RI/Mouth Rot cured w/o Vet!

[Animals As Leaders]

Alright everyone, I would really like to hear your input on this. Let me start from the very beginning.

As some of you may know, I recently took in a Colombian Red Tail Boa adult male. My buddy had to move, and couldn't bring the snake with him. I had an extra spot on my rack, so I decided to help him, and the snake out. When I picked him up from his house, he seemed ok. I didn't see any kind of issues, so I took him home. I was aware of the crappy conditions that he used to live in though. He had him in a 55gal with another male, just aspen, and no heat....water dish was empty as well. So I kinda knew he was in crap conditions but he seemed ok so I went along with it. I put him in the rack, and let him acclimate for a week. After the week went by I took him out for a handling session, and after about 5 min of handling he blew a HUGE snot bubble! He was also clicking every time he breathed...Lots of saliva discharge too. I was really pissed to say the least...

Now, I was and still am in a tight $$ situation due to car troubles. I had NO money for a vet at all...I had to think fast so I started making changes. I bumped his temps up to 95+ on the basking side, and was super diligent about keeping his humidity high. I kept reading that I need to take him to a vet to get some kind of antibiotic to kill the virus, and knew the heat/humidity wouldn't be enough to cure him. It was then a light bulb went off! My girlfriend had some Colloidal Silver lying around, and I figured it wouldn't hurt the snake any(it's just water with minute particles of silver which has been proven to kill bacteria and certain types of fungus). I began giving him 5 drops every few days.

At first I didn't notice any improvement, and was starting to worry...But after a week I did notice his tongue was less wet, and wasn't clicking anywhere near what he was. I kept on with the CS but only doing it twice a week for the next 3 weeks. And before I knew it all symptoms of RI we're gone! And I mean gone! Only thing I did notice was that his mouth was cocked open a bit. I disregarded it as him still in the process of beating the RI, and maybe its just a little excess saliva. I was wrong....

A week later his mouth was gaping open a lot more. I knew something was up, and thought maybe the RI came back. I opened up his mouth, and took some pics, posted them on here, and got some good feedback. Mouthrot....I freaked out! I was under the impression that Mouthrot is a very hard thing to fix. Then, someone told me about making a dilute betadine solution. Before I applied it I broke a tip off a qtip and used it to dislodge the pus pocket on his lower jaw. I hit it with the betadine, and put him back. Repeated the following day, and he's already looking almost 100% normal again!

I wanted to share this with everyone because I was absolutely astonished at the results. The CS really through me for a loop. I was under the impression that stuff was some kind of modern day snake oil, but there actually is some science behind it. I wouldn't recommend drinking it all the time, but for situations like this it's a beautiful thing! It also seems like this is a much less toxic choice in terms of medicine. I'm all about doing things the natural way, and to me it seemed to work BETTER then ordinary antibiotics from a vet. I've heard of people with their snake having RI for months! This guy has been just about cured of everything within about 2 months tops! And it was a steady recovery, not a long drawn out one. I'm just really happy he's just about better now! I wish I had made a video of his recovery as proof! All I know, is I'm a happy camper!

[Daybreaker]

I'm glad to hear your boy is in good spirits and seemingly healthy. I hope he continues to get better and better in your care. My only recommendation (ie what I would do) would be to monitor him for at least 2-3 weeks (both for the RI and rot) just in case either comes back. Better to zap it from the get go if it comes back then to think it's all good then one day have him come down with the same symptoms again. Good luck

[wolfy-hound]

IMO, it had nothing to do with the silver. Sorry for anyone who swears by it but it is modern day "snake oil".

Bumping up the temps and such was probably enough for him to fight the infection down. But the issue is also that it may have allievated the symptoms, but not eliminated the virus. So he'll rally for a while, then come down with it again. But having knocked the symptoms down means you won't notice until it's worse.

He could have thrown the virus off himself, and be fine. But it's common for snakes to look better then go downhill again, because there was nothing that killed the actual cause. It's sort of like draining the infection from a embedded splinter. It feels better and looks more healed up. But unless you remove the splinter, the underlying cause is still inside and may indeed flare up again and again.

Good luck with him and I'd definitely watch him closely and I hope for your other animals' sake that you have him in a quarentine area.

[Animals As Leaders]

IMO, it had nothing to do with the silver. Sorry for anyone who swears by it but it is modern day "snake oil".

Bumping up the temps and such was probably enough for him to fight the infection down. But the issue is also that it may have allievated the symptoms, but not eliminated the virus. So he'll rally for a while, then come down with it again. But having knocked the symptoms down means you won't notice until it's worse.

He could have thrown the virus off himself, and be fine. But it's common for snakes to look better then go downhill again, because there was nothing that killed the actual cause. It's sort of like draining the infection from a embedded splinter. It feels better and looks more healed up. But unless you remove the splinter, the underlying cause is still inside and may indeed flare up again and again.

Good luck with him and I'd definitely watch him closely and I hope for your other animals' sake that you have him in a quarentine area.

I've been reading some other testimonials and some are quite interesting. I found someone on youtube who uses it to fight off his Hepatitis C. Which as you may know is incurable. And its not really all B/S. There's some interesting information if you search for it. I'm not saying it's definitely gone, but for him to get that much better in that amount of time from heat and humidity? I highly doubt that. I'm on these forums a lot and I don't see many cases like that. In fact I don't think I ever read one. To go from blowing snot bubbles the size of tennis balls, to normal breathing in one month? Show me some proof of that and maybe I will believe you. I've heard of people doing it, but it taking months(like4-6 months). Again, there is no way of knowing for sure, but it's awful strange in how fast it cleared up.

[Animals As Leaders]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_-Jp28XIwY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm3b8Mb4x_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6srMG_2-aY

Some youtube links I found

**And yes I'm aware of the blue guy lol...I'm not saying to chug the stuff, or use it a lot. Just maybe as some kind of alternative to other medicines...Who know?!? :]

[Animals As Leaders]

I'm glad to hear your boy is in good spirits and seemingly healthy. I hope he continues to get better and better in your care. My only recommendation (ie what I would do) would be to monitor him for at least 2-3 weeks (both for the RI and rot) just in case either comes back. Better to zap it from the get go if it comes back then to think it's all good then one day have him come down with the same symptoms again. Good luck

Thanks!

I plan on watching him for a looooooong while! I know it could be too good to be true, so I'm very diligent about checking up on him. We shall see in due time!