Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I received a boa earlier this year and it arrived with a respiratory infection. Due to the pattern and genetics I decided to keep it instead of returning it to the seller. I took it to the vet and it was treated for a respiratory infection. 3 months later it was treated for yet another respiratory infection. Now 3 more months after the last treatment he is showing symptoms of yet another respiratory infection. I spent $1000 on the animal and am another $400 into vet bills on this animal. I have kept this snake in his own cage (instead of a rack) since he has been ill. He always has a clean cage and water. He has put on size since I've owned him and has eaten regularly. The cold side of his cage is set at 84 degrees. My intentions are to breed him but I'm not sure if he can recover from this. The female I have picked out for him won't be ready until next breeding season anyway. Should I cut my losses, euthanize the snake, and save the money to purchase a new animal? Or, should I take him to the vet one more time?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Anthony Viscuso

Maybe you can give him up for adoption to someone that's willing to put the time and money into the snake. You hate to see the poor thing euthanized. The fact that he's gained weight and eats regularly is a good sign. The temps appear to be good. Also, check to see if there is mold near or around the cage. Good luck with him.

I'd check my humidity ,I'm betting your humidity is too low.
Then I'd try tylosin and treat him with that.

No matter what people say about tylosin it works when other antibiotics do not.

Liquamyacin LA200 is another antibiotic that seems to work where others do not,
for what ever reason they work.

I don't argue with results . . . . results are what I want.

Its been quite some time since I've had to treat animal
with any persistent respiratory problem.

These meds I listed were helpful when I did.

Your Boa could have other serious untreatable problems, I do not
know what sort of tests your vet did.

There are 2 diseases I've read about that can affect Boids

IBD is one disease that affects Boids and can sometimes present
as persistent respiratory infections but usually wasting and
death occurs in most cases I've read about with in months.

The other disease that affects snakes and boid snakes also that is bad is " OPMV "

OPMV is a nasty problem ,I've actually only recently found out about this one.

. . . Lar M

I'll leave a link

OPMV

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

I wouldn't euthanize just yet. I only believe in euthanizing an animal if not doing so will cause it undue trauma, stress, and pain.

i had an altera years ago that went 4 years getting mild RIs about every 4 months. then out of nowhere he just stopped getting them and i had him 7 more years with zero problems. so don't give up just yet... especially if it's a 1000 dollar snake.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I am currently trying to get more information from the vet. There are no indications on the receipts of any cultures being performed. The most recent injections were enrofloxacin, they were prescribed in conjunction with nasal antibiotics (neo-poly-dex opthalmic solution).

The vet instructed me to heat his cage up to 88-90 and mist 2-3x's/day. If there's no improvement in one week I'll bring him in. This is one of my favorite boas and I don't think euthanasia is the answer. I would gladly, but regretfully, give him for adoption (that was a great suggestion).

I'll keep you posted...

Anthony-

You might consider using a nebuliser to administer antibiotics. I put the snake in a rubbermaid and cut a small hole for the nebuliser mouthpiece. It gets the antibiotic directly to the lungs. It has worked well in the past for me. My vet is an exotics specialist and has used this method for birds and some reptiles.

Stick with it and keep it warm and quarantined. A friend of mine works for a vet and insists on keeping his boids hot and dry when they get a respiratory problem. He says it helps dry out the mucus and keep the pathogens at a low level until the immune system can kick in. I am not sure about the dry but who knows. Seems to work for him.

If it were me I would want something more kick butt than baytril and stupid husbandry advice if this is a chronic issue. I would have hoped for cultures and different meds.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

There are three main reasons why a specific antibiotic treatment will fail with regards to a bacterial infection. The target bacterial species is resistant to the antibiotic being administered. The environmental conditions of the snake being treated are sub-optimal (temp, humidity, etc). Or, the dosage of that antibiotic is incorrect. My first concern is the temp regime that the boa is being kept under during the antibiotic treatment. All boids should be kept at around 90 F, with no cool area, 24/7 during any antibiotic treatment. Also, the corresponding humidity should be at a minimum in the 70% to 75% range. This keeps the lung tissue from drying and being further damaged, and also aids in the ability of any antibiotic used to more efficiently reach the infected lung tissue.

With bacterial resistance, obviously the proper class of antibiotic needs to be administered with regards to the target organism. The reoccurring characteristics of this RI would point to the possibility of an ineffective selection of antibiotic. Larry made a good point with the use of Tylosin. This antibiotic has been shown to be effective in treating long term chronic RI’s that are showing to be unresponsive to other antibiotic regimens. These infections were shown to many times be caused by bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma. Tylosin will usually work well only if the causative organism of the RI is Mycoplasma, otherwise it will usually be ineffective in resolving most other types of bacterial infections in reptiles. I feel in this case, due to this long-term reoccurring infection, that this would be a good next choice of antibiotic. Liquamyacin or Oxytetracycline, has also been used against Mycoplasma, but Tylosin appears to have a larger spectrum of activity over Mycoplasma sp. when used with reptiles.

Most RI’s in boids are caused by gram negative bacteria species and these typically require cephalosporin, fluoroquinolone, or aminoglycoside class antibiotics. These classes of antibiotics will be much more effective unless the RI is being caused by Mycoplasma. However, be aware that even if susceptibility testing for target organisms is conducted, the results are usually problematic as most of these bacterial species are present in healthy boids as well. If the Tylosin fails, a couple of other excellent antibiotics for RI in boids are ceftazidime or amikacin. Just be sure whichever one is used, be careful to maintain the proper environmental conditions for antibiotic treatment.

Kelly

great info, thank you! I have read some of your other posts Kelly and not only are they informative but they help me on my Pharmacology tests-cheers!