Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com Western Hognose — Vet-Prep Sheet
🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one
- Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
- Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
- Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
- Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.
📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis
Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.
🚨 Is this an emergency now?
See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:
- Open-mouth breathing, wheezing, clicking, or mucus/bubbles (possible respiratory infection).
- Regurgitating meals, or refusing food with real weight loss (beyond a normal fussy phase).
- Repeated stuck sheds or retained eye caps.
- Mites (tiny moving specks) or cheesy matter in the mouth (possible mouth rot).
- Obvious obesity — fat with no muscle tone and spread scales (very common on rodent-only diets).
When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.
🚗 On the way / while you wait
✅ Do
- Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
- Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
- Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.
⛔ Don't
- Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
- Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
- Don’t handle it more than you must.
🎒 What to bring
- A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
- A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
- Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.
🗣️ What to tell the vet
A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:
- Temperature
- Warm/basking surface 90–95°F (32–35°C) from an overhead heat source on a thermostat. Cool/mid-range 75–85°F (24–29°C), giving a full gradient with hides on both ends. Night no colder than ~60°F (16°C); ~65°F is a safer minimum. No coloured night bulbs.
- UVB & lighting
- UVB recommended (a fossorial Ferguson Zone 2 species): UVI 2.0–3.0 at the basking spot. Replace yearly.
- Humidity
- Relatively dry: 30–50% is comfortable. If your home is very dry, dampen the cool-side substrate occasionally rather than misting the whole enclosure.
- Enclosure
- Give at least ~1 sq ft of floor per foot of snake. Hatchlings start in ~5–10 gallons; an adult male wants a minimum ~20 gallon, and the larger females a 36×18 in (3×2 ft) footprint or bigger. A secure locking lid and deep substrate to burrow in are essential.
- Substrate
- A deep, dry, burrowable substrate — they are avid diggers. Aspen, or a soil/sand mix, works well. Avoid pine and cedar.
- Diet
- Carnivore — appropriately-sized frozen/thawed rodents (they aren’t strong constrictors, so never live). But an all-rodent diet tends to make hognoses obese; a more varied diet closer to their wild menu (mostly amphibians and reptile eggs) is healthier. Babies are famously fussy and may need prey scented (e.g. with toad/amphibian) to start.
- Supplements
- None needed on a whole-prey diet; occasional calcium if feeding a varied non-rodent diet.
⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.
Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.
❓ Questions to ask
- Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
- What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
- What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
- How do I prevent this from happening again?