Seeking Input From People Experienced W/ Respiratory Infection

[zeion97]

When I had a snake struggling to shake a bacterial RI the Vet had me up the dosing to every day for a week and then back to every other day, somewhat opposite of what you vet said to do.
Mine did finally shake the RI after 3+ weeks of baytril shots.

I can't understand the vet not demanding a culture unless the vet wasn't versed in getting cultures from a snake

My Pastel, who I posted a thewad on last yeae took almost 3 months on baytril to kck his. First month was every three days and the last two were every other than he had two weeks of every day after that. Hes alive and healthy now bur constant medication really takes its toll. Ri's are a pain to kick..

I was addibg my personal experience, not trying to contridact

[SquamishSerpents]

Thanks to all who responded, I think I have finally got this figured out. I will update you with her progress as her treatment goes on!

[SlitherinSisters]

That x-ray is cool!


Ok, not bashing your vet, as they can't know everything about every animal, but you need a culture done to know which anitibiotic (or combination) to use. Each one treats a different RI.

My advice, get a culture done and/or get F10 and a fogger. You could treat her with the F10 while you are waiting for the culture to come back. I've treated a gravid female with F10 and the eggs came out fine, she bred/laid again the next year. I've treated with injections, F10, and a combination of the two. F10 works quicker and better IMO. When I've treated with injections it has taken 3+ weeks till they looked cured, then another week or two on top of that. When I've treated with F10 they looked amazing by the end of the week, then I treated for one more week after that and it didn't come back.

I was totally against F10 since it's a cleaning product, but I'll stand by it now that I've tried it.

[SquamishSerpents]

I have been fogging her with F10 but honestly she's been battling this since at least September, so I think it's far beyond F10. I'm still keeping up with it, though because I don't think it can hurt. Now that I've got the problem under control, I, and everybody who has helped me, is confident that she will finally be cured.

And the problem with getting a culture, is that no vet around here will do a culture. None that I have spoke with, anyways. And I've called many. I'm not letting just anybody fill my snakes lung up with fluid. That is the problem. Nobody will help me. The Baytril works. She was almost cured. She WOULD have been cured, had she been prescribed a long enough round of it in the first place. And then the vet didn't screw around. I understand that not every vet can know anything.

But IMO, if you're a vet and you have zero idea how to treat the animal:

1) Don't pretend you know how to treat the animal.
2) Don't be a freakin' &%^%$ when the client brings forth information, research, and anecdotes from fellow snake breeders to help you treat the animal.

Seriously, he brushed me off so many times. Every question or bit of research I brought up, he shot me down. He didn't even give me any explanation. When I asked him (verbatim)

"But if you don't complete a round of antibiotics, the bacteria that are left, and were not killed by said antibiotics, are not the weak ones. They are the surviving bacteria, and they are stronger than the ones that were killed by the antibiotics. And that is why there are superbugs in humans."

He said "No. Wrong. That's not how it works."

And seriously, the Fortaz thing. It's so stupid it honestly makes me laugh and shake my head at how stupid it is.

And that's not the only thing. He has just told me so many things that were so blatantly wrong it's not even funny. I mean, shouldn't EVERYBODY with a medical license know how antibiotics work?

If you don't complete the course, your problem will come back and it will come back worse. FACT.

There is no such thing as a slow-release antibiotic, FACT.

You need a culture to know what bacteria you are dealing with. FACT.

Anyways. So done with this!! I will definitely keep y'all posted on her progress!

[SquamishSerpents]

Oh and I forgot to say, she's not gravid. She was when we first took her in but she was so close to laying we just waited to few days and then started her on the Baytril.

All eggs came out fine (though one went bad after a few days) and all remaining eggs hatched into beautiful babies!

[SquamishSerpents]

Ok jeez, one more post!!!

How much F10 are you using in the fogger? I've been using 3cc per fill-up of the bottle, which I believe is 1L. I've been told to maybe try a bit stronger, maybe 4 or 5cc per bottle.

And how often did you do it? I've been doing it once per day. Half hour of fogging. I tilt the bin and have holes in one end so that any condensation that builds up runs down and drains out, so she's not sitting in a pool of water. I've also been putting a heating pad on low under the container while she's in there, so she doesn't get cold.

[zeion97]

I have been fogging her with F10 but honestly she's been battling this since at least September, so I think it's far beyond F10. I'm still keeping up with it, though because I don't think it can hurt. Now that I've got the problem under control, I, and everybody who has helped me, is confident that she will finally be cured.

And the problem with getting a culture, is that no vet around here will do a culture. None that I have spoke with, anyways. And I've called many. I'm not letting just anybody fill my snakes lung up with fluid. That is the problem. Nobody will help me. The Baytril works. She was almost cured. She WOULD have been cured, had she been prescribed a long enough round of it in the first place. And then the vet didn't screw around. I understand that not every vet can know anything.

But IMO, if you're a vet and you have zero idea how to treat the animal:

1) Don't pretend you know how to treat the animal.
2) Don't be a freakin' &%^%$ when the client brings forth information, research, and anecdotes from fellow snake breeders to help you treat the animal.

Seriously, he brushed me off so many times. Every question or bit of research I brought up, he shot me down. He didn't even give me any explanation. When I asked him (verbatim)

"But if you don't complete a round of antibiotics, the bacteria that are left, and were not killed by said antibiotics, are not the weak ones. They are the surviving bacteria, and they are stronger than the ones that were killed by the antibiotics. And that is why there are superbugs in humans."

He said "No. Wrong. That's not how it works."

And seriously, the Fortaz thing. It's so stupid it honestly makes me laugh and shake my head at how stupid it is.

And that's not the only thing. He has just told me so many things that were so blatantly wrong it's not even funny. I mean, shouldn't EVERYBODY with a medical license know how antibiotics work?

If you don't complete the course, your problem will come back and it will come back worse. FACT.

There is no such thing as a slow-release antibiotic, FACT.

You need a culture to know what bacteria you are dealing with. FACT.

Anyways. So done with this!! I will definitely keep y'all posted on her progress!

Do you have a university near you? Like I live near the UOI university of Illinois. They don't advertise but they have a very we
L trained exotic vet who looks at animals. You may get lucky taking this route and find one who will look at them. The nearest vet that would do a culture near me besides this one was near Chicago, which is a 2 hour drive.. I know the burden you have with "professionals" been there done that, and even met there collection agency who said quote "the vet not knowing how to help you is no concern to the money owed"

[SlitherinSisters]

Wow I can't believe fogging her hasn't cured it! Are you fogging her like Brian from BHB does?

I think getting a culture done and giving her the right injection is your last resort. I agree completely with your comment about your vet and him telling you things without actually knowing. They have a place much like a forum with vets and pharm reps where they can get advice. That's what my vet does and she is very open to input from breeders. My sister is planning to become a vet so she has been able to do a lot of job shadowing and confirmed the forum thing.

[SquamishSerpents]

For what it's worth I've only been fogging her for 4 days. I bought the fogger long ago to use in an enclosure but never ended up using it. I misplaced the tube and had to track another one down, so I've just started her on it. Of course I found the misplaced tube just hours after my replacement arrived. Why wouldn't it work out that way??

And yes I believe I'm using Brian's dosage. 3cc into the fogger bottle.

The vet we have been seeing is about a 5hr round trip for us, so going any further isn't really an option as we both work full time.

I did get in touch with somebody at UBC, nobody called me back though both times.

[the_knot]

Honestly I am new to ball pythons, my first was a rescue and came to me with a bad RI, crawling around with its mouth open and mucus everywhere. Every now and then even spit up mucus ( gross). I brought her to the vet, h did not culture and gave me baytril told me 0.3ml once a day orally for seven days. She wass a new snake within 5 days or so and she has been healthy ever since. But he just told me to use it till it was gone even if she was better.