Okay! So he *finally* pooped yesterday. Today we picked up Panacur, which will be given 3.5 of a large syringe for 3 days, then a break for two weeks, then another 3 days. The poop was also dropped off, so now we can figure out what parasites we're dealing with. The vet is currently working on getting us another medication which wasn't specified just yet; I'm guessing an antibiotic. It is on order from the States as Canada doesn't have it currently. We will be inquiring about acidophiliz+ or another type of replenishing gut flora medication after the Panacur. She suggested giving the straight dose for now just to get it through him. Overall, this is just kind of odd. The only way we can think of him getting parasites is through one of his rats. He is kept in a completely separate room from any of our other animals, and no one has access to him except my boyfriend and I. We have not taken him out much due to his condition other than to bathe him/clean his terrarium. Thanks for the help. I will continue to post just to help other people that may go through something like this.
Oh yeah...any suggestions for force-feeding the medication to him? Can we put it in a mouse and let him digest it?
Please keep on posting it will help many others as the results come through. Regards parasites, most reps do have some in their gut all the time but they can control the numbers by dumping the eggs in their feaces, this is normal. When a snake becomes ill, like yours, it's system is messed up and the natural balance goes off, hence the increase in parasites. It wont have got them from you or any other rep in house, so dont worry. Yes you can put the meds into a mouse, it's a good way, less stress for him. Lets hope he's hungry when meds are due...lol At least you are getting there slowly and hope it resolves soon. Thank you for the update.
Well, we had absolutely no success putting the medication in his mouth (I posted that question after we had attempted). I did look up a video online, but it was using a 1cc syringe, and I have a 10cc syringe for him. Luckily, I am undergoing immunotherapy which requires weekly needles. So, with that, we have on-hand sanitary medical grade needles! They of course fit on the syringe the vet gave us, and so we thawed a mouse (not a rat), and injected the 3.5 into the mouses belly. It went in quite nicely and Dagger took it no problem. One dose down, two more to go! I just hope he will take a mouse today and tomorrow as well.
Hi again everyone! It's a week later now and we're still treating Dagger. The vet gave us "Ultimate" - which is actually an avian product. It is kind of a hand-feeding formula for birds, includes a ton of good probiotics as well as vitamins. We feed him 1/2 tsp. once a day for a week, then 1/4 tsp. once a day for another week, until we finish treatment. We have him on Ziflomax, which is a respiratory antibiotic. We give him 1.7 mL once every 3 days. Panacur we start back up again next Monday, for three days. On top of the above, we take Dagger in to the vet three times per week (Mon, Wed, Fri), to get nebulization (inhilation) treatment with another antibiotic, Gyrax (I think - will have to look up). He also gets an IV saline solution for this to avoid damage to his kidneys. For the Panacur we can easily inject the amount into adult mice to feed him. He takes him readily. We have not fed him a large rat since treatment began (he ate approximately 3 weeks ago), and we do not intend to feed him a large rat until we are completely done to ensure he'll take the medicine loaded mice. Unfortunately since the Ultimate is a powder form, it is much too thick to insert into a mouse. Because of the amount of water we have to use to mix it (usually about 5 mL), the actual volume of it won't fit inside an adult mouse. So, instead, we get to put a syringe down his throat. It sounds terrible but is actually easy when he cooperates in relaxing a little bit. He has gotten used to the routine. Now all we can do is hope. The vet says that the fecal was completely negative for everything. While that is great news, it means we still don't know what is causing his pneumonia. If these treatments do not work, we will need to look into things such as tumors. So just a short update. He's doing well but we're all pretty stressed out. Dagger is an incredibly brave snakey. Throughout everything - poking, prodding, injections every couple days, shoving things down his throat, the worst he's done is hissed at us. Never once has he gone to strike. We truly lucked out with a gem of a Boa, and hope we can keep him for many more years to come.
Yep for many oral medication you cna inject a dead mouse and let the snake just eat it. As for infecting in to the mouth via oral syrenge, are you uesing a tube to get the medivation past the trechea junction of the stomach and lungs? You really do not want any medication ending up in the snakes lungs.
I really feel for you good people and snakey. He obviously has complete trust in you to allow all this prodding and poking etc. Just curious, if vet says fecal was clear, why continue with the Panacur, it doesn't do anything else except clear parasites. Would be one less thing to inflict on Dagger. Will be a blessing when you get to the root cause of the problem, trying to diagnose rep probs is extremely difficult as you now appreciate. Hope to hear some better news soon.
Hi tiery, Dagger does have RI, namely pnuemonia, whether it was caused by parasites travelling round body in blood, tests indicate it may be, hence the Panacur, just in case or whether it is caused by something else, this is yet to be established. It's obviously very deep seated and is yet to respond to treatment so far. Other than that he is very lively and eating OK from what has been said. Hope this answers your questions.
pneumonia, i think thats what come from the mushroom right?? i really really dont understand medicines (especially for snakes) so sorry hope dagger got alright!
Pneumonia is a respiratory (lung) condition. It can be caused by stresses and/or bactiera. Just a short update on Dagger. We're just over halfway through our nebulization treatments at the vet. His wheezing has greatly decreased, but we're not out of the woods yet. It is easier to get his vitamins in him now - he was shedding for awhile so we had to do the whole syringe down the throat deal. As a result, he's had a bad shed, but we've easily taken care of that with moist pillowcases and baths. So - it continues on. We're still supplementing daily with "Ultimate" avian formula, and we have probably one or two doses of Zithromax (children's antibiotic). Thanks for all the well wishes and stuff, things are getting easier, we just hope that we won't have to nebulize for too long. Between full time work and evening schooling, timing is a bit stressful.
