Sick snakes not getting better

I have three snakes all with what I think is a respitory infection. At the first sign I took all three to the vet and they were put on zosyn injections. One every night 14 doses. This was 12 days ago. Last Wednesday my male died after already getting 7 injections. His color looked like he was going into sheed since I had taken his to the vet a week before. Now one of my females is looking worse after almost two weeks of injections and her color is fading like she is going into shed. I don't know what to do. Is her color fading a sign that she is dying. I don't want to loose another snake. Even worse is i think she is gravid. The first one was devastating but I don't know what to do

Did the vet do a culture to find the cause of the RI?

Yep, if they didn't do a culture, I would definately get one to get to the source of the problem. Then you can treat it with proper medication. Of all the RI's I have read about on here, I have not heard of that medication being used. It could just be different strokes for different folks. I personally havent had to deal with RI, so who know.. Was it a regular vet, or one that specialized in herps ? From what I have read in these forums, regular vets do not seem to be much help with snakes. A herp vet would be much more knowledgeable in these matters. Good luck getting your babies well!

Did the vet prescribe any additional fluid therapy?

Do your snakes appear to be dehydrated at all?

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Did the vet prescribe any additional fluid therapy?

Do your snakes appear to be dehydrated at all?

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Exactly what I was going to ask. When I gave injections to my female green burm, I also gave injections of fluid as well.

Zosyn is an antibiotic in the penicillin family and is not commonlly prescribed in the pet industry for resp issues. It is most commonly used to treat pneumonia and urinary infections in people. I dont know why they would have prescribed this for resp infections considering drugs in the penicillin family are pretty aggresive. Baytrill is usually the go to medication for snakes so if they didnt do a culture i wonder why they didnt precribe it right away. Does your vet deal with snakes alot? Id be asking questions

There is so many kinds of bacterial infections that a culture sample is almost mandatory depending on the severity of the infection. Certain antibiotics do nothing for some infections, and unfortunately the snakes don't recover. Like snake lab said, typically baytril is the goto for reptile infections, not even aware of the drug your vet prescribed. Unfortunately, there are only 8 qualified reptile vets in the country according to the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners! Hopefully you can find the right antibiotic.

I had a burm with a resp infection recently as well. She was given injections of Baytrol which helped her alot. I was also soaking her in a tub of warm water every few days as well as increasing the humidity and temperature in the enclosure. After about 3 injections she showed really positive reactions to it.

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Originally Posted by snake lab

Zosyn is an antibiotic in the penicillin family and is not commonlly prescribed in the pet industry for resp issues. It is most commonly used to treat pneumonia and urinary infections in people. I dont know why they would have prescribed this for resp infections considering drugs in the penicillin family are pretty aggresive. Baytrill is usually the go to medication for snakes so if they didnt do a culture i wonder why they didnt precribe it right away. Does your vet deal with snakes alot? Id be asking questions

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Zosyn/Piperacillin is an old school antibiotic that used to be popular back in the "olden" times. Last time I had it prescribed to one of my animals it was used in conjunction with either gentamicin or amikacin (I can't remember which) but I do remember having to administer fluids in conjunction with the treatment.

I've actually seen it prescribed recently for an RI that didn't respond to Baytril in a friend's snake. I'm pretty sure it was combined with amikacin.

One of the drawbacks of an antibiotic becoming popular is that knuckleheads improperly inject their snakes or do not complete their dosing regimens - resulting in widespread resistance to a drug. This is what appears to be happenings with Baytril. We are seeing more and more people post that it isn't working and we are seeing more and more people tell us that their vets are going with alternative antibiotics.

I have an appointment tomorrow to try and get a culture done. In the mean time in gonna look for another vet. I am curious about her looking like she's going into shed. She looks just like my male did. Is this a sign of
Her dying

Possibly dehydration?

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Originally Posted by Richlpz

I have an appointment tomorrow to try and get a culture done. In the mean time in gonna look for another vet. I am curious about her looking like she's going into shed. She looks just like my male did. Is this a sign of
Her dying

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Do you have pictures? When was her last shed? Were you(they) given fluids in addition to the antibiotics (just repeating question asked above)? Does she look dehydrated?

She doesn't not look dehydrated but they did not treat with fluids. Her last shed was over a month ago maybe two. But she hasn't eaten in a month. I will defiantly ask the vet to change antibiotics to baytrill in the mean time the culture is getting done. And will ask him about her hydration. I also have some f10 on order to treat my Other snakes just incase. Not sure if it will help her at all. I Dontthink it will hurt thou will it?

F10 is a really good cleaner, it certainly won't hurt just make sure you follow the directions

I'm gonna be using it in a repti fogger to nebulize. What I've see recommended is 3 to 4 ml in a liter of water on high for 20 min then off for 20 minutes leaving the snake in for 40 minutes total

I personally have never heard of doing this, but it makes sense. let us know how it works out for you.

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Originally Posted by Richlpz

I'm gonna be using it in a repti fogger to nebulize. What I've see recommended is 3 to 4 ml in a liter of water on high for 20 min then off for 20 minutes leaving the snake in for 40 minutes total

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I believe the recommendation for F10 nebulization is actually 1:250 (http://f10biocare.co.uk/as.html). I have used this at a 2% concentration with distilled water, without any ill-effects, when I couldn't get to a vet quickly or had only a minor RI.

Even if the F10 itself doesn't have an impact, it will give you a temporary bump in humidity, which could help if she is slightly dehydrated.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

I believe the recommendation for F10 nebulization is actually 1:250 (http://f10biocare.co.uk/as.html). I have used this at a 2% concentration with distilled water, without any ill-effects, when I couldn't get to a vet quickly or had only a minor RI.

Even if the F10 itself doesn't have an impact, it will give you a temporary bump in humidity, which could help if she is slightly dehydrated.

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Yeah 1:250 is 4ml in a liter of water. I'm praying it will help alittle.

Sorry for your situation.

I wish you and your snakes the best of luck, it sucks that you had to loose one though.

Hopefully it was just its time to go to snake heaven, not due to the vets negligence, which from what I've read, can be a possibility. :(

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Originally Posted by Richlpz

Yeah 1:250 is 4ml in a liter of water. I'm praying it will help alittle.

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I never have been good at the metric system. :P That's why I included the site link. Best of luck with her, and please keep us posted.

My reptile vet has been prescribing ceftazidime .3ml every 72 hours. This worked great for minor RIs previously over the last year. However, recently it has not worked and Im getting a culture ran very soon. I dont want to lose any of my 'babies'. I'll post the results of the culture. Maybe something is going around and the info may help. Hope your baby gets better soon!