Respiratory. Infection vet meds not working

[Dakota11]

Hi, one of my ball pythons has been going on over a month of daily oral baytrill. Or as its written enrofloxacin was the first two weeks then the second time vet came because snake is no better it says baytrill. (Spell check keeps changing spelling). Anyways he is still wheezing has eaten 4times during this ordeal but I'm almost out of meds again and he is still no better. I'm at a loss, im way over 300$ plus the stress of forcing mouth open and putting med down throat daily for him to be the same as day one oh and financially. Btw there is only the one vet within hours of here that will deal with snakes. Any suggestions cause I'm at a loss at this point? If tried raising heat and humidity. Thanks for ur time

[Inknsteel]

The vet needs to do a culture to determine the cause of the infection so they can prescribe the proper medication. Oral baytril seems to be the blanket prescription for RI in snakes without doing any testing beforehand...

[Sita]

Unfortunately, in the best interest of the snake, you're going to have to go back to a vet.

Oral medications for a snake are inferior to injectables, simply because they don't metabolize them the same way that mammals do. And since the Baytril (which is the brand name for enrofloxacin) is not working, I would recommend having them do a culture to determine the specific kind of bacteria so that you can get the correct medication to treat. If they don't know what you're talking about, you need to find a different vet. If you are really strapped for $$, you could skip the culture, but be aware that you might be wasting money on a different medicine.

I would ask them to start on Fortaz (ceftazidime) injectable. I don't know the exact dosage, but it's generally given every 3 days. We use Fortaz first for RI if the owner doesn't want to do a culture, and I'd say 9 times out of 10, it resolves the infection.

If you tell us what town you live in, some other members might know of a reptile vet near you.

[Inknsteel]

Unfortunately, in the best interest of the snake, you're going to have to go back to a vet.

Oral medications for a snake are inferior to injectables, simply because they don't metabolize them the same way that mammals do. And since the Baytril (which is the brand name for enrofloxacin) is not working, I would recommend having them do a culture to determine the specific kind of bacteria so that you can get the correct medication to treat. If they don't know what you're talking about, you need to find a different vet. If you are really strapped for $$, you could skip the culture, but be aware that you might be wasting money on a different medicine.

I would ask them to start on Fortaz (ceftazidime) injectable. I don't know the exact dosage, but it's generally given every 3 days. We use Fortaz first for RI if the owner doesn't want to do a culture, and I'd say 9 times out of 10, it resolves the infection.

If you tell us what town you live in, some other members might know of a reptile vet near you.

I still say that having a culture done is your best bet, but the information given here is accurate. I have only had two RIs in my collection ever, and both times Fortaz got rid of them.

[Annarose15]

I'd say you need to find a vet that actually knows something about snakes, and then follow the advice posted above. I have never had a good herp vet prescribe oral antibiotics, unless you specifically requested that over injectable.

[skirtinthedirt]

I have always been prescribed ceftazidime at 20mg/kg once every 72 hours.

Agreed. It is time for a culture. This will cost you a couple hundred bucks (plus whatever the vet charges for the actual culture procedure), but worth it. If this is completely out of the question, I would recommend trying ceftazidime as well, but you're really just shooting in the dark unless you know what germs you are trying to fight. Antibiotics can be extremely hard on the kidneys, so going through a bunch of unnecessary ones isn't doing his renal system any favors.

[Dakota11]

I'd say you need to find a vet that actually knows something about snakes, and then follow the advice posted above. I have never had a good herp vet prescribe oral antibiotics, unless you specifically requested that over injectable.

I've had him to see snake twice, I preferred injecting because from the beginning I dint want to pry snake mouth open daily. North bay Ontario, there is very few vets dealing with exotics and only one for snakes. So I'm kinda stuck, I thought he did a swab the first time, mabe not.can anyone give specific numbers percent for increased heat and humidity that has helped? I think I'm gonna try altering that again move him to a larger enclosure and go higher in he hot spot, I just don't want to over heat or cause to much moisture. Ill ask him about the other med u all spoke of.

[skirtinthedirt]

It makes sense that you would be instructed to give enrofloxacin orally, as the injections have been proven to cause pain, inflammation, and necrosis at injection sites. Enrofloxacin is still the drug of choice for regular veterinarians who also see reptiles because they usually don't have antibiotics better suited to reptiles in stock. If your vet did a swab the first time, you should have results back by now, and you would likely remember because fo the bill. He may have taken a sample to look ta under the microscope, but he wouldn't be able to tell anything beyond what the bacteria looked like and if they were gran negative or gram positive. This information helps narrow down what antibiotic to use, but it is not even close to the same thing as identifying the specific bacteria involved and identifying what antibiotics they are sensitive to.

[kitedemon]

A culture should have been done. Oral swabs are ok, but a lung wash really is the definitive test. There is a problem after treating with antibiotics cultures are skewed and the value of the results are seriously reduced.

Strictly oral is limited in its use. That said the new studies being done are suggesting a short round of injected antibiotics followed by long round of oral dosing. I am waiting on the actual papers on this but a good friend came back from the vet conference in Florida a couple of moths back and this is where she heard this info in a symposium with Dr. Mader. This is very new ideas however. It is more likely your vet is treating a snake like a small mammal.

[TheSnakeGeek]

how severe is the "wheezing"? and is that the only symptom you're seeing? are you seeing any mucous in the mouth or bubbles coming from the nose? difficulty breathing or open mouth breathing? have you had him for a while with no "wheezing" and then he started or did you notice it soon after you got him? if you're not seeing any other symptoms and he's still eating for you fine he might just be a noisy breather. just because you can hear the snake breathe sometimes does not necessarily mean it's sick.