Wait on antibiotics?

[Damariscotta]

So several weeks ago I posted about my snake having a potential respiratory infection. Well after dealing with a couple of awful vets I found one who would do a swab test on him. The results came back to today and he does indeed have a bacterial infection. The bacteria is called Klebsiella. There are two antibiotics that showed up as sensitive to it. I asked the vet what the next step is and he suggested waiting on medication because for the past four weeks my snake's symptoms haven't worsened (at times they actually seem a bit better). All he's doing is making puffing noises, no other symptoms have popped up since he started making noises. The vet doesn't want to medicate right away unless the symptoms worsen because he says the antibiotics could become resistant if other future more fast acting and serious illnesses popped up. He wants to see if it'll go away on it's own and thinks it hasn't taken a stronghold on my snake because he hasn't worsened at all in the past four weeks. He wants me to keep cleaning the cage very often and keep fresh air circulating which I've been doing. I'm clueless on if this is accurate information or not, he's never been sick before this. What do you guys think?

[Sauzo]

I say get a second opinion. Ask your local herp club or reptile house at the zoo who they use or recommend.

The whole point of giving the antibiotics is to kill the bacteria and not let it get a foothold. I mean I understand the idea behind what he is saying kind of. If you see very early symptoms of RI, you can sometimes raise the temps and humidity and the snakes immune system will beat it but in your case, it's been going for 4 weeks and its not getting better. Doesn't matter if it's not getting worse, the key is it's not getting better.

As for resistance, if you don't finish the medicine and make sure the bacteria is dead, then yes it could become resistant but that takes a few rounds. its not going to become resistant after I treatment.

And to keep fresh air circulating in the cage is going to mean your humidity is probably going to tank which low humidity plus RI is not a good thing as dry air causes snakes from humid climates lungs to dry out and crack which can allow the bacteria to get a foothold in the lungs and turn into pneumonia.

The one plus side is the vet actually did a culture and didn't just throw a wide spectrum harsh antibiotic like Baytril at it. But I would ask your local herp club who they use and recommend and mention the vet you saw to them and ask what they think.

[Damariscotta]

For my own future reference, in you're experience, how many days or weeks of antibiotics does it take to effectively kill the bacteria? I've heard some people say only a week and others say a couple of weeks.

[Aste88]

He's right on being careful to use antibiotics. I have no experience or knowledge to judge if that's the right choice for YOUR snake but I think you'll hardly find an answer to that on a forum.

Get a second opinion from another vet if you're doubtful.

Higher humidity ans temperatures are suggested when fighting RI afaik

[Sauzo]

For my own future reference, in you're experience, how many days or weeks of antibiotics does it take to effectively kill the bacteria? I've heard some people say only a week and others say a couple of weeks.

When my 7' boa got a sinus infection, my vet put her on Cef something, I cant remember the nexact name now. She didn't want to use Baytril as the dosage needed for a snake that big would cause tissue and muscle damage at the injection site. I gave her a shot every other day for a month. My beardie got a RI too and same vet, I gave her shots every other day for 3 weeks. Different medicine though, I don't remember that one.

Find a good vet, they are worth their weight in gold. I've been going to mine for just over 3 years. She takes care of all my reptiles and does probing for me if I am in question about the sex of my snakes.

Oh and I'm not sure how your vet works, but mine would give shots for free when needed as long as I brought the animal down. She is about an hour drive so she just showed me how to do it. For a large snake, its easy. For my beardie I was terrified I was going to go in too far and hurt her but it all worked out fine.

[Damariscotta]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet. A part of me wants to just go ahead and request the antibiotics. But I gotta think about it some more.

[bcr229]

I would rather hit it with the antibiotic now rather than wait for the disease to worsen and potentially allow another opportunistic disease take over because your snake's immune system is depressed.

Or look at it another way - when you feel a cold coming on do you immediately increase your vitamin C intake, make sure you stay warm, get more sleep, etc. or do you wait until you really feel awful before taking steps?

[Damariscotta]

I've decided to go ahead with starting antibiotics. Sensitivity results showed that Amikacin will work best on killing the bacteria so that's what I'm going with. Just waiting for it to come in the mail.