Vet RX

[Pythonfriend]

take a closer look at the picture

INGREDIENTS:
Made with 3.3% (V-V) Alcohol U.S.P.
This proven mixture contains Canada Balsam, Camphor, Oil Origanum, Oil Rosemary, blended in a corn oil base.

i have no idea what "(V-V) Alcohol U.S.P." is supposed to mean. But everything else is stuff that may work if you believe in it really, REALLY hard. At least thats what it would be like if used on humans, when used on a pet then im not sure if you need to believe it, your bird or snake needs to believe in it, or both.

Falls squarely in the category of alternative medicine, which means either not proven to work or proven not to work. If it would be proven to work, it would be real medicine, which i dont see in this case, because ingredients with a real proven medical purpose are typically given with precise quantities.

i just looked up Canada Balsam, really interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_balsam . Its main use appears to be to repair cracked/broken glass or to glue lenses and prisms together in optical devices. No medical use in the wikipedia article, except for a mention of "Buckley's cough syrup." Dont expect anything different when looking up the other ingredients. Oil Rosemary and Oil Origanum (=Oregano oil) sound like they could taste good on pizza.

And camphor is some chemical found in rosemary and in some trees, and wiki says "It is used for its scent, as an ingredient in cooking (mainly in India), as an embalming fluid, for medicinal purposes, and in religious ceremonies". Which brings us to a total of two ingredients somewhat linked to pizza, and one somewhat linked to indian cuisine, and one that you might find in binoculars. Not to forget alcohol and corn oil.


ok this really turned into a rant. At first glance it looks kinda fishy and raises some flags, and after further research im now a bit angry at the guys marketing this stuff.

[bcr229]

Canada Balsam is also known as Canada Turpentine, used in oil painting, toxic, and very irritating to the lining of the nasal pasages and lungs. Just the thing for a snake with an RI!

OP, if you want to give your snake RI relief until you can get it to the vet, here is what mind suggested:
- Bump up the hot spot to 93-94*F, just be very careful not to overheat! This simulates having a fever.
- Bump up the humidity so that mucus stays moist and the snake can expel it more easily.
- Isolate your snake from the rest of your collection so they don't get sick.
- Clean and disinfect your snake's enclosure daily; any germs it sheds and doesn't pick back up (because you removed the germs when you cleaned the tank) its immune system won't have to fight off.

[hypnotixdmp]

Any of you see the posts about it on redtailboas.com? I see a good few people saying super sick boas recovered 100% while using this stuff and even start eating again. Not arguing the fact that it has toxic chemicals in it from what y'all are telling me, just trying to figure out if it works and if so if it has any bad symptoms to it what so ever.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Pythonfriend]

Any of you see the posts about it on redtailboas.com? I see a good few people saying super sick boas recovered 100% while using this stuff and even start eating again. Not arguing the fact that it has toxic chemicals in it from what y'all are telling me, just trying to figure out if it works and if so if it has any bad symptoms to it what so ever.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

all quackery has testimonies that back it up, always. Honest, well-intended testimonies, im not saying the testimonies in favor of the product are fake or something.

the thing is that most sick snakes, just like most sick humans, recover no matter what you do.

So if you use a product that is clearly not helpful and clearly only harmful, most snakes (or humans) will get better. In spite of it, not because of it. But that doesnt matter, positive testimony is produced anyway, especially in cases where the quackery product is the only one used. Snake got sick, this one product and nothing else was used, snake got better, people falsely conclude that the product did it, and there you have your testimonies.

It REALLY DOES HAPPEN that a snake gets a bad RI, a doctor appointment gets made, the product gets used, and the appointment can be cancelled because the snake makes a speedy recovery. But the same also does happen if you sprinkle some powdered sugar on your snakes cloaca when it gets RI, which might be cheaper and less harmful.

the whole point of evidence-based medicine, and of studies where you compare different treatments to each other and to placebo and to no treatment at all, is to get rid of such bias.

Without studies and trials, like it was 200 years ago, a medicine that does exactly nothing but also has no harmful side-effects (like for example homeopathy) is actually very good compared to the other more risky stuff (bloodletting, medicine containing mercury or other poisons, drilling holes in skulls, etc).

[Kodieh]

Besides, like humans, you don't want to build up the immunity to meds. So, if one ever does become sick go to a vet and get the proper antibiotics needed for that specific bacteria.