Odd swelling in BP's mouth?!?

[Shadrach]

Not really baytril is hard on the kidneys of reptiles in general the less it has to actually be on it the better off for the animal.

[JuliusSqueezer]

How does she have an 82 degree cool side if the ambient room temp is 90? If the room is 90 and she's got any heat at all in that cage, she's being cooked to death. Ball pythons don't need a 90 degree basking spot anyway. It's important to study not only the habitat that they naturally occur in but their habits in these places. Ball pythons live their days in cool underground burrows in Africa and avoid the heat. They come out and hunt in the cool of the night. Duplicating the outside temps for ball pythons in Africa is akin to the problems people had trying to keep tree boas alive when they first hit the pet trade. The temps in these regions may be high but underground or up in trees where these animals actually live, it is quite cool. I have kept my bakll pythons for years with an 83-85 degree hot spot and as cool as a cool side as I could manage and have never had a ball python die from anything other than old age. I've never even personally seen one with an RI.

Also, NO...keeping him on baytril for an extended period (past 4 injections) is not a good idea unless renal kidney failure is your goal. It dehydrates severely. I have heard so many conflicting dosages and uses of baytril given out by various vets that seem to be stabbing at the dark...a couple of years ago, I got fed up and contacted the manufacturer (Bayer corp) Because I am not a vet, I couldn't get anything official on how to properly use it. It isn't even really made for reptiles and there is no "official" protocol. I got passed around, blown off, kept calling back until I finally stumbled into someone there that keeps reptiles that was reluctant to help but did anyway. Because of his inside knowledge and clinical understanding of the drug and because he is a fellow herper, I trust his advice well above any vet's. He said it is important to give an initial "booster" dose of 10mg/kg followed by 3 doses at 5mg/kg every 48 hours. There was a lot of explination of half life and drug metobolism but I don't remember all of that enough to explain it...just that it needs to be given every 48 hours...why is not important. Baytril comes in 2 strengths. 22.7mg and 100 mg. What you get from your vet is the 22.7. The 100mg stuff is made for large livestock like horses...but if you can get it, it's great for giant pythons. But no puppydog vet will have it and many don't even know it exists. To figure the proper dosage for your animal, you first need to weigh it. Let's say your snake weighs 800 grams or .8kg. To get 10mg per kg, you multiply .8 x 10 =8 So your dosage is 8mg. It comes 22.7mg per cc though so now you divide 8 by 22.7 and get .35mg. That's how much liquid you draw up and shoot into your snake for that first shot and then half that much for the next 3. The reason I'm telling you this is so you can double check what your vet has prescribed. If it's anything other than that, question it and possibly find a new vet but don't kill your snake because some vet is trying to wing his way through herp medicine...They do NOT teach this stuff at Vet school. Herp medicine is a side interest to a hand full of vets that have to self study and is mostly learned and taught to them by trial and error from hobbyists...scarey huh? Most puppy dog vets spend all of a half hour of their 8-10 years of college studying exotics. Most of it is dedicated to their bread and butter work, dogs and cats.

[ball python chick]

i agree.i treat alot of rescues for ri using most of the time baytril.i have never had a vet say 3 weeks of treatment.10 day oral treatments is the longest ive ever gave.(i dont like needles).please take julius squeezers advise.nothing is worth the life of your animal.its funny when i take an animal to the vet i normally know whats wrong with it before i take it in but need the prescription so have to go in to get it.ive finally found an awesome reptile vet.when i go through that door the first thing he asks me is what im noticing isnt right.its worth the time and money to drive forever and pay whatever to get it treated right the first time.any vet should be willing to consult with another vet to find the problom without extra money.you would think he being responsible for the treatment of your animal would be willing to seek another opinon to diagnose and treat your snake correctly.if our own doctors had any question about a problom we had before diagnosing they would consult another doctor.im sorry,but it doesnt sound to me like that vet should be treating reptiles of any kind.

	Respiratory Infection Respiratory Infection

[Adrya]

I'm sorry, I should've explained the temps better. Normally the ambient temp is 80 degrees in here in the room but during the peak of the day from about 2pm until 7:30 it goes up to 90 degrees, sometimes 94 (it's been really hot these past three weeks, usually outside temp and room temp is 80-87 at hot peak of the day), so normally the cool side of the enclosure is 78-81 and the warm side is 88-90. When it gets really hot in here up to 90-94, I have a fan sucking in cooler air from outside in the window that faces the shady/river side. I don't have any lights or anything on her enclosure or any of my other ball pythons' enclosures, just heat tape on one end, and any other lights that I do have on with other reptile enclosures, they get turned off 30 minutes before the hot period of the day. Sorry if I was unclear about that and hope that makes more sense.

I'll take your word about the Baytril, I didn't know it had such side effects on the kidneys and such! The first dosage she got the day before yesterday was .35mg and she's due today for another shot. I'm home by myself until 6pm and it's more of a two-person job with her.

How long did it take for the same sort of swelling to go away with your snake, BW? And how many more doses should I give her, 3 or 4?

I will admit I'm still learning this stuff and I am very greatful that I've found this site. This is the first time I've had to use any kind of medication with one of my snakes, and I don't intend to hurt her out of a mistake of misusing the baytril.

Thank you.

[Adrya]

Also, is cutting the .35mg in half effective enough? So that would be what...

[Adrya]

reply...?

[JuliusSqueezer]

Your snake is a cold blooded animal. this means it's body temp changes with the temps of it's surroundings. I know you probably know this but when your room peaks out at 94, your snake's brain is cooking. That's like you running a 105 fever. You really need to find a way to regulate that room temp better. A fan blowing in the room doesn't do much inside a heated plastic tote where the circulation isn't going through.