RI for 2-month old boas

[rhamador23]

4 of my baby boas show RI symptoms, bubly mouth, wizzing, etc. Sometimes they can't open their mouths or flicker thier tounges because they get shut from crusty hardened mucus. I brought them to the vet and the vet said that he couldn't see any mucus in the opening of the trachea. And that the snakes didn't have RI. He's a respected reptile vet in town so I believed him. I raised the temp to 85 to 94 in the 20 gallon aquarium where I keep the babies. Now they stopped feeding, you can see crusty stuff around the mouths and starting to get thinner. I am very concerned. The doctor doesn't want to administer injectible meds e.g. amikacin etc because of the size of the boas. The doctor also said that although the tissues in the mouth are in good shape, this could be a mouthrot. They also wiz (sp?). I've seen mouthrot before and I've dealt with RI in the past, I think the two illnesses have different symptoms.
The questions, what could this be? How do you treat RI on juvies (a month or 2 of age) when the vet refuses to give shots? My cage is clean with water and the temp is now between 85-92 degrees. Does too low humidity causes RI or causes other deseases? Humidity is sometimes down to 24 o/o. Pleasae help.

Gabriel-Minneapolis

[YVP]

I don't know the answers to your medical questions, but I do know that your humidity SHOULD be a lot higher. These are tropical animals that we're dealing with, and tropic conditions should be replicated for them for their overall health and well being in captivity. I never let my humidity drop below 65%, which is low in my opinion.

One thing that I've read of......it is possible to inject the medication....in light dosage, into prey items before you feed... if they're feeding that is vs. direct injection into your boas.

[bcijoe]

Raise the humidity, raise the heat, KEEP THEM SEPERATE, and change their water very frequently - even as much as 3 times a day. They may drink, poop, or soak, and then touching that water again can just let it linger.
Keep on top of it!

[rhamador23]

Thank you for the advise... I moved them in a huge closet and have a humidifier that maintain 60 0/0 humidity. I separated them and maintain 87-95 degrees with clean water.

Gab

[rhamador23]

Dear YVP.
Thanks.... Since they don't eat and I'm very uncomfortable to force feed them because the mouths are tiny ( I might crush them) I will probably just try injectable meds if there's an acceptable humanely methods for very small boas. And if there is, how will I calculate the dosage? Each is barely 12gms (approx). Thank you again.

Gab

[Panama_Red]

I hate to confuse you here, but I'd watch those realy high temps, if the boas are on the cooler side constantly you might lower the temps a bit.. High heat will also stop them from eating. 12 grams is realy small, I think a drop of antibiotics would be too much for them. I would seek another vets opinion. good luck, I hope the get better.