Worst news ever :-(

[Big Gunns]

Wow Ash, I'm sorry to hear about this!

Sounds like your vet was right to do the culture and prescribe the antibiotic. Like others have said, snakes have a very slow metabolism and sometimes the medication doesn't even have time to make a big impact before it succums to the illness.

One thing that has me baffled is the vet recommendation that she soak the snake for 20 mins daily. From my expeirence (not vet school) this is illogical and bad advice. RI is dangerous because it inhibits the snakes ability to breath. Putting the snake into the tub of water while it has RI, is extremely dangerous and exacerbates the problem. The fact that the snake died during one these sessions does not surprise me!

Ash if you or your friend wish to call and talk through all that happened, please do. My cell: 706-599-4850

Justin

Ah...BG was just on his way back here to say something similar.

A snake soaking in water doesn't have its breathing inhibited. The increased humidity and hydration helps thin the mucous secretions so they can be expelled.

But a snake with an RI that goes into convulsions and dies suddenly--I would have a necropsy done. You want to make sure it wasn't something nastier than just a bacterial RI.

Big Gunns is gonna take a wild guess(not really he's pretty sure)on what happened to this snake. It drowned. If you're drowning you'll start "convulsing" all around. You'll also try and expel everything from your insides just like this snake did.

The Vet probably said to soak it to make sure it was well hydrated, but will a smaller snake, you need to keep an eye on them....especially a sick one...and even more especially a stupid Spider. They don't know what's up or down sometimes.

BG suspects that this animal drowned. NO...he's pretty sure that's what happened. It may have had an RI, but what happened when it was being soaked tells BG it drowned.(or suffocated because it could not breath correctly in the water...same thing really)