Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took my adult ball to the vet monday for a check up because of suspected respiratory disorder. The snake occassionally makes a very high pitched whistling sound and this was the cause of my concern. The vet listened with a stethoscope and said there was no congestion nor was there and bubbly mucous. In fact she said that his mouth appeared healthy. My snake has refused her last 3 feedings (no biggie since it is that time of year). The vet still prescribed Baytril to be administered once a day for 14 days "just in case." I admistered the first dose yesterday but it did stress the snake considerably and I have concerns about doing this for 14 strait days and conditioning the snake to now associate handling with the unpleasant experience when there is no proof of the disorder. I think the vet was just doing a CYA and was admittedly not totally up to speed on ball pythons and consulted Madder's publication repeatedly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and does anyone knows of good reptile vets in Virginia? Thanks

I don't know about VA specifically but this website has listings by state of vets, recommended by herp owners. http://www.herpvetconnection.com/

I found a wonderful vet through this website (Dr. Donato in Radnor, PA), though since it's just made up of user posts there's no guarantee about anyone. You can also look to see if vets are members of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians. Membership basically means that they pay their dues and subscribe to the ARAV journal, so again no guarantee, but selecting a vet from these listings definitely improves your chances over selecting out of the phone book.

http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm

Good luck.
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0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python
11.7 Monkey Butlers

Here is one:
A Good VA Vet

talk to other keepers in your area to see who they recommend. I dealt with my first RI in a BP last august and trust me, if you caught it early then that 14 days of stress for your snake will be worth it. I caught mine probably in mid-stage, a little mucus and bubbles. Vet put my snake on oral baytril for 2 weeks. That cleared her up a little but not much. It took another 28 days of treatment before she was all cleared up. She is an 05 animal and did not eat for those roughly 2 months and now weighs over 700g. After the RI cleared up she picked right back up with her eating.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Josh - did you administer the baytril with a stomach tube?
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Amber

Boas
1.1.0 Colombian (Austin & Ava)
1.0.0 Suriname (Aloysius)
1.1.0 Albino (Bo & Daisy)
Balls:
1.27.0 Normal (Tucker, Taylor,and lil' girls - RIP Eva)
1.1.0 Pastel
1.2.0 100% Het Pied
1.0.0 100% Het Albino (Bubba)
0.1.0 66% Poss. Het Albino
Corns:
1.1.0 Amber
1.1.0 Butter Motley
1.1.0 Crimson
1.1.0 Ghost
1.1.0 Hypo
0.0.1 Normal
1.1.0 Okeetee
1.0.1 Snow (Aiden)
1.1.0 Sunglow Motley
Milks:
1.1.0 Hypo Honduran (Damien & Lucy)
0.1.0 Pueblan (Marishka)
1.1.0 Sinaloan
Other:
2.1.0 Dachshunds - Dakota, Montana, & Cheyenne
2.0.0 Ferrets - Bailey & Keyta

I had one available but never needed to use it. she always kept every drop of the antibiotic down. I decided not to use the feeding tube, but either way works.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

http://www.seavs.com/
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com