ball python with respitory infection (RI)

[Zach]

First post btw lol...(new to this site)

Anyways my bp ninja (170 grams) has respitory infection...

I took him to the vet the other day and she gave me oral liquid baytril. I have to pretty much shove the baytril (0.05 ml) down a pinki mouse's throat and feed it to my snake every day for 14 days. Im on day 2 now.

Does this treatment sound right to you guys?

I really dont like making him eat 14 pinkies in 14 days, kinda seems like alot.

And its really hard to get all of the baytril into the pinki... some of it does not go in.

And if it does sound right is there anything i can do to help him while hes getting better...like temperature or humidity wise.

P.S. Alot of people say that i should keep the humidity down in his tank to kind of "dry out" the RI. But then alot of people say to keep the humidity normal. What should i do with the humidity in his tank?

[cinderbird]

you may want to ask your vet if you can have the injectable antibiotics, from what i understand these are more effective when given under the skin because these guys' metabolic rates are so slow.. but i can't recall where i saw that, i'm sorry.

if you want to continue with the oral, the vet can show you how to safely tube your snake to inject the medicine into its stomach i think.. I've never had a snake i've had to treat for an RI.

[CritterVet]

I've been seeing top reptile vets recommending oral baytril lately, as there is less risk of side effects. This makes sense to me with turtles and omnivorous lizards who eat often, but I'm not sure how I feel about it in snakes. Need to read more & think more about it.

Did the vet do a culture?

Bumping up the basking spot temp by 10˚F will help boost his immune system.

[BallsUnlimited]

i had three snakes come in with r.i And the treatment my vet does is one shot twice a week Wednesday and Saturday for a total of 8 treatments. They were given vitamin injections the first time to help them out a little as well. My vet has them on amikacin and it has been working very well. They are all recovering quite well.

[SNIKTTIME]

Anytime I have heard of people dealing with snakes and RI, it was always quarantine in the dark with higher temps and injections. Then start reintroducing food after like 2 weeks of treatments. Not sure if things have changed much in the past 5 years on this, knock on wood I have not had to deal with this personally. Best of luck though