Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so she has gone through 2 doses of medicine, 2 rounds of fluids and 2 blood checks. her breathing has improved but her blood levels are darn near impossible according to her vet. her uric acid has come down which is good but apparently her sodium levels are the highest anyone in the hospital has ever seen in an animal and no one there has come across anything like this especially since clinically she is improving. anyone ever hear of such a thing?

The Fortaz that was given is a combination of ceftazidime pentahydrate and sodium carbonate. The sterile water for injection used to dilute the Fortaz is usually a light saline solution that would also contain sodium. This would still be a fairly small amount of sodium. However, the fluid therapy solution is also a saline solution, and if this snake was given very much of this, the sodium levels in the blood work could easily be elevated. The other factor with the fluid therapy is that the saline content of the blood in mammals is slightly higher than in reptiles if I remember correctly. If the fliud therapy used was a support fluid for mammals, it would tend to temporarily raise the sodium levels in the blood of a reptile. Just a possibility you might look into.

Kelly