Respiratory Infection

While handling our 1100g female het albino bp today we noticed that she has developed a respiratory infection.
we first noticed bubbles around the mouth and crazy excessive saliva on the way to the vet she started wheezing.
The vet pumped some fluids into her and gave her some antibiotics and we have a follow up for friday, but she seems to be getting worse. She has started to breathe through her mouth.

what are the signs that a respiratory infection is killing my snake? I know that RI's are deadly, but at what point are they dying as opposed to just sick? what can I do to help her in the meantime other than keep warmth and humidity up?

did they do a culture to see what bacteria it is and what antibiotic would be best to combat it? normally they like to use baytril or fortaz and sometimes both. warm baths would help and make sure she has plenty of clean water. when was the last time she ate? when was the last time you checked on her (prior to today)?

I hate to say it, but if her signs are that bad, she's had it for a while and probably in the worst stages.

Did the vet give you medicine to take home and continue treatment or did they dose and send you home? I'm in no way a vet but from what I have always heard, treatment must continue and isn't like a "shot in the butt" for humans. Not sure though.

The only other things you can do, is go get a second opinion from another vet or make sure she is as stress free as possible (multiple hides, adequate heat/humidity etc).

I'm not sure if you have identified what caused the RI, but they don't pop up on their own from what I believe. It's either a husbandry issue or brought on by a new acquisition. If you post their hot/ambient/cool spots, humidity levels, cage set up, substrate etc we may be able to help identify any issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJCnPfuqaBM

Start watching this video at 2:50. This worked for one of my snakes that did not respond to treatments of baytril and fortax. Everything you need to do this at home can be bought fot less than the first trip to the vet. I think I paid about 40 bucks for the fogger and around 30 bucks for the F10.

Focal wrote:

I hate to say it, but if her signs are that bad, she's had it for a while and probably in the worst stages.

Did the vet give you medicine to take home and continue treatment or did they dose and send you home? I'm in no way a vet but from what I have always heard, treatment must continue and isn't like a "shot in the butt" for humans. Not sure though..

It's def not one shot and done. Baytril is usually 5mg/kg, usually IM but can be oral and it should be given every 24 To 48 hours. And the fortaz is Normally 20 mg/kg IM every 72 hours. So getting the mess by the doc on Wednesday and following up Friday, prob for another dose, kinda makes sense.

We took her to the emergency office on south independence blvd. They did not do a culture, instead giving us an antibiotic and telling us to go to pet care for follow ups.

we acquired her December 2. she last ate mid november, she was constipated until the 22nd of this month, we weren't really worried about it, we watched her weight and offered as normal. We also gave her warm baths often because whenever they were offered, she never failed to soak for an hour.

Temps are: 78 night 86 normal with a 90 hotspot. We do not know the humidity. They are kept in plastic sterlite containers with newspaper substrate (except for our sick girl until she is healthy, we are keeping her in another room in a 55 gallon aquarium with two water bowls, two hides, aspen substrate, and a towel covering half of the aquarium to help retain humidity)

She was offered food on the 24th, we handle daily or every other day, she showed no signs of infection on the 24th during her normal feeding, before that she was handled on the 22nd given a nice long soak and observed the whole time, she pooped in our bathtub, but other than that there was nothing worth noting.

This morning she is still making occasional noises when she breathes, she is not blowing bubbles or leaving small wet spots wherever her mouth touched anymore. we are being very careful to not facilitate the spread of this problem from one snake to the others, we are watching closely for any signs of abnormalities, but what specifically are the early signs?

We have a female who, during her last shed (December 16) made a small sound occasionally as she breathed, not like what the sick female is doing, but it was a small barely audible airy whistle. We noticed that she had trouble shedding. she had unshed patches along her body and she retained her eyeplates. We switched to plastic and gave her a larger water dish and baths twice daily until the unshed patches came off, the eyeplates are still attached, we were waiting for the next shed to be concerned about htem. We attributed the sound to the shed problems as she showed no other signs of infection.

We are purchasing a humidifier and hydrometer as soon as we can, but is there anything else we can do both to help our sick girl pull through and to keep the other snakes healthy?

Back to temp what are you using for temp control? A rheostats and dimmers do not regulate themselves as a thermostat does. Is it a controller that keeps temp 20 degrees over room temp? If so what's your room temp?

We use heat lights to create a hotspot and monitor the cool side and the warm side with thermometers. (an actual thermometer not the stick on kind)

Is the animal spending most of the time on the hot side or cool side? And some time more heat helps, you could bring the hot side up to 95 that the top end of the basking spot but it could help when added with your humidity. Also get up a few time during the night to check the temp. Aquariums can loss temp at night esplishley in the winter.

smd58 wrote:

Is the animal spending most of the time on the hot side or cool side? And some time more heat helps, you could bring the hot side up to 95 that the top end of the basking spot but it could help when added with your humidity. Also get up a few time during the night to check the temp. Aquariums can loss temp at night esplishley in the winter.

Some great advice given!!

She seems to favor the cool side in her normal home but now we got her an under tank heater on her with lights for the hot spot and she seems to like the hide so we put the under tank heater under that to keep her warm