royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Anthony Dennison — Thu, 14 May 2015 10:14:06 GMT

[quote user="Marie Kubiak"]Really? This has stopped happening in cat/dog practice? My exotics clients tend to consent to extensive work ups far more readily and earlier than my colleagues' domestic cases so it really isn't true that exotics owners are all cheap skates. Plus my reptiles cost far less than my cats to care for so your husbandry cost comment is also inaccurate.[/quote]

Apologies Marie, you are right. And it does still happen with cats and dogs, especially those that need specific care and therapy (huskies and collies that don't get exercised enough, brachycephalic dogs that get overweight and need BOAS surgery). Shouldn't be tarring all exotics owners with the same brush.

I guess my experience of reptiles is different to yours - the people who are clued up and know what they're doing with find a specialist to treat their animals.

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Deborah Anwyl — Thu, 14 May 2015 08:50:44 GMT

Thanks for the speedy replies and apologies for my dreadful typing in 30 seconds between consults!

Marie, this couple have rescued these snakes - they were living in glorified plastic boxes hence all the problems but we have worked hard to get the husbandry side of things right.

Catherine - I would use marbocyl too but I'm not allowed it - apparently the last bottle here went out of date! Ah well. I do always warn people about the risk of sterile abcesses.

I'm seeing him again this morning so keeping my fingers crossed that things are improving! Thanks for the advice.

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 13 May 2015 20:52:29 GMT

[quote user="Deborah Anwyl"]

We have been seeing several rescue pythons recently. all in a poor state. several have been treated for septicaemia and several have mouth and scale rot. They are all doing well barr one.

he is most of the way through a course of baytril injections. he is being bathed and the owner is using iodine and f10 ointment at home. his mouth has improved and the blisters and scale damage has improved but he is still showing petechial haemorrhages and these actually see to be getting worse.

[/quote]

Catherine has covered common things. What is current husbandry like? Blisters and multifocal infections suggest poor ventilation, excess humidity and poor hygiene and secondary pathogen invasion.

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]

Sorry I can't be of help for this specific case, but why does it always seem to be people with not much money that own animals needing specific (and often expensive) care and husbandry?!

[/quote]

Really? This has stopped happening in cat/dog practice? My exotics clients tend to consent to extensive work ups far more readily and earlier than my colleagues' domestic cases so it really isn't true that exotics owners are all cheap skates. Plus my reptiles cost far less than my cats to care for so your husbandry cost comment is also inaccurate.

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 13 May 2015 17:43:01 GMT

[quote user="Deborah Anwyl"]Hoping that some of you have some ideas on this.[/quote]

Not me I'm afraid, I'm just the moderator round here.

But I think you're the first person I've seen given one of our new 'newcomer badges' for people posting on vetsurgeon.org for the first time, and in the spirit in which the badges are intended, I'd like to wish you a very warm welcome

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

CatherineThomas — Wed, 13 May 2015 11:33:37 GMT

How long have you given the baytril for? Reptiles often need several weeks of antibiotics for even minor infections.

Baytril injections are actually really nasty, causing muscle necrosis and pain, particularly when given for long courses. So I don't tend to use baytril much. You could swap to marbocyl injections which don't have the same injection site problems. Dose is 10mg/kg every 48hrs.

If it's not responding to the flouroquinolones then you could do a culture of lesions or of blood. Blood samples are tricky in boids as their tail vein seems to be quite tricky to sample and your likely to struggle to get enough if you do get it.. So the recommended sample site is the heart.

If you can't do cultures then you could try swapping to fortum - ceftazidime. I find it tends to have good activity against most bacteria in reptiles and injections are much nicer than baytril. I get the 500mg vials make with 5mls of water for injection to get 100mg/ml and then use 20mg/kg every 72hrs. The bottle needs to be kept in the fridge and is ok to use for about 1 week so I'll usually get 3 injections out of one bottle.

Also have you thought about whether there could be an underlying viral problem - paramyxovirus or IBD are both possibilities. Definitely be careful very careful with hygiene if they have a collection of other snakes. PALS lab do swabs for PCR but IBD particularly has a low specificity and is best diagnosed at post mortem. So something to consider if one of them doesn't make it.

Re: royal python septicaemia/moutha dn scale rot

Anthony Dennison — Wed, 13 May 2015 09:53:09 GMT

[quote user="Deborah Anwyl"]its a young couple who have rescued these and financially they are a bit restricted.[/quote]

Sorry I can't be of help for this specific case, but why does it always seem to be people with not much money that own animals needing specific (and often expensive) care and husbandry?!