BP Respiratory Infection *Help*

[SaudiBPs]

Hi,

will try to keep this short! I have a collection of 12 Ball pythons and a couple of them got an RI from a snake I brought in (I know my fault). the RI has no spread to a couple other snakes and a total of 4 of my snakes are now sick.

i was recommended to avoid fogging and treat it by cleaning the mouth out with a tissue daily and removing all saliva and mucus, which I have been doing. One of them got cured after a week! No more signs of RI and all good.

the other 3 have been continuously showing signs of the RI. I don’t know what to do anymore it’s been 4 months that my male Desert ghost (1600grams) hasn’t eaten and the other one is a hatchling (170grams) and he now hasn’t eaten for 1 month.

the hatchling seemed to have the worst infection of the 3 and I have used a syringe to aspirate his nasal passage and remove mucus on several occasions. This technique doesn’t seem to be working, has anyone else tried this method with RIs or can you recommend some other home remedies or médecines?

PS: ambient temp 26c, hot spot 30-31c, ambient humidity 60%

[Sunnieskys]

Quarantine and a vet.

[KMG]

Seems like a lot of added stress on the snakes don't what was recommended to you. I'd get some proper meds and start the injections as soon as possible.

I wouldn't worry about feeding as that will come when they're better. You need to kick the infection.

[Sunnieskys]

Get them to a vet. Today. Get those infected into a quarantine room away from your other snakes. Like now! Poor little babies! I hope they get well soon.

[SaudiBPs]

I wish it was that easy. I am in Saudi Arabia and not a single vet here knows how to treat or deal with reptiles so I have to rely on myself. Does anyone know what I can do to treat this without seeing a vet ?

[Sunnieskys]

Someone posted a video the other day from Brian barchyck from BHB reptiles. If someone can link. I will also try and find it. But in the meantime get those that are infected to another room. As soon as possible.

[Reptilius]

I can only advise on how I treated a Rescue Red Tail Boa about 5 years ago. Also no finances to take him to a VET.
It was a case of either I Rescue him, or he to be put in a freezer that night.

I set a Hot End of 33C, and a Cool End of 28C, at ground level. Ambient was tagged at 30C. Humidity at 70.
I Nebulised the snake twice a day with a very mild f10 solution, for twenty minutes.
He was cured within about 10 days, and is now a healthy breeder male.

How do you Nebulize a snake?

Get a polystyrene cooler box, make a small hole in the side just enough for a length of fish tank hose to fit through, on the inside, mount the nebulise container and face mask in an upright position. Attach the fish tank hose outside the Cooler Box, to the Nebulizing Machine. put the mild f10 solution in the Nebulizing Mask, inside the Cooler Box. Place the snake inside the Cooler Box, switch on the Nebulizing Machine, the Cooler Box fills with Vapour and Nebulizes the snake..

The only problem I see here is that I do not know what tolerance a Ball Python would have to such treatment, Red tail Boas are pretty robust and Bullet Proof.

Wait for replies to this, before trying this method.

[Craiga 01453]

"Bacterial, viral or fungal lung infections can cause respiratory signs. So can lung mites, lung worms, lung abscesses, lung cancer and heart failure. These are all very different and respond differently to different treatments...."
That being said, how can wiping the insides of the mouth possibly help??? The issue lies WITHIN the snake and only a proper vet can determine where the issue lies and how to treat it.

In my personal opinion, it is extremely irresponsible to keep animals when you don't have access to a proper vet. Animals get sick and injured, it's a fact of keeping animals. If you can't get your animals to a vet when this happens, and it inevitably will, I don't think it's fair to the animals to keep them.
It is also the keepers responsibility to properly quarantine new animals.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off harsh, but it is unfair to the innocent animals that don't have a choice.

[SaudiBPs]

You just took this beyond extreme 😄 lung mites and lung worms? It’s an upper respitory infection. Do you think that people that own 100+ snakes take them to the vets everytime they get an RI? You either nebulize them or remove the excess mucus and saliva from the nose and mouth and hope that it clears by itself.

obviously this method didn’t work for me this time so I have now moved on to antibiotic injections! Which I am doing myself. Just because we don’t have good vets here does not mean that you cannot educate yourself on the animals that you keep!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You just took this beyond extreme lung mites and lung worms? It’s an upper respitory infection. Do you think that people that own 100+ snakes take them to the vets everytime they get an RI? You either nebulize them or remove the excess mucus and saliva from the nose and mouth and hope that it clears by itself.

obviously this method didn’t work for me this time so I have now moved on to antibiotic injections! Which I am doing myself. Just because we don’t have good vets here does not mean that you cannot educate yourself on the animals that you keep!

Most people who have 100 of snakes do not have RI, I have between 50 and 75 breeders at all time and between 100 and 200 hatchling and not once had a snake with RI in 10 years.

Why first proper quarantine procedure which is where you failed in the first place.

Second low stress, & roper husbandry and if that is done the chances of RI is greatly reduced.

What if 1 or 2 or more animals had a RI

1# They would be separated and moved to another room

2# I would go to a vet, regardless of the type of vet and ask for the following for each animals

Culture and based on that culture I would get the proper anti-biotic treatment for no less than a month.

And unless all vet clinics have closed in Saudi Arabia there are vet clinic, again whether they treat reptiles or not on a regular basis does not matter so long YOU know what to ask for as they will have the basic skills for a culture and prescription.

RI are serious, they are the equivalent of Pneumonia in human the earlier they are treated the better the chances and letting the issue linger for months does not help and shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of what a RI is as well as the snake anatomy. They are not the equivalent of a cold that clears up on it's own, you don't get those treated your snake will die either fast or a slow death and it will be on YOU.

I hear the excuse of there is no good vet or they are too far all the time and those are poor excuses.

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