Reptile & Amphibian Forums

yesterday i noticed that my redfoot, junior, had a small (between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch) wound on the corner of his mouth. not wanting it to escalate into any kind of infection (it doesn't look infected at all at this point), i wanted to take him to a vet -- unfortunately, my old vet now works full time for the local zoo, so i went with an office they referred me to. the lady vet, whom i'd never seen before, supposedly was experienced in reptiles and seemed to ask me "all the right questions" about how i cared for him and such.

anyway, she considered the injury to be pretty superficial and gave me a salve to put on it every 12 hours and to call her back if it doesn't look better by thursday (probably get an antibiotic injection at that point).

she gave me a tube of gentamicin sulfate 3%, which is a preparation used for eye injuries in dogs and cats. anyone use this stuff before? kind of looks like neosporin.

I've used it as a first course of action in RNS (in eye drop form). It's been around for a long time but seems to have recently become popular.

I've been told that many vets are backing off the Baytril because it is so good and broad spectrum. They are saving that for when they really need it. This is in response to the aparent increase in resistance that is increasingly being noted.

The eyedrops work wonders in the RNS in every case where I used it.

>>yesterday i noticed that my redfoot, junior, had a small (between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch) wound on the corner of his mouth. not wanting it to escalate into any kind of infection (it doesn't look infected at all at this point), i wanted to take him to a vet -- unfortunately, my old vet now works full time for the local zoo, so i went with an office they referred me to. the lady vet, whom i'd never seen before, supposedly was experienced in reptiles and seemed to ask me "all the right questions" about how i cared for him and such.
>>
>>anyway, she considered the injury to be pretty superficial and gave me a salve to put on it every 12 hours and to call her back if it doesn't look better by thursday (probably get an antibiotic injection at that point).
>>
>>she gave me a tube of gentamicin sulfate 3%, which is a preparation used for eye injuries in dogs and cats. anyone use this stuff before? kind of looks like neosporin.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

I've never used it for a reptile but I once did use it for a frog's eye infection, it worked very well.
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PHRatz

i just wondered how common this kind of medication would be in the case of reptiles, since it was labelled for dogs and cats. good to hear that it's not unheard of -- i tried a little online research and saw references to its use in snakes and such, as well.

my boyfriend and i have been using it on him regularly -- i can't *quite* tell yet if it looks better, but it certainly doesn't look any worse. i will try and scrutinize him more later. poor baby! i hope we can avoid an injection, because that certainly will upset him!

In vet med, many drugs (perhaps the majority) are used "off-label". That is, they were developed for, and tested on a specific species; most often humans. Ever heard of amoxicillin, cephalexin, pennicillin, ect on a dog? It's nothing special, the same exact stuff found at the drugstore.

The same goes for reptiles. Very, very few drugs have actually been developed for use in reptiles. In fact, I've never heard of a drug used in reptiles that wasn't off-label.

What makes off-label safe is the written formularies done by ages of veterinarians who've used the drug previously and have documented results. These text books are nearly as good as FDA approval, and probably the equivelant in the vet world. There should have been a little blurb somewhere (verbal or in writing on the label) about this off-label use, but in drugs used so frequently and with lots of backing up data supporting it's use, this is often overlooked. If ever your DVM decides something a little more experiement, you'll be sure to receive an extended version of this blurb.

Now as for the wound, watching it heal is like watching water boil. And being a reptile, the pot is on low heat.

Ian

this morning i was noticing that it does look better already! yay, no return visit and no shot (hopefully)!

see, how i noticed it in the first place is that i was looking down on his head as i was holding him, and the edge of the wound was sticking out a little -- but it's smooth now! you really only see the whole thing when he opens his mouth. it's definitely still there but it's slowly getting better.

i'm so glad that i caught this early.