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URGENT! Snake spasming, opening mouth, and making noise, PLEASE HELP!!!

visceralrepulsion

visceralrepulsion

Nay-Sayer
First I'd like to say, if you've opened this page just to read then ridicule me afterwards for my situation, please don't waste my time. It's taken a lot of guts to post this, and I'm doing so between tears and sobs so please be kind and helpful. This is a dire situation, and I need good advice, support, and no backlash from judgemental snake-owners.

At around 7am this morning, my boyfriend heard noises and got up to see what was going on. He said everything seemed fine, he was certain my adult male Corn Snake, Lars, was the source of the noise, and he noticed he had defecated recently. Since he didn't know what in the world happened he laid back down. He then heard more commotion, and woke me at around 8:15am, and told me there was something wrong with Lars. I got up to check him out, and he was spastically flailing and flopping around his viv. I FREAKED. He stopped maybe 15 seconds later. My boyfriend said apparently this wasn't the first episode, since he'd heard him making noise earlier, but hadn't know what it was. I of course started bawling. Shortly after the spasmatic episode, Lars made some gurgling/grunty noises. He was then opening his mouth and making a gagging/hacking noise almost everytime he opened it. When he stopped flopping I opened his viv to give him some fresh air and to check him out. He had some aspen stuck in and around his mouth, which I pulled out and cleaned off as best as I could. All this behavior has subsided, atleast for now. He hasn't made any noise, had any spasms, or anything that I've witnessed since about 9am this morning.

I logically called the closest vet that deals with reptiles. They informed me that all payment was due at the time of treatment. I gave them an overview of what was going on with Lars, and they said it would be $44 for the visit initially, $30-60 for medication or antibiotics, $150-300 for bloodwork, and$116 for x-rays. So, even if Lars didn't need medication, the visit would be $310- $460. If medication was needed it would be anywhere from $340-520 total. Though I'm a responsible pet owner and have the money to take general care of my snakes, I do not have $310-$520 lying around, nor do I have a way to come up with this kind of money on such a short notice, especially a few days before Christmas when family and friends don't have the money to lend me either. I can have him assessed Friday, but I'm desperately afraid he won't make it until then.

Yeah, I guess I'm not the perfect snake-owner because I should have money for an emergency such as this, but I don't. Please don't judge me, I love my snakes just as much, if not more than anyone on this site, or any other for that matter. I'm needing some good advice on what I can do until Friday when he is seen by a vet. Im upping the temps in his viv a tad, decreasing humidity, changing him to a tub with newspaper, and checking on him every 15 mins. or so. The general idea is that he probably has a respiratory infection, but if anyone has any kind advice, suggestions, or questions, please help. Thanks.
 
I should hope nobody would ridicule you for not having an extra 500 dollars just laying around the week before Christmas in this economy. That's a lot of money on very short notice, even for a snake vet. I wish I could help, but I've never dealt with anything like this before. It sounds like you're doing everything you can, I'm so sorry. I hope he makes it until Friday =[ you may get lucky and he might not need an X-ray, though. If it's a respiratory infection and the vet actually cares about the animals over the money, they would hopefully make that diagnosis without all that extra stuff. Maybe call another vet and see if any of them can see you for cheaper, and possibly explain your situation??
That's the best advice I can give, I'm sorry. I hope your baby gets better.
 
Wow, I am really really sorry to hear this....
I think upping the temps was probably a good move.
 
fingers crossed for you! I cant really offer advice, just hope! did he feed in his enclosure with the aspen? or did it just enter his mouth with all the spasming?
 
I think pretty much all vets have the "payment at time of service", but many are good about allowing payments on emergency situations.
I recently aquired an $860 vet bill, on two ferrets. Most of it was on one ferret, that ended up with bladder stones & had to have emergency surgery. My vet gave me ph strips to test the urine of the other ferrets, to make sure it wasn't a bigger issue. The ph was fine on the other ferrets, but in doing the test, we found traces of blood in the urine of my oldest ferret. I would not have known there was a problem, had I not done the ph testing after my ferret with the bladder stones. The xrays, exam & meds for second ferret tacked on another couple hundred dollars, on top of the original $650 for the first ferret. My vet let me pay a chunk of it then, & is allowing me to split the last two payments.

Granted, that ate up any money I had for gifts, as well as a trip to go see my family this month, but my family knows that my animals are a priority, & they understand.

With exotic animals (heck, any animal, for that matter), it is important to have extra money for these types of emergencies, or the means to make sure they get the care, whether by payments, post dated check, Care Credit (which is a line of preapproved credit for vet bills, medical for you & your family) etc.
 
Unfortunately, I don't think there is much else that can be done that to see a vet. I am sure if you are honest with the vet on you money situation they can write up an estimate as to the cost of treatment before going forward that way know going into it exactly what it would cost. This of course would have to be done after an exam so at the very least you will have those fees.

But yes in the mean time you can raise the temps if it does look like an URI.

visceralrepulsion said:
First I'd like to say, if you've opened this page just to read then ridicule me afterwards for my situation, please don't waste my time. It's taken a lot of guts to post this, and I'm doing so between tears and sobs so please be kind and helpful. This is a dire situation, and I need good advice, support, and no backlash from judgemental snake-owners.

At around 7am this morning, my boyfriend heard noises and got up to see what was going on. He said everything seemed fine, he was certain my adult male Corn Snake, Lars, was the source of the noise, and he noticed he had defecated recently. Since he didn't know what in the world happened he laid back down. He then heard more commotion, and woke me at around 8:15am, and told me there was something wrong with Lars. I got up to check him out, and he was spastically flailing and flopping around his viv. I FREAKED. He stopped maybe 15 seconds later. My boyfriend said apparently this wasn't the first episode, since he'd heard him making noise earlier, but hadn't know what it was. I of course started bawling. Shortly after the spasmatic episode, Lars made some gurgling/grunty noises. He was then opening his mouth and making a gagging/hacking noise almost everytime he opened it. When he stopped flopping I opened his viv to give him some fresh air and to check him out. He had some aspen stuck in and around his mouth, which I pulled out and cleaned off as best as I could. All this behavior has subsided, atleast for now. He hasn't made any noise, had any spasms, or anything that I've witnessed since about 9am this morning.

I logically called the closest vet that deals with reptiles. They informed me that all payment was due at the time of treatment. I gave them an overview of what was going on with Lars, and they said it would be $44 for the visit initially, $30-60 for medication or antibiotics, $150-300 for bloodwork, and$116 for x-rays. So, even if Lars didn't need medication, the visit would be $310- $460. If medication was needed it would be anywhere from $340-520 total. Though I'm a responsible pet owner and have the money to take general care of my snakes, I do not have $310-$520 lying around, nor do I have a way to come up with this kind of money on such a short notice, especially a few days before Christmas when family and friends don't have the money to lend me either. I can have him assessed Friday, but I'm desperately afraid he won't make it until then.

Yeah, I guess I'm not the perfect snake-owner because I should have money for an emergency such as this, but I don't. Please don't judge me, I love my snakes just as much, if not more than anyone on this site, or any other for that matter. I'm needing some good advice on what I can do until Friday when he is seen by a vet. Im upping the temps in his viv a tad, decreasing humidity, changing him to a tub with newspaper, and checking on him every 15 mins. or so. The general idea is that he probably has a respiratory infection, but if anyone has any kind advice, suggestions, or questions, please help. Thanks.
Click to expand...

This is just a personal note so take it with a grain of salt but half your post is lecturing us on how to lecture you. It kind of made me not want to help after the first paragraph and I didn't even know what the problem was or if I could even help. I know you have mentioned before that you have seen threads go south but most of the time they don't and I just didn't see that this was necessary. Saying the soonest I can get him in is Friday what can I do in the mean time was enough in my opinion. No one is expecting you to spend money that you don't have but it sounds like you are a least willing to have the snake seen. Just maybe not enough for all of the tests they quoted you for which is fine. You and your vet can decide what tests are most important that you can afford together.

Good luck and keep us posted!!!
 
I am so sorry that I have no advice on what it could be, but I wanted to show my support. It is very easy to say that everyone should have money for vet care on hand,but the reality is that that is not always possible. I hope your baby gets better.
 
I know people that have given nebulizer treatments for RI's, but you don't know for sure if that is what the problem is, so I won't suggest that. I have the equipment to give treatment in the event of catching an RI in the initial stages, & it's good to have on hand, once you've dealt with an RI & know what to look for in early stages.

If you haven't already, call your vet and ask if you can give them a post dated check, or see about signing up for Care Credit. He really should be seen as soon as possible.

I hope for the best for him. Please keep us posted.
 
Thanks for the quck responses! I know people shouldn't hassle me for not being able to take him to the vet right away, but shouldn't and won't are different, heh. I've seen some pretty nasty responses to people not having the money for a vet at the moment. I'm applying to get a loan from getmoney.com, but I'm guessing my app won't be accepted, I have prettyyy bad credit. We'll see. The aspen got into his mouth when he was flopping around and had his mouth open I'm pretty sure, but I think some may've stuck to his mouth because of access saliva/mucus. When he opened his mouth really wide one time I was able to see a string of mucus stretch from his tongue to the roof of his mouth I'm pretty sure. Which is abnormal since snakes dont have very much saliva unless ill.
 
This is just a personal note so take it with a grain of salt but half your post is lecturing us on how to lecture you. It kind of made me not want to help after the first paragraph and I didn't even know what the problem was or if I could even help. I know you have mentioned before that you have seen threads go south but most of the time they don't and I just didn't see that this was necessary. Saying the soonest I can get him in is Friday what can I do in the mean time was enough in my opinion. No one is expecting you to spend money that you don't have but it sounds like you are a least willing to have the snake seen. Just maybe not enough for all of the tests they quoted you for which is fine. You and your vet can decide what tests are most important that you can afford together.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, I may seem on the defense for a lot of my post, but all I can really say is I'm sorry if I seem hostile at all, it wasn't meant that way. I'm just very emotionally drained right now, and would probably just break down completely if anyone were to attack me for being a "bad" caretaker of my beloved snakes. It's hard to read people on here, but I know I've seen some really petty responses to posts about people not having the money for vet care at the time they need it. I know I should get him to see a professional asap, however, I won't have the money for the visit and antibiotics even until Friday. It's quite the conundrum. Thanks for all the support from everyone that's responded. I'm doing the best I can with what I have. Wish us luck!
 
Oh, forgot something. It was suggested I could use tetracyclene as sold for fish to help treat this illness, although it's obviously most important to get him to a vet for proper diagnosis care. Does anyone know how to use this for RI's in snakes? Can it be used to help until you get to a vet? Not saying im going to do this for sure, but I'd like to know more. Thanks.
 
Sorry to hear about Lars, I don't know anything you can do until Friday besides what you have already done. I hope Lars just choked on something but to be very honest I would expect the worst after the convulsions you described, because that is what I think they were. How is he acting now? Is he feeling weaker in the muscles/slower/less reactive? That would confirm it. If he behaves the same as before there might be hope though. I know about a boa with convulsions that survived and they got less frequent, don't know about her situation now though.

By the way, I don't get all the x-ray your vets on the other side of the ocean seem to want to do. I had never any snake of mine x-rayed, my vet only x-rays for egg binding issues. X-ray shows bones and intestinal blockages, though the latter won't even show you what the blockaging mass is she explained to me. So I'm pretty sure no x-ray would be needed in Lars's case.
 
I understand why you posted that. I'd be feeling pretty down on myself, too, if I were in your shoes. But it's unwarranted. You are taking him to the vet, which is more than most people would do. I think if you explain your situation, they'll help you, for sure. Like I said, 500 dollars is a LOT of money, even if you did have some cash set aside for emergencies, I'd think it would likely be less than 500 dollars. That's such a high estimate even for a snake vet, although it's possible they were just listing off everything they offer for sick snakes. I'm sure they would accept payments or something of the like.
This is a very tough time of year for most people for veterinary emergencies, I'm assuming they'll be understanding of that.
Again, I really hope it works out.
 
I think you might view some of those threads in a new light now to. :) I know some of the ones I can think of are ones that someone has bred their snake and now it is egg bound and don't have the money for a vet. Well IMO breeding is one of those unnecessary risks that could cause vet bills so before you breed you better have a plan.

Right now you have a poor situation that happened at a poor time and are trying to find ways around it for the better of your snake. You didn't just come here and say My snake has a problem I can't afford to fix it so what can I do to fix it at home. And as you know somethings just can't be fixed at home and do need a vet.

But I am wishing you and your baby lots of luck. Somebody might know better but you might want to raise his humidity to, in hopes of helping him breath a little better.
 
SnakeAround said:
Sorry to hear about Lars, I don't know anything you can do until Friday besides what you have already done. I hope Lars just choked on something but to be very honest I would expect the worst after the convulsions you described, because that is what I think they were. How is he acting now? Is he feeling weaker in the muscles/slower/less reactive? That would confirm it. If he behaves the same as before there might be hope though. I know about a boa with convulsions that survived and they got less frequent, don't know about her situation now though.

By the way, I don't get all the x-ray your vets on the other side of the ocean seem to want to do. I had never any snake of mine x-rayed, my vet only x-rays for egg binding issues. X-ray shows bones and intestinal blockages, though the latter won't even show you what the blockaging mass is she explained to me. So I'm pretty sure no x-ray would be needed in Lars's case.
Click to expand...

I thought they may have been convulsions too, but the way he was moving seemed too...deliberate? I don't know how to describe it, but something just doesn't click with convulsions. Although, they can't be ruled out. After all this hes acting what I'd call normal. No more noises, no more flailing about, and I haven't seen him open his mouth, though he may be when he's in his hide. He's been spending majority of his time on the warm side of his viv, which I thought was odd after the 2 initial days after he ate. As for as his disposition and behavior now, he's acting alert and responsive. He hasn't gotten defensive either, but is aware of everything going on around him still. He's such a sweetheart that he's in such discomfort and is still as gentle and as sweet as can be. He didn't feel any weaker in the muscles that I can observe, and he's reacting normally in my opinion. I'd like to note also that I carefully felt his body up and down to feel for lumps, and felt none. Just incase someone is wondering about blockages, etc. The x-rays they did say probably weren't necessary, and perhaps the bloodwork too. I'm still looking at $100-130 bucks, or around there, if he's just seen and is given medication only. I'll most likely get the bloodwork done to be safe, especially if they can't find anything right off hand wrong with him. I'll definitely get him to the vet Friday, and keep this updated. I'm glad everyone has been very kind and helpful. I know I'm trying to do the right thing, and I could be dealing with it much worse, however, I feel so helpless and scared, and even mad at myself for not having the means to make him better this instant, Ya' know? Thanks.
 
I do know how you are feeling, to see a snake having spasms is awefully upsetting because you can't do a thing and it looks quite disturbing. I really hope he was just choking or something like that, and that caused the saliva, or that it was just another type of incidental event! I feel for you and the snake and hope everything turns out ok! Him being alert and not weak is a good sign I think.
 
When was the last time he ate? He didn't regurge after all that, did he? I've heard people describe actions as you have, followed by a regurge.

I am not sure why the vet is sure they would need to do bloodwork or x-rays. My vet has never had to x-ray any reptiles, or do bloodwork, for that matter. A vet ought to be able to listen to his lung and rule out RI, and if he has one, maybe do a Grams stain to see what antibiotic would best treat it.

Good luck- I don't have any experience with any of the symptoms your snake is displaying.
 
I hope Lars turns out to be ok!
It very well could be that he just got a pc of aspen stuck in his mouth and it irritated him. I've personally had corns get aspen stuck on the side or inside of the mouth and become so irritated that they've performed similar maneuvers to remove it (mostly from biting at me when I've opened their cage; resulting in a mouth full of aspen), but I'm sure they could accidentally get aspen in an irritating location just via exploring and burrowing.
 
I had a snake regurge and die the night after, looking like she had been acting like Lars, since her mouth was full of bedding. I do think if Lars survives the night and shows no more spasms chances are high it was nothing fatal. Of course a vet check still is necessary to rule out something serious is going on.

Maybe he just saw a ghost corn :p
 
Nanci- He at last on 12-17. And no he didn't regurge at all. That's kind of what we thought might happen too. The vet didn't say both were necessary, and said the x-rays weren't going to be needed most likely. They said the bloodwork could be done if I wanted it done, or if they thought it should be. But they did say that wasn't necessary most likely. They just kind of gave me a rundown of what prices may come up for treatment when I described what his behavior was. They said it would most likely be the initial visit plus any medication or antibiotics needed.
Tara80- I can only hope that's all that happened. That would be a great relief, so long as he doesn't become impacted because of it.

I was reading about at home help for RI's, and though it's not a cure, I've found some stuff about using Vicks Vapor Rub & eucalyptus oil to help combat the infection and allow the antibiotics to work. I read a good idea- Use 1/2 teaspoon of Vicks and a few drops of the eucalyptus oil in about 250ml of boiled water, place the snake in a large enough container with a ventilated lid, (like a sterilite box many use for tubs), then placing the snake in the ventilated box, and then placing both the snake and the container of medicated water on opposite sides in a larger lidded airtight box. Some said it works miracles, so I'm going to try that. I'm still looking for more info on the tetracycline treatment to use until I get him to the vet Friday, if anyone can offer that. I need some kind of guide to know how much to use etc., basically. And HAHA @ ghost corn =p.
 
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