Advice for my BEL and her RI

Another update on Wintre. Unfortunately, as I come to the last couple doses of Ceftazidime and almost a month of treatment, her condition has only worsened. She now has thicker mucus production and a noticeable work of breathing when exhaling and her scales have become really dry (despite normal humidity levels). She doesn't seem in distress and is still acting normally (no stargazing or anything), but clearly whatever low level infection we thought was there has reared its head fully.

I spoke to the UC Davis vet who wants to test for Nidovirus (though after reading about it seems unlikely) and I found a local vet who can do the test, Dr. Louisa Asseo. I have an appointment scheduled for October 3rd which will give Wintre a week off from the injections to recover. I would like to get the opinion of this new vet as she comes recommended from Anapsid.org and is a reptile enthusiast. I am debating having a new culture done since there is more congestion to see if there is anything we can fight specifically.

For a while, Wintre was staying on the hot side at 95 degrees, but during the injections she moved to the cool side, which is at 80. I'm debating raising the overall temps so 90-95 degrees to force her to stay in the heat, which has been recommended to me by my first vet and another local breeder that I trust.

I'm wondering if this is still the original bacteria that were very resistant to antibiotics and if maybe Wintre needs more of the TMS (maybe injections this time).

At this point I'm just frustrated and want her to feel better. Seeing her get worse is very worrying and I would hate to lose her after all we've been through. She has such an amazing personality and is an ambassador snake for those who are not familiar. My mom went from being scared to touch her to raving about her on Facebook to all her friends after just one visit.

Keep those fingers and tails crossed for us!

Her mucus has now turned brownish and she is holding her mouth open periodically to help with breathing. She's moving slower and I'm worried. She just had her last dose of antibiotic last night, but I think tomorrow I'm going to be getting her in to see a vet.

Oh no :( I'm so sad to hear that she's not improving. I really have my fingers as toes and tails crossed for you! I hope that the vet can help get her on a regimen that helps her beat this nasty RI. Keep us updated my friend, were all here for you


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:( poor baby ! Hope everything goes well , an she starts a speedy recovery soon . Shes pulled through all this time , so I have high hopes , she will get out of this as a beautiful healthy thriving snake ❤️

Coming into the thread late....

Really sorry to hear this. Did they do a culture to pinpoint the organism? Blood work?


Dave

The last culture was "unremarkable" according to UC Davis. Her blood work was normal with a slightly elevated white count. This is why they prescribed broad spec antibiotics as there is some sort of underlying infection or inflammation. She started looking worse and worse over the month of antibiotics.

Got her an appointment at 3:30 today. We'll see how it goes.

Another update: First off, a big yay, as I have finally found a vet who will now be my permanent one. I found a local vet (Dr. Louisa Asseo) who really knows what she is talking about and has lots of experience with reptiles and a genuine interest in them. She actually listened to me as I gave the (now quite long) history of Wintre's illness and confirmed my suspicions that the things UC Davis was wanting to look for were both rare and unlikely in Wintre's case (IBD and Nidovirus).

Wintre spent the night as the appointment was late in the day and the next morning was sedated, had blood drawn and her lungs flushed to both clean her out and get a deeper sample of her infection. Dr. Asseo ended up finding a big mucous mass that she took for culturing along with the fluid from the lung lavage (unfortunately had to pay for two separate cultures). She also threw in a set of x-rays for free which she said looked good. Wintre is seeming better simply from the procedure, though she is still doing some open mouth breathing and has clear mucous in her mouth.

So now we are in the waiting stage to hear back with results. Hopefully something will culture out that we can treat for.

I'm also greatly disappointed with my trips to the UC Davis Exotics vet. I understand it's a teaching hospital, but it appears that despite their high level of knowledge and acclaim, they do not excel at the basics of treatment when it comes to reptiles. We spent around $1000 and in the end they never cultured anything out and just gave broad spectrum antibiotics. Just goes to show that finding a good and experienced reptile vet is absolutely essential if you have a sick snake. I found Dr. Asseo on the Anapsid.org recommended vets list and I think I feel much more at ease after our first visit.

And more follow-up:

Dr. Asseo just called with some results. Impressively, her lungs were completely clear and cultured out nothing. The gunk from her nasal passage, however, cultured out a pure culture of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, which was the original bacterium we cultured and treated when she got sick almost a year ago now.

Since she had an allergic reaction to the TMS, Dr. Asseo has her lab looking for sensitivities to other antibiotics that will be effective in killing it. She thinks she will have something by the end of the week.

I'm so happy that we finally have an idea of what's going on and I hope this next round of antibiotics will knock it out for good.