Python + breathed in drywall dust and panicked!?

[Elyse]

I feel REALLY bad about this....I was sitting with my jungle carpet python and she started to freak out, trying to rub her nose or maybe burrow...I looked around the area where we were sitting and I found drywall dust.

I'm a new snake owner, so I thought I'd ask people here if I should be very concerned?

Should I bath her or something, or just keep an eye on her?

Oh ya, she's about a year old....3-4 feet long.....

 

[dementedlullaby]

*disclaimer : I know little about drywall and less about snakes.

I don't think the drywall will cause much harm, especially since it's an isolated incident. Yes, people usually wear masks when dealing with it but isolated exposure is just usually a stuffy nose and some throat irritation. I've inhaled small amount of drywall without any adverse affects other than sneezing my nose off for a good minute.

I guess you could give her a lukewarm bath? Uh it wouldn't hurt I suppose lol! My rescue leos have a bath sometimes (especially the female, she has shed issues poor girl) and my baby beardie loves water .

Obviously keep an eye on her. If you're really concerned or she starts acting different get her to a herp vet asap. Keep an eye for any respiratory issues.

 

[Python]

I used to hang drywall for a living and I breathed in more than average. I still have respiratory problems but I breathed in bucket loads of the dust. Drywall has fiberglass in it which is bad but small amounts of exposure to any animal shouldn't cause any long term damage. Just rinse it off and it should be fine.

 

[The Snark]

Some drywall has fiberglass but usually the sparkles seen in gypsum is it's own crystalline structure. Some also has formaldehyde and a few other substances. The paper is usually attached with formaldehyde glue. But all told a dose of calcium sulfate dihydrate or two, which is considered non toxic, is probably pretty trivial compared to what they encounter in a lifetime.

 

[Elyse]

Thanks everyone I feel better now that the snake isn't going to die of aspirated pneumonia or something lol
It's unsettling though that the drywall and glue contains formaldehyde =S I'm going to take better care when I sand the walls for now on...=S

 

[Python]

Some drywall has fiberglass but usually the sparkles seen in gypsum is it's own crystalline structure.

I wasn't referring to the sparkles, fiberglass is used to strengthen the sheetrock, like adding straw to adobe to make it hold together better. I've also heard there is some sort of problem with "Chinese sheetrock". I don't know if that's a company name or where it comes from. I can't remember what I heard about it now but apparently it's a cheap product that causes some sort of health problems. I don't know exactly how to tell the difference once hung and painted. The sheetrock we used had a strip of paper binding two sheets together that had the name on it but that doesn't help once it's on the wall and covered in paint.

 

[The Snark]

The sheetrock that caused environment and health problems, manufactured in both the US and China, gave off sulfur gasses when it degraded. Some of the material remains in houses to this day. Those gasses present a short term health hazard to humans but unlikely to present a similar problem to reptiles which have much slower respiration rates.