Did Cephalexin kill my snake?

[wicked5446]

This is kind of a long story but here it goes. A few weeks ago my BP went into shed he had some problems shedding i noticed after a few days his ventral scales were turning pink on his tail. Within a few days he had finished his shed and was cleared up. Two days later he started shedding again within a couple days the redness was coming back. I changed the substrate from aspen shaving to cage carpet and disinfected everything like I do about every two weeks. He shed 1/4 of the way and it just stopped. His ventral scales were turning reddish and it was spreading. I thought it might be scale rot but i didn't know so i tried neosporin for a few days to see if it would clear up. I started soaking him and eventually the shed completed. It stayed in about the same condition through the Holidays and close to new years it was getting worse. I went away for new years and came back to find it was much worse and it was started to turn black and I freaked out. New years day vets were closed the next day I took him into a Vet who said they dealt with reptiles all the time. The experience with the vet was horrible waiting 2 hours in a cold waiting room. The doctor examined him i asked him questions and he just kind dismissed them so i never really got any answers. He leaves and comes back with some medicine. He gives me Baytril and tells me to apply it twice daily after a 10 minute Betadine and water soak. He also gave me Cephalexin Oral and tells me to orally give my BP 6ml every 12 hours. I take him home feeling optimistic my BP is going to be getting better within a few days like he tells me. I give him the Cephalexin that night as well as the soak and Baytril and do the same thing in the morning. That was yesterday and when i come home from work he seems to be ok. I get the water ready for the soak and i put him in i keep it very shallow just enough so it covers his belly. He already seems pretty lethargic and I walked away for a couple minutes which was probably really stupid so I don't know if he might have drank any of the water. I take him out of the soak and a few minutes later he starts acting really weird. Twenty minutes later he's pretty much paralyzed thrashing around but not able to lift his head. I call the emergency animal clinic they tell me to bring him in. I get half way there before he dies. I've been really upset and just trying to understand what happened. Does anybody have any ideas what went wrong? Whether it was the medicine the bacteria or something i did.

[Nate]

wow...Sorry for your loss.

What city are you located in? and what vet did u see? I'll try to do some research to see if I can come up with another reptile vet. My advice would be to get a necropsy done ASAP so they can determine the cause.

[cheryls]

wow...that's so sad. I'm really sorry for your loss.

[reptile3]

Oh my... I am so sorry for your loss, I don't know any advice I could give you, but wanted to send my sympathy.

[slartibartfast]

I would suspect it was far more likely his general condition than the cephalexin.

[littleindiangirl]

Did the vet even give you a diagnosis?? I would agree, it's a very sad thing, but it maybe was just too much for the snake, and he died from whatever was ailing him. I do hope you find out what happened.

[bender29]

Ugh. I'm terribly sorry for your loss.

[NightLad]

My sincere condolences.

[b8byjenny]

This is kind of a long story but here it goes. A few weeks ago my BP went into shed he had some problems shedding i noticed after a few days his ventral scales were turning pink on his tail. Within a few days he had finished his shed and was cleared up. Two days later he started shedding again within a couple days the redness was coming back. I changed the substrate from aspen shaving to cage carpet and disinfected everything like I do about every two weeks. He shed 1/4 of the way and it just stopped. His ventral scales were turning reddish and it was spreading. I thought it might be scale rot but i didn't know so i tried neosporin for a few days to see if it would clear up. I started soaking him and eventually the shed completed. It stayed in about the same condition through the Holidays and close to new years it was getting worse. I went away for new years and came back to find it was much worse and it was started to turn black and I freaked out. New years day vets were closed the next day I took him into a Vet who said they dealt with reptiles all the time. The experience with the vet was horrible waiting 2 hours in a cold waiting room. The doctor examined him i asked him questions and he just kind dismissed them so i never really got any answers. He leaves and comes back with some medicine. He gives me Baytril and tells me to apply it twice daily after a 10 minute Betadine and water soak. He also gave me Cephalexin Oral and tells me to orally give my BP 6ml every 12 hours. I take him home feeling optimistic my BP is going to be getting better within a few days like he tells me. I give him the Cephalexin that night as well as the soak and Baytril and do the same thing in the morning. That was yesterday and when i come home from work he seems to be ok. I get the water ready for the soak and i put him in i keep it very shallow just enough so it covers his belly. He already seems pretty lethargic and I walked away for a couple minutes which was probably really stupid so I don't know if he might have drank any of the water. I take him out of the soak and a few minutes later he starts acting really weird. Twenty minutes later he's pretty much paralyzed thrashing around but not able to lift his head. I call the emergency animal clinic they tell me to bring him in. I get half way there before he dies. I've been really upset and just trying to understand what happened. Does anybody have any ideas what went wrong? Whether it was the medicine the bacteria or something i did.

I am so sorry that this happened, it sounds like you really went through a lot. Did you ever get anymore info.?

[Thor26]

omg im so sorry for u and the snake. at least u know u did all u could