Reptile & Amphibian Forums

PART 1of 3: Hi, I'll start this by saying that in the past 12 years, I've had about a half dozen Boas with respiratory Infections, who were treated with Baytril (injection), with very little desired effects. In this past breeding season, I had a pair that developed an RI after courting for around 6 weeks. -on a side note, I don't cool down my snakes to "cycle" them, and I keep the temps in the mid-80's (warmer -hot side, cooler -cool side).
I went to make an appt. with my vet, and I came to find out that she moved. So I went to another vet that was recomended, and of course, he gave me Baytril, and of coarse, I I saw no improvements. I found another vet that someone referred me to, who was very familiar with boas, and I told him about my past w/ Baytril. So we took a culture and sent it to the lab. It turns out that Baytril was the #1 recomendation for fightng this, BUT, instead of injecting the meds, he suggested renting a nebulizer, and having them breathe in the medicine to where the infection is. OH MAN, what a difference. The male wasn't very bad to begin with, but in about a week, he was showing no signs of being sick, and the female had taken a turn for the worst prior to trying this, but is definetely making a great comeback. She used to have gooey white/yellow mucus in her nostrils that would dry up and close over. And her breathing was loud and out of her mouth. Now after a couple of weeks, there is only a small amount of clear fluid in her nostrils,and only right after her daily treatment, and no sounds while breathing, and it seems to be getting better all of the time. I still treat her each day, and the male every 3 days to make sure there is no lingering bacteria that may come back.
This is part 1. -- Part 2 will show pics of the set up, and methods that I came up with. Don't you wish that you could get your sick Boas to blow their nose? Stay tuned.
-----
--aka DMOG68

PART 2 of 3
For those who don't know what a nebulizer is, it's a glorified air pump that acts as an inhailer , by pumping air thru a surgical tube, and into a small enclosed container, where it's mixed with the antibiotics to create a fog, then it goes thru a mouthpiece (which I removed). I hooked this up to a rubbermaid container to use as a holding tank for the snakes while they got the snot fogged out of them - literally. I'd put about 7-8cc's in, and that would last for about 20 minutes. Even when the meds were gone, I'd still leave them in the rubbermaid because there was still plenty of "fog" to inhale.
This pic shows me putting the meds in:

This pic shows it connecting to the rubbermaid - I taped the rest of the holes.

Here you can kinda see the "fog" blowing out, it doesn't take long to cloud it up.

Here's the male just getting put in.

I then put the whole container back into the cage. That keeps it warm, plus any of the meds that may seep out of the cracks in the lid will still stay in the cage.

WAIT, WAIT .... THERE'S A PART THEE, I MEAN THREE --almost done
-----
--aka DMOG68

PART 3 of 3:
After the nebulizer treatment, I open the lid and will see the nostrils look like they need to blow. How can I get them to blow there nose. I tried using a sringe (without the needle) to suck the snot out, but it really didn't do much. So I took the mouthpiece that I removed from the nebulizer, used electrical tape to form a small hole about the size of a straw, and then used more electrical tape to attach it to a half-sized shop vaccuum. I 1st tried it on myself to make sure I wasn't going to suck the lungs out of my boas, and it acted alot like the suction that's used in your mouth at the dentist . I hold her head, and place it up to each nostril. At 1st when she was in bad shape, you could see and hear lots of stuff coming out, now there's almost no need for it. Here's a pic.

I'm not good at putting long essays down, and having them be perfectly clear, and understandable, so I hope this makes sense to you guys and gals. I've been very happy with the obvious results that I've seen here. You can rent a nebulizer here for a month at a time from a medical supply store for $30/month (a dollar a day). I'm probably going to buy one now. Oh, I bought the whole bottle of medicine and they mixed it with saline to create a liters worth. I haven't even used 1/4 of that. Take care all, to yourselves, and your great, wonderful Boas.
-----
--aka DMOG68

I have had great success with Amikasin. I have only had to use it once, but it cleared up the infection right away. I gave my large male boa an injection every three days (I think it was three), without a problem.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear your boas are doing well now. Great innovation with the nebulizer!

about amakacin, and went in with the intention of coaxing the vet into choosing it. After the lab tests came back, there was a chart showing all of the known antibiotics being used on snakes, and the sucess percentages for the type of bacteria that was infecting my boas, and amakacin was half way down. Plus, I heard that it(Amakacin) can be hard on their kidneys.
-----
--aka DMOG68

I have also heard that it can be some what hard on the kidneys, so my vet (who informed me of this) suggested that the shots be administered in the upper third of the body. This is supposed to make it easier on the kidneys, which are in the lower third of the body.
I'm not sure how accurate this info is, but a vet that is experienced with boas informed me of this. Hopefully you or I won't ever have to deal with this problem again!
Best of luck,
Eric

.
-----
--aka DMOG68

who said that the latest studies out there show that Amikacin is effective on about 90% of all gram-negative bacteria(most reptile infections are gram negative).When giving Amikacin,you also do sq injections with saline or Ringers,do soaks and can also tube pedialyte.

Thanks for the nebulizer idea.That is some very useful info.

Thank you for sharing this with us all. If I have to deal with a Resp infection I will definetely give this a try.
-----
Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

I second that!!!

We have a gravid female here that seems to be stuck in a very dry shed. She does not appear to have a RI but her breathing is loud and through her mouth because her nose is dried over.

Just Saturday I was thinking the exact same thing, How do I get her to blow her nose!!! I also used a syringe with no needle and attempted to Suck it out... worked good on my hand but not so well on her nose when she was not sure what in the heck I was doing nor wanted to find out. I tried a few times.. and it never worked for me.

I like the idea of the mist - gets them the meds inside as well as may help her loosen the skin on the outside.

On another note for DRY SKIN - I just found out last night that a lotion exists for Boas Dry Skin!! Did you know this?? It is called Richs Reptile Lotion I think and you can get it directly from salmonboa.com I have 2 bottles on order now. I have yet to try it but I have good info from a very trusted source that this IS THE cure for dry skin. Not on a RI - but info just the same.

-----
Thanks
Shawn Morelan
www.SouthernBoids.com
_____

Signature file edited; [phw 9/26/04]

years and swears by it I luckly have not had to use it yet but will if I ever have to. I have also heard the thing about shooting the upper third of the body and that is how I always do it.

Nebulization is not new to herp medicine but is perhaps underused. It is interesting that the medication was not reaching the lungs when given injectably.

While I have read enough of your previous posts to have the opinion that you are a fairly reputable boa keeper, unless you are taking in alot of rescues, you should not be seeing the amount of RI's that you have mentioned with proper husbandry. Perhaps reassess the fine details of this, as I'm sure you have the simple temps and humidy down pat.

Happy to see that your boas are doing better