I recently acquired a WC viper boa. She (judging from the absence of tibial spures) looked fine for a WC animal. The skin is intact and I could not find any ticks, mites, sores, etc other than a very small nose rub abrasion. I have her in a large plastic critter keeper with newspaper substrate, a hide, and a large water bowl where she spends much of her time. Despite patient attempt on my part she has so far refused ft mice but has eagerly fed on live mice on two separate occasions now. She is upstairs in my warm herp room (ambient temps in the low 80's f with about a 5 degree drop at night). I placed a small cobra heat mat under part of the enclosure for extra warmth. Although I am not one to handle my herps too frequently, she does allow handling to a degree. She seems very alert overall. I have had her for about three weeks now. Last night while changing the water bowl I noticed some clear mucous coming out of her mouth. Could this be respiratory? The nearest herp vet is about 50 miles away. I am curious if this is something sometimes seen with WC snakes and if it is indicative of a more serious issue. Any information or links would be appreciated.
Chip

I recently acquired a WC viper boa. She (judging from the absence of tibial spures) looked fine for a WC animal. The skin is intact and I could not find any ticks, mites, sores, etc other than a very small nose rub abrasion. I have her in a large plastic critter keeper with newspaper substrate, a hide, and a large water bowl where she spends much of her time. Despite patient attempt on my part she has so far refused ft mice but has eagerly fed on live mice on two separate occasions now. She is upstairs in my warm herp room (ambient temps in the low 80's f with about a 5 degree drop at night). I placed a small cobra heat mat under part of the enclosure for extra warmth. Although I am not one to handle my herps too frequently, she does allow handling to a degree. She seems very alert overall. I have had her for about three weeks now. Last night while changing the water bowl I noticed some clear mucous coming out of her mouth. Could this be respiratory? The nearest herp vet is about 50 miles away. I am curious if this is something sometimes seen with WC snakes and if it is indicative of a more serious issue. Any information or links would be appreciated.
Chip
I am not familiar enough with viper boas specifically to give you anything helpful as to what idiosyncrasies they may have. As far as RI, there is just not enough information to tell that. Unfortunately, I think if you are going to really find out, you're going to have to make the trek to the vet.

Thank you for the advice. I consulted with a vet by phone yesterday. I was basically told to raise the heat just a bit and maybe increase feedings in order to beef up the immune system. If there is further discharge, mouth breathing, etc then I will have her looked at. As of last night she appeared fine (no further mucous). Hopefully this will be the end of it...
Chip

Thank you for the advice. I consulted with a vet by phone yesterday. I was basically told to raise the heat just a bit and maybe increase feedings in order to beef up the immune system. If there is further discharge, mouth breathing, etc then I will have her looked at. As of last night she appeared fine (no further mucous). Hopefully this will be the end of it...
Chip

im of course no vet, but i would have advised exactly the opposite.

raise the heat is ok, but i wouldnt feed her a lot. id give her as much safety and peace as possible. dont open her tub, handle her etc.

thats pure stress- espacially for a wildcaught animal. and threw this stress the immunsystem gets weaker and weaker.


it happend more than a few times that totally healthy animals got sick after they were shipped. thats just because of the stress.

then uve different enviroments with different temps etc which stresses the snake even more.

so yeah- id give her as much peace as possible. no unneccesarly handling and feeding what so ever.

maybe feed her one prey item which is pumped with bioserin (thats what its called here- its basically food nutrition in fluid form), so this item has the same nutrition value of 3 prey itmes.


maybe shane can say something about this too.

to many "herp vets" in reality arent that good. at least here over in germany. theyre normal vets which made a course in "school" for 2 days and than are herp vets...

I agree with you Joe for the most part. Every case is a little different. One thing that has to be considered though is the immune system does have to have energy available to function. I usually recommend just continuing the normal feeding cycles. Overgrazing can cause stress as easily as underfeeding, so definitely don't overfeed. I'm not familiar with the product you mentioned Joe. We have a paste product here called nautical that I will use in nonferding animals sometimes. If the snake will eat though, I'd just continue the normal routine.

I checked on her last evening and she continued to seem OK. I rarely ever handle any of my animals so I am not worried about causing stess in that regard. As far as feeding is concerned, I have only fed her twice. I had only planned feeding once every ten days or so. The vet advised that perhaps bringing that in to once a week may help with the immune system. Anyway, there is a lot of knowledge here and I very much appreciate the input.
Chip

I agree with you Joe for the most part. Every case is a little different. One thing that has to be considered though is the immune system does have to have energy available to function. I usually recommend just continuing the normal feeding cycles. Overgrazing can cause stress as easily as underfeeding, so definitely don't overfeed. I'm not familiar with the product you mentioned Joe. We have a paste product here called nautical that I will use in nonferding animals sometimes. If the snake will eat though, I'd just continue the normal routine.

its probably the same thing just different name.

bioserin is a fluid which gets injected into the prey item. its basically just power in fluid form. this way u can feed a sick or weak snake in normal routine (or even less) and the snake has still the power it needs to get its immunsystem going good.

then uve a scala- basically its like take 1ml and it equals a mice hopper. take 10ml and its like feeding a medium rat

(ive just invented these numbers tho- that are not the real dates)


@ chip:

that sounds good so far. sounds like ure doing the right thing and she recovers a bit.

In agreement with what has already been said, and keep an eye on her, but also it does happen that you happened to see her just after she got a drink... that can look sometimes like a clear mucous. Kind of like a dogs slobber after they were in the water bowl.

I also had that as an after thought. The snake spends quite a bit of time in the water bowl, which from what I have read is common for this species. During the last feeding she actually constricted and consumed the mouse underwater. Again thank you for the advice.
Chip