Yes, heaven forbid we take an animal to the vet for proper treatment.

I mentioned rats because they ALL carry mycoplasma bacteria, which is what Tylan treats(in pigs). Tylan is used in swine to prevent mycoplasmosis, which depresses the immune system causing respiratory infections. If it works, great, but if your snake has a specific bacteria that isn't susceptible to tylosin, and you're sticking your snake with needles for 2-3 weeks wondering why it's still sick, and ruining the snake's kidneys, when all you had to do was get a culture and put the snake on Amikacin..? What does that solve? Whole lotta nothin'!

Get a culture, find out what bacteria the snake has and what antibiotics will work, and go from there.