Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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I thought RI was caused by low heat and high humidity. and was treated by increasing the heat in the viv. Correct me if i am wrong as i am new to amazons myself.

That is usualy the case with RIs. I had that problem with my ball python, the lady that I got her from had her at a really low temp so she had to get antibiotic shots (whick she loved!) and I bumped the temp up. I keep my amazon pretty toasty, it just dries out quickly. She has been caughing a little bit so I was wondering if raising the humidity would make a difference. I went ahead and made an appt. with the vet anyway. My main worry is that it could be lung flukes but I doubt that. Aren't amazons great though??!! They are worth the trouble

It seems to me, through 10 years of working with Amazons, that humidity is more of a problem than temp. Eves. of 75 degrees up and days of 80 degrees up, especially with a heat spot, work fine. However, unless you come up with a long term plan for getting the humidity up there (30-50% is low, I would suggest 30-80% range with 80% periodically met through misting, mist makers, etc.), I think you will eventually have RI. Generally 3 shots of amikacin (avail. from vet), one every few days (vet can tell you how often) will cure the RI, but if you don't solve the humidity problem, it will come back. Higher temps are suspected of raising the activity of the immune system to fight RI, so it can be used as a preventative or maybe even a cure in very minor cases.
You might want to set up your home page to reflect weather conditions in Paramaribo, Suriname, Georgetown, Guyana, or some other city in NE South America if you have this capability. Or you can just call up a weather website and check the conditions to see what your critter would probably be experiencing in the wild.
Al Winstel

Thanks for the info. I made an appt with the vet recently. I like the guy but he is sooooooooooo expensive, my snakes are worth it though. I have been doing some more research on my atb, trying to figgure out exactly where she might be from. It is not easy but I am gradualy getting more and more info. Thanks for your advice! What do you use as a substrate?

Thanks