First-Aid Kit Questions

I'm putting together first aid kits for the entire family (humans, cats, ferrets, bird, and reptiles) and I had a few questions about what is safe for reptiles.

Alcohol Prep pads - can these be used on reptiles. I assume so, but I wanted to be sure before I included them.

Triple Antibiotic Ointment - I got the kind without the pain killer in it. This is safe to use, yes?

And is it possible to purchase oral antibiotics without a prescription? I don't know how to give injections, so oral will have to do (though I do plan on learning to do injections).

Any other medications I should consider including in the kit?

I'm sure veterinary surplus sites will sell things like Baytril sans prescription. Baytril doesn't really do anything that would cause people to abuse it horribly, so I can't imagine it's as locked down as something like Lorazepam.

I know that a lot of pet stores sell something called Fish Mox, which is an antibiotic for fish tanks (I guess you break open a cap into the water or something...?), but anyway, Fish Mox is essentially just concentrated Amoxicillin. It can be used for almost any mammal as well. A lot of the rescue groups that come through our work use the caps for the dogs they have, with no side effects besides the normal use of Amoxicillin, and with the same level of efficacy. I've also heard of people using it (Not sure if I'd recommend that though). I don't know if Amoxicillin is an effective antibiotic for reptiles, but it may be handy to have in your kit for your other critters.

I'm pretty sure the non-painkiller antibiotic cream is fine. Silvadene cream might be handy as well, for burns in just about anything, herps included.

Thanks. I will add Silvadene to the list. I've heard of people using fish antibiotics for mammals (I've used Tetracycline for rats with RIs) but I'd have to find out what the dosages would be for larger mammals like ferrets and cats.

Definitely never hurts to have an array of antibiotics. They're handy no matter what!

I prefer to use Betadine or diluted iodine over alcohol pads for herps. Triple antibiotic ointment is perfectly fine to use also. And Fish mox is amazing. You should also add an appetite stimulator and some sort of electrolytes. You can actually buy electrolyte tablets online. They last a lot longer then something like pedialyte and work with both warm and cold blooded critters.

I like Fluker's Repta-aid, I have had to use it on rescue animals and it works well to get them back to eating. Also, Nutrical, not for reptiles, but other mammals, it works wonderfully. The ointment is fine, Silvadene is great stuff and Neopredef powder is great (if you can find it). Our vets go by this rule (if it's wet, make it dry, it it's dry, make it wet) so use the creams on dry things and the powders on wet things.

Neopredef powder is awesome! We have so many dogs at work using it for a huge array of things. I second this!!

Wonder Dust or QuikStop.

I usually keep betadine, triple antibiotic cream, petroleum jelly, distilled water, q-tips, chlorhexidine, and various syringes/tubes. I've started keeping metronidazole (flagyl) and fenbendazole (panacur) on hand to treat new snakes. I tried to keep enrofloxacin (baytril) but it expires too quick. I think I've decided to just get that if/when I need it.

My first aid kit contains a bandaid and a pistol. If one won't fix you, the other will.

jw wrote:

My first aid kit contains a bandaid and a pistol. If one won't fix you, the other will.

Very True Grit, my friend. That's awesome.

Several years ago a friend and I were taking a group of people to see rattlesnakes. There was no cell phone reception and a question came up regarding first aid. I said that I had a couple bandaids and my friend said he had a pistol. A nervous laughter came over the group as we said, "Looks like we have all the bases covered".

Turned out to be a good trip and our make-shift "first aid" kit remained unused.