Reptile & Amphibian Forums

n/p

As prescribed by a vet, Amikacin works great from my experiences on D. alberts, Bloods, carpets and burmese. Balls would be no different. Also, Fortaz but is expensive. I like it better than Baytril which can cause scaring at the injection site. There are protocals to follow when using Amikacin since it does dehydrate the animal some.

Some years ago I treated a clutch of ball pythons with amikacin injections-as per the vet's orders. Most of the clutch subsequently died from kidney failure, and the rest were permanantly affected.

So long as your vet is more competant than mine was......you should be fine. Just be careful with it!

Best of luck to you and your snakes,
GratefulFred
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GratefulFred

Do you happen to remember what dosage your vet recommended at the time? A baby ball would not require much at all. I believe the initial dosage is 5mg/kg which is .1cc per kg(roughly 2.2 lbs I believe) Then 2.5mg/kg every 72 hours. This is the dosage I was instructed to use with the small animal amikacin(50mg/ml) I'm just thinking the recommended dosage wouldn't even be a drop for a hatchling ball. Well, just curious, I've never treated small snakes with amikacin so I have no experience to base dosing them. I'd imagine he overdosed them. If you remember, that would be interesting, if not, no big deal. Take care!

I have always had good luck with Amikacin. It is true that it can cause Kidney failure, so be careful. If your animal is nice and hydrated I would only soak on the day of injection, however, if your animal is dehydrated, injecting fluids, and soaking daily may be needed to ward off any Kidney damage. Again ask your vet and follow their instructions.
Jason
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My vet never mentioned anything about kidney failures, dehydration or any other potentially harmful side effects.

The snake had 6 injections 1 every 3 days and it worked well. She shows no signs of ill effects from the meds or the initial RI.
TomChambers

yes and its not to bad if you have someone else to help you hold the snake. just remember to give the shot in the upper[towards the head] 3rd of the body . also make sure you go under a scale not right into one.also make sure the needle has the opening facing towards you. it will sting the snake a bit and it may move and the needle will come out just reinsert it and finnish off the medicine good luck and email me if you have any more question. senecabear@msn.com

for the replies. I really appreciate it. The good news is that I caught the infection really early and my snake is a good weight and well hydrated. Hopefully this works well, this is my first experience with this medication.