Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male burmese python that is about 9 ft. long. He is exhibiting some kind of respiratory infection symptoms. I have taken him to a vet and they gave him 3 shots of baytril and 4 shots of amikacin. He still isn't getting any better, and also has refused food for almost 3 months!!! I have read about some parasites causing respiratory problems, but I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any insight to this problem??? Please let me know.

Thanx,
Russell Carpenter
carpera@auburn.edu

I recently acquired two 10-12ft albino burms with respiratory problems. I took them to the vet who cleared their mouth of any mucus (It was a yellowish color) and, with one of them, squirt water through his nostrils to push out a bunch more goop. My vet had/has (one no longer needs this) me give them a shot of fortaz every other day for a couple weeks. He also took some of the infection and grew it over a week to make sure that the medication was the right one. The stuff worked great. Both of these realy helped them.

A culture and sensitivity is indicated if not already done, as mentioned in the prior post. This will direct the vet to the best antibiotic for your snake's infection. With that said, I am impressed that the antibiotics already tried have not worked. This is either because the disease is more complicated (ie, the possible parasites you mentioned) or more likely to be a lack of proper husbandry. I say this as a generality, and not as a direct critism towards you. Either way, re-evaluate your snakes husbandry, including stress factors, temp's humidity ect. Go back to your vet and ask for any diagnostic tests that may have been previously offered. Blood work, culture, and X-rays are all important on RI's that won't go away.

Good luck with your burm

Russell,
Were the cage temperatures elevated during the antibiotic therapy and what were the dosages and frequency of injections with each of the antibiotics? Thanks,

Kelly

The temperature of the enclosure is kept at about 85-90 F with a heating pad on all the time, and a heat lamp on a timer. Usually the snake (Strangler) is in his hide box which puts him on the heating pad. Over the past 2 months he has been moving around like he is not comfortable and trying to get out of the cage. He is in pre-shed mode right now, so I've decided to wait until he sheds to take him back to the vet. I don't know the exact concentrations of baytril and amikaycin, but I think it is somewhere around 10 mg/kg for each. The Baytril was given 3 times, once every 4 days. The amikaycin was given 4 times every 72 hours.