Strange mystery breathing

Hi everyone!

My baby Rango is 5 months old. I got him on May 1st shipped to me overnight.

I’m going to go through a very detailed history that I hope I can get some help, ideas, or answers.

The day after I got Rango I took him to the emergency vet for weird puffing up breathing. I was nervous of a respiratory infection. The emergency vet said he was totally fine and there were no signs of anything wrong. I took him home.

He has ALWAYS eaten and had a huge appetite, this has never changed even when I thought he wasn’t feeling well. He has three meals a day of around 20 bugs each meal.

He did a full body shed and i noticed he started puffing his mouth open and releasing air, it was like he was depressurizing and trying to blow his nose. I will attach videos here.

https://imgur.com/a/U0hi3h0

He seems to do this strange breathing maybe 50% of the time. But everything else seems completely healthy.

Shortly after I started noticing excess saliva in his mouth, he would release spit bubbles. I continued to be concerned about a respiratory infection again. He made a squeak one time (sorta puffed up and squeaked at me) which made me think this was a cough? He only did this once.

I took him to the vet again last night. The vet findings showed:
- inside of mouth looks good and clear
- heart rate is normal
- eyes, nose, ears are normal
- everything looks good except for fast breathing and increased respiratory effect
- chest X-rays showed hyper inflated lungs but nothing else (everything else in the X-ray was normal looking)
-gained 20 grams since last appointment (yay!)

This vet was not an exotic specialist and recomended increasing humidity which I know is the wrong answer so I took him home because I didn’t trust her unfortunately.

As soon as he got home he was running around his cage happy and eating crickets. He didn’t do the breathing thing again that night.

He has another appointment today with a different vet that supposedly sees exotics.

My current theories for what this could be are the following:
-stuck shed in his nose causing him to open mouth breath (the vet last night said his nose was clear but then again she said to add humidity so idk if I trust her haha)
-his beard is currently getting ready to shed maybe it was some weird beard shedding thing
-parasites making him slightly uncomfortable? (Bringing fecal sample today)
-respiratory infection?
-him being just a nervous baby and it liking me looking at him all the time (hope not!)

He is SO happy and healthy otherwise, that I’m very nervous and hesitant to start antibiotics or anything unless I know he needs it. He runs around, eats, basks, does everything normal. I’m nervous for antibiotics to be given if he doesn’t have a respiratory infection and cause more harm than good.

If they do want to put him on medicine, is there one antibiotic better than others? Safer? Or any thoughts there?

Has anyone seen anything like this or does anyone have anymore ideas or theories for when I go see the vet today?

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My husbandry is good, 40 gallon tank, he is on reptile carpet, basking area is 100-106, ambient temp is 85-90, cool side is 80. I use a T5HO UVB across the top. Humidity is about 16 percent. He eats crickets, dubias, BSFL, and the occasional waxworm.

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I’m just so scared to make the wrong decisions here. I’m researching nonstop. Any support would be amazing.

To me he looks like hes burping -- possible gas --- your T 5 is inside the tank? or on top of tank? And the humidity is low - I would maybe add a water dish to the tank to increase humidity a little bit -- it seems I have heard too low humidity can cause a RI but I am not sure --- someone else would need to comment on that issue-- are the spit bubbles still there?
Karrie

It looks like he has shed in his nostrils which should come out eventually. With the nostrils plugged he'll breath through his mouth. The spit bubble being a one time thing would not be a sign of anything, just that he's mouth breathng and exhaling sharply. Probably nothing to worry about.

AHBD":l9r0mxzr said:

It looks like he has shed in his nostrils which should come out eventually. With the nostrils plugged he'll breath through his mouth. The spit bubble being a one time thing would not be a sign of anything, just that he's mouth breathng and exhaling sharply. Probably nothing to worry about.

Click to expand...

I would think the same but the spit bubbles have continued and the breathing seems heavy. The vet yesterday didn’t see any shed in nostrils but I’m at the other vet now to check. His beard is going to shed too idk if that could add to anything.

KarrieRee":2u7mnsaf said:

To me he looks like hes burping -- possible gas --- your T 5 is inside the tank? or on top of tank? And the humidity is low - I would maybe add a water dish to the tank to increase humidity a little bit -- it seems I have heard too low humidity can cause a RI but I am not sure --- someone else would need to comment on that issue-- are the spit bubbles still there?
Karrie

Click to expand...

I wondered that too it seemed like burping to me as well but from what I read they can’t really burp? I guess? So that’s where I got nervous.

The t5 is a high output bulb it said it is made for over the screen so it’s sitting on top now! I could cut a hole in the screen for it but haven’t done that because it said t5ho was ok on top. Do you recommend cutting the screen?

Spit bubbles continue. It’s not constant. But when he opens his mouth to let out a puff of air it’s there.

--- the T 5 is good on top of your screen just make sure the basking decor is directly under it and approx 8-10 inches from the bulb-- see what happens in a day or two and when the shed comes out then see if the bubbles disappear --- if hes been looked at for possible RI and nothing is showing then its more than likely that mouth breathing AHBD was talking about
Karrie