Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, I have Galileo and Darwin, 2 new sulcatas born in Oct 03. They have been blowing bubbles, sneezing, pumping there legs to breath, and wheezing. I took them to the vet and he gave me baytril (given orally) to stop the symptoms, but that was a week ago and they are getting worse, Im very worried. They are eating a little and there cage temps are 80-100 f. what should I do? they are drinking thou and there is 0% chance of draft. Im keeping the whole room around 85f (sucks for me thou). Please HELP!!!!

Grape

Hi
I would say if by monday morning, they are not better, you need to go back to the vet and start them on a second antibiotic along with the baytril such as amikacin. Amikacin hits a different spectrum of bacteria than baytril and the 2 together will work well. I have had to treat many a tortoise including sulcatas this way. Amikacin should be used as a last resort as it is hard on the kidneys. make sure the shots go in the front half of the body and fluids are given intracoelomicly (in the shell/body cavity) to protect the kidneys. Your vet may have another antibiotic in mind that would work well with the baytril. Keep the temp up and make sure they drink as much as possible. You can feed fruit that is full of water and wean them off it when the treatments are done. There is a chance that this is a virile infection, in which case the antibiotics are ineffective, they'll just have to depend on their immune system to fight it off. Good luck

I second that! They need to go back to the vet. Were radiographs done? I would really rec. them to see the level of pulmonary involvement in the infection. They may need to be nebulized with the antobiotics if it is pneumonia. If they are pumping their legs to breathe, they probably have a pretty nasty infection. I would not fool around with this. Get them back the the vet ASAP.
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Stacey

Are you keeping them together? I'd seperate them, make sure it's
not too stuffy where you're keeping them. Keeping them warm with
an available very warm basking temp is one thing, but keeping the
whole room that hot without ventilation might be too stuffy.
What substrate are you using? Remember some sulcatas react badly
to timothy hay also. If they were mine I'd keep them on paper
towels right now if I couldn't get the LifeMate kenaf plant
bedding. Anything else is just too dusty and will contribute to
their discomfort right now (aspen,care fresh, sand, shredded
newspaper). Are they drinking out of a bowl (the same bowl?).
My opinion ( unpopular ) is the keep baby sulcatas out of
water during the winter (maybe once every 2 weeks a quick
soak - not if they're sick though), keep water bowls with them
(something my larger sulcata does NOT have in his enclosure during
the winter), air out the house, check your bedding, and seperate
them (reduce your risk of losing both of them), offer them only
horrible foods to have them eating (bananas and squashes)something.
good luck with the vet also, niki