So, is there an official verdict on RI prevention??

[Skiploder]

I've been on this forum for a while, and the information regarding respiratory infections is pretty inconsistent.

(1) For those of you with large collections, what do you do to prevent them?

(2) What do you do about it when an animal comes down with one?

(3) Is misting bad or good?

(4) Is soaking in warm water helpful or harmful?

Any input is appreciated!

(1) Quarantine all new arrivals - properly. Make sure all your husbandry parameters are correct.

(2) Go to a real herp vet. Pick out a vet before you need one.

(3) Avoid misting. Misting coupled with improper airflow creates mold and bacteria proliferation. It is easier to create a humid micro rather than a macro environment. Use a humid hide rather than turning the whole enclosure into a petri dish.

(4) Harmful. Anything that causes stress can adversely affect the immune system. If dehydration is an issue, there are other ways of dealing with it.

The most common cause of RIs is the suppression of the immune system due to stress resulting in normally present bacteria adversely affecting the animal. Unnecessarily mucking with your snake, bathing with it, strutting about with it, keeping it improperly are all stressors.

Many vets will not bother to culture an RI, which results in an inappropriate antibiotic being prescribed which results in more stress and ineffective treatment. You need to demand that a vet properly culture the infection to determine first whether it is indeed bacterial and second what antibiotics it is susceptible to.