Baytril is the wonder drug for all reptiles and amphibians. It is a broad spectrum antibiotic that is effective for most ailments, and is generally safe. The fact that your snake died shortly after its injection is likely to be purely coincidental. I have personally given thousands of baytril shots to hundreds of herps, I cannot attribute any death directly to Baytril.



Swwit has made an excellent point on using an aggressive course of treatment. You have to assume that the generalizations most veterinarians make from their experience with mammals, do not apply to herps. For one, their immune system does not work as quickly as ours. I'm disappointed when I hear people on these forums report that they are given a regimen of injectable antibiotics for a week, or even as little as three days. That is practically useless, and will only breed antibiotic resistant bacteria! You need to continue the course of treatment until you see the animal has healed. And I'm not talking about stopping when there are signs of improvement, only stop when the animal is healed completely. And because I have had experience with stopping antibiotics too soon and the problem reappearing, I am always willing to continue treatment at least a week after I have declared the animal healed. For a respiratory infection, I would expect at least a month's worth of antibiotics would be required. You can see the degree of difficulty with treating such a serious ailment. Since respiratory infections just don't pop up spontaneously, this should give you the drive to seriously evaluate your husbandry and to improve any areas necessary.



Apparently swwit and I believe in an aggressive course of treatment, however, his maybe a little too aggressive for my liking. Baytril does have its side effects, most notably its inclination to cause localized necrosis around the injection site (I have seen this happen mostly with rough green snakes and some turtles). The exotic animal formulary recommends 5mg/kg every three days. I usually give 10mg/kg for the first few days, or depending upon the severity of the infection, and then back off to every two or three days if the condition improves.



Of course I would rather have you refer to your veterinarian on this issue, but it is obvious they may not be very herp savvy! Feel free to report back to us on the progress of your snake.
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If there is a just God, how humanity would writhe in its attempt to justify its treatment of animals. - Isaac Asimov



Human industry has been in full swing for a little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.

William McDonough, architect and designer, Sierra Club magazine

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