I'm not going to go into a lot of details of how I found myself in this situation, I just need some help/advice/feedback on what to do now that I am here.

In July, I purchased 4 snakes off of a breeder listing here on kingsnake.com. The breeder was moving across the country and needed to sell the entire collection. We had been in communication and I offered to purchase racks and a few more animals off of the breeder. I drove across the state in August to meet the breeder and pick up the racks/animals. Upon arriving, the breeder asked if I could house the rest of the collection since there were no buyers. We agreed on a price for the racks, and if I was interested in purchasing the snakes, we would work out a price at a later time.

This is my fault: my collection went from 10 snakes to 27 because I agreed to house the animals and care for them. I realize this.

When I arrived back home, cleaned and assembled the racks, got the thermostats set up, it was time to inspect the "new" animals. Most of them were underfed and had stuck sheds. The breeder said that they needed some TLC so while this was an indication to me that they were not cared for 100% properly, I was not entirely surprised. Again, my fault and error.

In September, one of the snakes I originally purchased in July started displaying symptoms of an RI- open mouth breathing, mucus in the mouth, etc. Took her to an emergency vet, diagnosed with RI and received Baytril injections. Completed the first 2 week cycle, no improvement. Took her back to the Emergency Vet, they sedated her to obtain a blood sample and she never woke up. I emailed the breeder about this and the response I received wasn't as concerned as I expected. Another red flag that I missed.

A few weeks later, my spider started displaying the same symptoms. This was part of my original collection so I became VERY worried. Took him to a different vet, diagnosed with RI. Ok not entirely surprising since one snake had it and even though proper precautions were taken, perhaps I missed something- who knows. Anyway, ran a 2 week cycle of Baytril, and set up an appointment with the only herp vet in the area. End of treatment, no real improvement. New vet appointment comes and he is diagnosed with pseudomonas. Ran a 2 week cycle of vitamin and anti-biotic. At the end of this cycle, his mouth seemed to be better (no mucus or open mouth breathing) but his scales start to deteriorate. A few (2) of my OTHER snakes from my original collection and 2 from the purchase in July start to wheeze....

Take them to the vet, all diagnosed with pseudomonas and all given 2 week anti-biotic and vitamin shots. Since we've been going through this, the vet decided to do separate shots.

I have torn apart all of the racks and disinfected them. I've changed substrate from Aspen bedding to paper. I have 3 thermostats set up on my racks and a large humidifier in the room. I wash AND use a hang sanitizer between handling snakes. My spider is almost completely scale-less. I've started to soak him in an iodine solution for 30 minutes every other day when he gets his vitamin shot, and he is rubbed down with Neosporin nightly. Last night though, while checking on the other snakes, more are displaying symptoms. Almost all of them have an irritated mouth.

oh- and I haven't heard from the breeder since beginning of October but two nights ago I received an email asking for more money.

Last night was the last night of the latest round of anti-biotic and vitamins. I am at a complete loss of what to do. Like I said, I put myself in this position but... I need help.