Just wanted to add a few comments to the above thread concerning the use of the antibiotics you have listed.

The aminoglycoside antibiotics amikacin and gentamicin are typically never dosed above 2.5 mg/kg with boids due to the potential of adverse toxic effects and additionally, fluid therapy has not been found to be necessary other than supplying fresh, easily accessible water daily.

Amoxicillin, ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfa and tetracycline have been proven to very rarely be effective with most boid infections due to their limited spectrum of activity, however doxycycline, a tetracycline relative, has been found to be effective in some cases.

The fluoroquinolone class antibiotic Baytril or enrofloxacin, has been found to be fairly effective, but ciprofloxacin, or Cipro another fluoroquinolone, has been found to be even more effective than Baytril and is a good choice for RI’s and other infections in boids.

Chloramphenicol has a pretty good spectrum of antibacterial activity, but it has the one drawback of causing an area of tissue damage or necrosis around the injection site. It will typically leave half-inch diameter permanent scars around each injection site on the snakes body.

Ceftriaxone is a third-generation cephalosporin class antibiotic and is one of the best I have seen for the treatment of severe cases of stomatitis, or mouth rot. However, I would not recommend 50 mg/kg per day as this would be approaching toxic levels. A better, safer choice would be 25 mg/kg per day. I have seen this dosage used with excellent results.

Tylosin is a macrolide class antibiotic and is mainly effective against only specific gram-positive species of bacteria. It is mainly used to treat chronic RI in boids that have re-occurring infections that do not respond to other antibiotics. These have been shown to many times be caused by bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma. As such, it has been shown that Tylosin will rarely be effective against any other bacterial species aside from Mycoplasma.

Finally, your suggestion to keep substrate temps at 90 to 92 with any antibiotic therapy on boids is definitely correct, and I might add that it is imperative to keep the ambient humidity between 70% and 80% during those periods of elevated temperatures. Thanks,

Kelly

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