Seeking Input From People Experienced W/ Respiratory Infection

[satomi325]

First order of business is that you should have gotten a culture done.
There are many forms of RI. And different versions of the bacterial sort.
Without a culture, it would be difficult to target the specific infection.

Bump her heat to 95.

She was first treated with Baytril and did well, but near the end of the vial I called the vet and said we were running out. He told us it would be good to just slowly wean her off of it with smaller and smaller doses (has anybody heard of being "weaned" off antibiotics..?) which we did. She was better, mostly, she started eating again, but she still had a few bubbles every now and again. So I think she was taken off the Baytril too early perhaps.

Never heard of 'weaning' off antibiotics. I would not take a snake off meds unless it is fully recovered.

I really like our vet and he's a wonderful guy, but I guess I just don't always understand the "why" of what he is prescribing. Her Baytril treatment was working just fine so...why the change to Amikacin?


We are almost 6 hours round trip away from him, and can only get out there on weekends so it's not exactly easy to just run back to the vet all the time. We weren't able to get any meds as none of the vets in Squamish carry the medicine or are willing to dispense prescriptions from other Vets. We then went back to the vet with the snake, and instead of another round of Baytril, he prescribed Amikacin. It did absolutely nothing for her, in fact she may have even got worse over the 21 days we were administering The Amikacin.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of Baytril. It's overprescribed (default without a culture) so a lot of infections are growing immune to it, thus rendering the meds ineffective. Not to mention the Baytril 'burns' from injections.

But anyway, perhaps he thinks the Amikacin will be more effective (even though it wasn't)?
How long has the snake been sick?

Either way, a culture needs to be done. Otherwise your vet is just guessing in the dark and pulling meds out of his butt.

And since I know you guys will ask, her temps are perfect, she's got a 92 hot spot (Cornel's World CB70 rack with 2 strips of 4" flexwatt) with around 80 ambient +/- a degree or so. Her humidity is perfect, her sheds have always been perfect. None of the other snakes are showing any signs or symptoms of RI, or anything else for that matter. The vet did a test of her mucus and said that it's typical of an RI and it's not stomach acid, so that is a good thing, he said.

Like I mentioned before, I suggest bumping up her hot spot to 95.
I hope she's in quarantine and not in the same rack as your other snakes. RI is contagious.

I don't understand his test....

The strange thing is she is wheezing and gurgling, and wiping mucus everywhere (which actually has cleared up really quickly since beginning the Baytril again) and she was holding her mouth open. All of typical signs of RI...yet she is still eating like a pig. Every time I offer it to her, she eats. Which is great. But I'm just so frustrated that so far no treatments have worked and I fear that prolonging this is going to make it VERY difficult if not impossible to treat.

I was also told by the vet that once a snake gets an RI, there really is no "curing" it. I am aware that there will always be bacterias present, but does this mean she's going to have this RI forever? Have you ever treated a snake for RI and NOT had it reoccur?

WRONG!
He is just sounds like an unknowledgeable vet regarding reptiles.
Snakes can recover from RI. But it depends on the type.
There are several types: Bacterial, fungal, parasitical, and viral. Viral is incurable, but very very rare.
Most common would be bacterial infections, but you need a culture.

*shakes head*

I had a rescue who had a severe bacterial RI. She recovered just fine and never got sick again.


Awesome xray btw.