Advice for my BEL and her RI

So my sweet 3 year old BEL came to me with an RI and I'm at a point now where I have to decide whether to wait a bit more or do a second round of antibiotics. I got her in early December and shortly noticed a slight popping sound. This became worse over the next few days and so I brought her in to the vet on the 8th. She was diagnosed with a mild RI and given a 14 day rx for Claforen to try and just catch it early and knock it out (while being a less potent antibiotic it had less risk of scarring on an all-white snake). 2 weeks later and she was not fully cleared up, though she was much better. Just a slight popping and a little fluid discharge if her head was below her body. Vet did a culture and advised to wait a couple weeks and see if it cleared up the rest of the way.

It's now been 2 weeks since the end of the antibiotics and the culture results are back. The main causative organism for the infection was one susceptible to the claforen and the vet thinks it was properly knocked out. They did find two more rare organisms: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Achromobacter xylosoxidans, which my vet said she had never encountered before, but are uncommon and usually associated with infections obtained while in a hospital or in wet/damp environments. At this point, my vet thinks we should try a stronger antibiotic, but she isn't in a huge rush.

I feel like I should wait another couple of weeks, as her symptoms are still improving and it seems like she is slowly getting better. She is acting normal and staying on her hot spot most of the time. She hasn't pooped since I got her and she hasn't peed even in several weeks (at least no noticeable urates. She did manage to eat a medium rat two nights ago and acts normal when I take her out of the cage. I raised her temps to a hotspot of 95 and ambient of 80 at the vet's recommendation and humidity is around 60%. She has not lost any weight either.

Any advice is appreciated.

Wintre says "thanks!"

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2011.11.09.jpg

I would go with the vet's recommendations and start on a stronger antibiotic that is appropriate based on the results of the culture. If your snake still has symptoms then any bacteria that didn't get killed off will be the ones most resistant to the Claforen - you don't want those taking hold and multiplying, since that's how drug-resistant strains of bacteria get created.

Good luck hope she feels better!

aawww poor baby.

follow the Vet's orders. and Bcr makes great points as usual. make sure she's comfy and her enclosure stays clean.

feel better soon Wintre!

So it's been another week and she isn't getting worse, but is also not getting any better, so I'm going to go with some more antibiotics.

So after doing my research and talking to my vet, the recommended antibiotic is TMS, which they only have in an oral solution. He says it's very difficult to give for ball pythons and injectables are much easier. Has anyone given oral meds before? I think I can do it as I've been getting more accustomed to holding Wintre's head and getting her mouth open in assessing her illness. They said they can order TMS in an injectible solution, but they don't know how long it will take to get.

The alternative is Zosyn, which he says may or may not work on the S. Maltophilia.

I think the oral is my only real option at this point. Time to watch some more youtube videos on it...

How often does it have to be given? If not every day get a small needle syringe and inject small prey items with the antibiotic. I never had to do it but have heard of people doing it that way

Quote:

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Originally Posted by treaux

So it's been another week and she isn't getting worse, but is also not getting any better, so I'm going to go with some more antibiotics.

So after doing my research and talking to my vet, the recommended antibiotic is TMS, which they only have in an oral solution. He says it's very difficult to give for ball pythons and injectables are much easier. Has anyone given oral meds before? I think I can do it as I've been getting more accustomed to holding Wintre's head and getting her mouth open in assessing her illness. They said they can order TMS in an injectible solution, but they don't know how long it will take to get.

The alternative is Zosyn, which he says may or may not work on the S. Maltophilia.

I think the oral is my only real option at this point. Time to watch some more youtube videos on it...

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I know injection are no fun however they are far more effective than oral anti-biotics when it comes to snakes, if it was my snake I would get the injectable solution.

As far as length of time based on DR Stahl who is the best exotic vet in the country it is of his opinion that RI treatments should be no less than 30 days.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/reptile...ile-veterinary

This may give you and your vet some other ideas, this boa was also diagnosed with a Stenotrophomonas maltophilia infection after a culture:
http://www.redtailboas.com/f16/tylos...g-sorta-44909/

I've read that thread before. Thanks for the advice. I got a prescription for the oral TMS for the next 21 days. If I don't see an improvement after that, I'm going to take her up to UC Davis and probably get a new culture done and see what they think should be done. I've heard they are a very good place to go, though they are expensive. I like my vet, but he is kind of nonchalant about the whole thing and didn't even come out to talk to me today when I came to pick up the meds. TMS should work on both the bacteria that she has and giving the first dose was pretty easy, so I'm hoping it will do the trick.

Thanks for the well wishes :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by treaux

I've read that thread before. Thanks for the advice. I got a prescription for the oral TMS for the next 21 days. If I don't see an improvement after that, I'm going to take her up to UC Davis and probably get a new culture done and see what they think should be done. I've heard they are a very good place to go, though they are expensive. I like my vet, but he is kind of nonchalant about the whole thing and didn't even come out to talk to me today when I came to pick up the meds. TMS should work on both the bacteria that she has and giving the first dose was pretty easy, so I'm hoping it will do the trick.

Thanks for the well wishes :)

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Excellent! Hopefully the TMS does the trick.