]

I've always been careful with quarantine, I'm sure he hasn't come in contact with anything from my other pythons, they're all fine and we've owned the others longer. This is my first illness so I'm going spare. I can't believe I'm having this much trouble getting him to a vet.

 

[Poggle]

do you worm ?? and has he been hanging round his water more lately

 

[mrmikk]

Deborah Monks atUMG is a good herp vet.


Is it just your snake is coming up for a shed?

 

[sara_sabian]

I havn't noticed him hanging around his water. No he hasn't been wormed lately, do you think that could be it?

He's definitely not coming up for a shed, he shed a fortnight ago and shed a month prior to that.

The suggestions are good though, please keep 'em coming.

I'm still waiting to hear back to see if I can get him in to see the wildlife vet, will definitely mention that he hasn't been wormed recently.

 

[Poggle]

have u seen any lil black dots visible in his water dish as of lately?

 

[sara_sabian]

Nope, and I always check every dish. This is hell, I don't know what's gone wrong!

 

[shamous1]

Injuries

You say it's alert but not moving down near it's tail?

Has it sustained some sort of back injury? Nothing that could have fallen on it in the enclosure?

as soon as you have access to a car call the Vet and tell them your on your way in. Try to get to a reptile Vet just in case, as there are Vets around that do not know jack about reptiles.

Check for mite's or ticks.

 

[Poggle]

You say it's alert but not moving down near it's tail?


Check for mite's or ticks.

yes thats what i was going to say but was just asking some quesitons before hand.. mites are usually easily seen in water dishes and some times snakes spend longer periods of time in their water dishes if they have them.. but it wouldnt hurt to have a look.