My son has a Jungle Carpet Python; she is about 5 years old, six feet long and weighs about 6 lbs. She was purchased at a reputable pet shop and has eaten frozen rats. For over a month, the upper quarter of her body has been stiff and in a wave-life form, it is almost as she has a bad muscle cramp. She does get better and moves around in the bath tub, however she does not want to eat (frozen mice or live pinkies). One vet could not give me an answer and told me I have to spend an additional $1000 to do an endoscopy to see that is wrong. I went for a second opinion and now they told me she might have inclusion body disease. Upon further research I find that ICB might not be the case. She has not been around other snakes in 4 years and never had mites. Pythons with ICB should be dead by now and she is hanging on for at least 6 weeks.
Her WBC is 23.7, Heterphils is 38, basophile 7, heterophil 9006, lymphocyte 1896, monocyte 237, azurophil 10902 and RBC is normal. She has been on Metronidazole 50 MG and Cefazolin injections. She is now on Baytrill. I’m not a vet but understand she has a high infection; it has gone down a little after the first two antibiotics, but not enough. She still has the same symptoms, has not gotten any better or worse. I am already behind my mortgage payment and if I had the money would definitely go for the endoscopy, but I am also frustrated that I cannot get a direct answer because the two vets and the experts they have called on had never seen anything like this. Any help on this matter would be truly appreciated. Doris.
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Sick Jungle Carpet Python
Replies (1)
I have no idea what is going on with your snake, and wish you the best. However, I did want to give you one small piece of advice.
Antibiotics are hard on the kidneys of reptiles, and usually shorten the lifespan in the long term, although they help initially. Babies treated with antibiotics typically die of kidney disease around age 5. So if the antibiotics she is on, are NOT doing anything, you may want to consult your vet about this, and take her off of them.
