Sick Boa, Any Ideas?

[CrankyCoyote]

I previously posted on another reptile site but didn't get much feedback, so hoping someone can help me out here,

I have a 7 year old red tail who I have had for 5 years now, she presented with anorexia about 8 months ago, she started eating again one day and then again about 2 months ago became anorexic again and showing RI, weight loss, overnight she broke out in lesions all over her body, had symptoms of septicaemia on her skin, so I took her into the vet immediately, the vet is NOT a reptile vet and since I live on an island she is one of the only vets who will even see me, the island reptile vet is not here anymore, the vet put my boa on baytril IM for 2 weeks, I saw improvement with the sepsis and RI but as soon as she came off meds she went back to being anorexic and showing RI again, so another 2 weeks IM baytril, then went into shed, 90% of lesions healed was eating like a garbage disposal and all of a sudden 4 days ago back to anorexia, RI significantly improved however but I still hear it, slight whistle, no bubbles anymore, she is back on oral baytril for 4 weeks now starting tomorrow AM. My vet will not give Fortaz because it's not available here where I am, she has no idea what to do and has admitted it, she does not give VIT C injections, which I personally think the snake is lacking in, thus skin is paper thin. The vet thinks she looks better and said she does not want to do a swab because she thinks it would be useless. Snakes temps are all the way they should be, her temp was bumped, she is soaked daily or every second day in betadine and pedyalite, Baytril topical to final open wound daily, she seems normal asides anorexia and slight whistle, urate is normal and drinks fine, no regurg or stargazing. She hissed at her food when offered yesterday, and I know it's not the food because I have 8 other snakes who eat fine and don't even flinch, the rats have been from the same breeder for years now as well.

So my question is, has anyone had a resistive RI before that does not respond to medication? And what did you do to fix it? Anyone's snakes skin started to rip open like paper? Anorexia you can't fix? Should I make up my own VIT C solution?

I will add photos tomorrow. Any input would be nice.

-Fawn

[bcr229]

If the initial courses of Baytril didn't knock out all of the infection then what's left is likely resistant.

Fortaz is one of the big guns and it does work well. I know of one vet though that doesn't stock it because it's fairly expensive and has a short shelf life. She typically pushes Naxcel and Amikacin so you can ask if those are available if your vet doesn't want to do a culture/sensitivity and prefers to play antibiotic roulette instead.

I would also read up on slipped skin disease, as well as this thread:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...les-Just-Split

[Sauzo]

You really need to somehow get that snake to an exotic vet. The vet saying a culture would be useless is a useless vet. A culture will tell you exactly what you have and what antibiotics will work the best. As of right now, she is just throwing medicine at the snake hoping something works and antibiotics are already harsh on a reptiles system especially Baytril. I had to give Baytril to my beardie for an RI and along with that, I had to give her a slurry dinner fortified with probiotics through a syringe. Baytril kills everything including good bacteria in the gut. The stuff works good when the bacteria is susceptible to it, otherwise you are doing more harm than good.

Tell the vet you want a culture done so she can pinpoint what exactly the bacteria or virus is so she can prescribe the right medicine the first go around. Or like I said, expand the search. My vet is over an hour drive away but well worth it imo and I live in an area with lots of vets who are way closer, some as close as 10 mins away.

[BeksNY]

I'm with Sauzo on this. We went through a persistent RI with one of our BPs and culturing really helped narrow it down. For whatever it's worth, the trial and error method from one of our vets ended up being far more costly than it would have been to get a culture done in the first place.

@Treaux -- Can you add in some more details about the Baytril, etc. treatments we had for Wintre?