RI again?!?

[Moses]

Kellogg had RI about 3-5 months ago. I raised his temps and did a "vapor rub treatment" and he seemed better about 1-2 weeks after I noticed he was sick. We moved him into his new enclosure about a month ago. Today I changed his water and noticed he was going in blue - his eyes were dull. I also noticed that he was opening and closing his mouth. It seemed different this time though, like he was realigning his jaws a tiny bit more than breathing. I was looking at him for about a minute and he did this about 4 times.

Now, his setup. It's a front-open enclosure. Hot side (heat mat w/ thermostat) is about 85 F, cool side is room temp, about 75 F. He has 3 hides, 1 on both ends and 1 in the middle. Aspen substrate.

This might be totally unrelated, but he normally hid in his moss hide when I noticed he was sick last time. I recently put moss in his favorite hide in his new enclosure (3 days ago), and I just noticed him opening his mouth tonight. When I treated him for RI last time and removed the moss, he was better. No symptoms until he started hiding in the moss again.

I already raised his hot side to 90 F and I might buy F10SC Vet Disinfectant.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Not again it probably just never went away, what you did is alleviate the symptoms nothing more.

You need to take your snake to a vet, have a culture done (this will determine which anti-biotic is needed), get some anti-biotics (injectable). Treatment should be no shorter than a month.

[Moses]

We'll probably take him to the vet... I feel so guilty... he's been sick this whole time... I can't possibly give him shots though, gah.

[Moses]

EDIT: I was looking on another reptile forum, and someone said that pulling/stretching at the mouth is how they loosen up old skin to start the shed. He is due for a shed, he's starting to get dull.

(He's a corn snake btw, not ball python)

[Stewart_Reptiles]

We'll probably take him to the vet... I feel so guilty... he's been sick this whole time... I can't possibly give him shots though, gah.

If your snake has a RI which I do not know since I do not know your level of experience when it comes to identifying a RI this time around or the previous one, shots are the only way, oral anti-biotics do not work with snakes.

[Jhill001]

If your snake has a RI which I do not know since I do not know your level of experience when it comes to identifying a RI this time around or the previous one, shots are the only way, oral anti-biotics do not work with snakes.

Wouldn't a vet do the injections?

[BCS]

You can take your snake every 3-5 days to get the injections but the usual treatment for a basic RI is 5-10 days. You would have to pay for each vet visit. I gave the shots myself when my snake had an RI but I also do not have a fear of needles. It is at this point that if you cannot do the shots get a friend to go with you to the vet so they can learn how to do it for you. It has to be done. Not to sound rude but your snake's health and life trumps your fear right now.

I have to agree that the RI never went away and even though his symptoms went away for a while, it never truly left his system. Unfortunately for snakes their immune system is slow so it takes much longer for them to get better AND an RI will kill a snake way before their immune system can fight it off.

F10-SC would work but only in the beginning of an RI. If your snake has had an RI for this long, F10-SC will not work.

And one last thing. I use the vapour rub method as well for RIs BUT I always get the injections from a vet. I use the vapour rub along side of the injections to do twice the damage on the infection plus it helps with the breathing.

[Moses]

You can take your snake every 3-5 days to get the injections but the usual treatment for a basic RI is 5-10 days. You would have to pay for each vet visit. I gave the shots myself when my snake had an RI but I also do not have a fear of needles. It is at this point that if you cannot do the shots get a friend to go with you to the vet so they can learn how to do it for you. It has to be done. Not to sound rude but your snake's health and life trumps your fear right now.

I have to agree that the RI never went away and even though his symptoms went away for a while, it never truly left his system. Unfortunately for snakes their immune system is slow so it takes much longer for them to get better AND an RI will kill a snake way before their immune system can fight it off.

F10-SC would work but only in the beginning of an RI. If your snake has had an RI for this long, F10-SC will not work.

And one last thing. I use the vapour rub method as well for RIs BUT I always get the injections from a vet. I use the vapour rub along side of the injections to do twice the damage on the infection plus it helps with the breathing.

I'll check him tomorrow to see if he's still showing any possible symptoms.

Im not afraid of needles, but I hate having to hurt and stress out my Kellogg... I am afraid of having him being stressed and afraid of me.