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 #1972842


Rv reptiles
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 Help with yellow anaconda

I just took in a sick yellow anaconda. it is very sick and they know it has an upper respitory infection. is there anything i can do until i take it to the vet tomorrow?



03/22/09  05:14pm

 #1972892


SoLA
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   Message To: Rv reptiles   In reference to Message Id: 1972842


 Help with yellow anaconda

No, there is nothing you should do. Just make sure the snake has a good thermogradient to move around comfortably and has a decent humidity level in the enclosure (not damp).

Do not go increasing heat. I am sure someone will say this, and it is not good advice unless your temps are really low right now. If it has a range from low/mid 70s to mid/high 80s to move around, you are doing everything perfect.



03/22/09  06:42pm

 #1972899


Rv reptiles
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   Message To: SoLA   In reference to Message Id: 1972892


 Help with yellow anaconda

Thanks. someone told me to increase the heat and keep it really dry. The guy bought 2 of them and the person he got them from was idiots. it was a male and female breeding pair. the female has died, i think a few days ago. my friend called me up b/c he was going to kill it today. my boyfriend works at petsmart and gets free visits with their vet, banfield. he asked if we wanted to try to save it. we was told it was just gasping for air. when we got him about 30 mintues before i posted this. he was moving around his cage and breathing fine. he is a little thin but they said he hasn’t ate in weeks. they haven’t even tried feeding him. he looks better then described. if he lives we get to keep him, thanks for your help.
03/22/09  06:50pm

 #1973183


Joog
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   Message To: Rv reptiles   In reference to Message Id: 1972899


 Help with yellow anaconda

When a snake is thin, they did-end feat hem for many month. Not weeks, a good healthy snake can do many months with out food. Good luck with the snake
03/23/09  06:07am

 #1973253


DJDeron
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   Message To: Joog   In reference to Message Id: 1973183


 Help with yellow anaconda

Raising the enclosure temperature some increases the ability of the snakes immune system and is always a good idea if they are sick. Not sure why anyone would recommend against it. We’re not talking baking them now, just raising the overall temps of the enclosure by a few degrees. With many snakes you do in fact want to dry them up some if they have an RI, but not with anacondas. Keep the humidity levels fairly high during treatment, around 75%. Your vet should prescribe an antibiotic, preferrably ceftazidime and not baytril. The antibiotics are usually administered by IM injection. As with humans, be sure to complete the entire treatment of medication.



03/23/09  11:01am

 #1973264


SoLA
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   Message To: DJDeron   In reference to Message Id: 1973253


 Help with yellow anaconda

Once the snake is on medication, increasing temps to the upper end of the preferred optimum temperature zones is fine. But this is only if they were not high to begin with. If the snake could only cool down to like 80F and has warm spots upwards of 90F...the snake is already bordering on high levels of stress, and that could have caused to RI in the first place.

Low temps do not cause RI (Pneumonia), long periods of stress on the immune system do. High temp could do the same, but results of death will usually be quicker with high temp.

Pneumonia is caused more by unsanitary conditions exposing to more pathogens and a defficiency in diet. But of course, all other issues that add stress do not help. Drying the cage out, or soaking it to keep a higher level of humidity...and by doing so, creates a nice breeding ground for bacteria....are examples of things I see done often to fix a problem they could not identify in the first place.

I advised not to raise temperature by even a slight amount because there is really no need until the snake sees the vet. If the snake is being kept in optimum conditions now, it is comfortable and in the least amount of stress you can shoot for. And it has the option to seek the warmer end of its temperature if it feels comfortable there. If the snake is there all the time, you might want to evaluate if there is enough temperature gradient.

Once the snake has seen the vet and is on medication, it has some additional things to work with there, and you do want to go toward the higher end of their preferred optimum temperature range. But still make sure there is enough of a gradient to give the snake choices. And example might be 75-80 on cool end, 88-90 on the warm...with all temps in between.



03/23/09  11:44am

 #1973749


DJDeron
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   Message To: SoLA   In reference to Message Id: 1973264


 Help with yellow anaconda

While I always try to respect the opinion of others, the above post does have a few contradictory statements in it. I agree with some points, not so much with others. I would advise readers to compare several sources of information before deciding on what steps to take should their animal appear to have an infection. I’m sure we can all agree that a suspected RI should be considered an urgent situation and the animal should be seen by an experienced reptile vet as soon as possible.



03/24/09  09:13am

 #1973816


SoLA
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   Message To: DJDeron   In reference to Message Id: 1973749


 Help with yellow anaconda

Thank you for being diplomatic where you disagree DJ lol. While I don’t see where the post had contradictions, I will always advise seeking other sources. Just make sure the sources are giving information that is based off something substantial...not advice like, "I have done it this way for 10 years and never had a problem."

A suspected RI should certainly be considered an urgent situation because by the time we usually see signs of a problem, it is toward the tip of the iceberg.

Book I suggest...

"Reptile Medicine and Surgery" by Dr. Mader second addition
03/24/09  12:14pm

 #1973831


DJDeron
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   Message To: SoLA   In reference to Message Id: 1973816


 Help with yellow anaconda

"Reptile Medicine and Surgery" by Dr. Mader second addition

+1, Good book.
03/24/09  01:00pm

 #1974176


SoLA
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   Message To: DJDeron   In reference to Message Id: 1973831


 Help with yellow anaconda

Im an idiot lol. Second Edition

I don’t know if the +1 was making fun of that idiotic mistake, but I will take it like a man lol.

Glad you agree on that book.

For the original poster, there is a great section on Pneumonia (Respiratory Infection).



03/24/09  10:36pm

 #1974300


DJDeron
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   Message To: SoLA   In reference to Message Id: 1974176


 Help with yellow anaconda

+1 is forum speak for I agree.

Just a side note to others who may be reading this post, pneumonia is a respiratory infection, but not all respiratory infections are pneumonia.
03/25/09  07:53am

 #1974353


SoLA
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   Message To: DJDeron   In reference to Message Id: 1974300


 Help with yellow anaconda

Yes. But what most people on forums describe as "RI," they are talking about pneumonia. There are many different types of pneumonia. At least they think.

Lung worms and other parasites infecting the lungs and trachea are a respiratory infection.

Mouth infections could technically be chalked up as a "Respiratory Infection," but this is stretching it. However, some of the symptoms of Stomatitis can mimic symptoms of pneumonia, and treatment would certainly be different.

The point kind of was that pneumonia, respiratory parasites like lung worms, and mouth infections (stomatitis) are not cured by heat. I believe it is only in the case of mycotic pneumonia where the infection is somewhat directly associated with low temperature to begin with because of the temperature needed for this type of fungal growth (very very uncommon in snakes by the way).

So offering your regular temperature ranges the snake can comfortably thermoregulate in is the best thing you can do until the issue is properly identified. From there, you might end up increasing heat while the snake is fighting the identified infection and is being medicated (only to the higher end of their preferred zone...like summer temps, not their winter).

But like DJ said, erring slightly toward the upper end of their normal ranges instead of the lower certainly can’t hurt. You just don’t want to be increasing temps if you were already in the upper end to begin with. This would cause added stress that harms the immune system.

DJ, the reason I was clear to say "Pneumonia" is because that would be the bigger of the two issues when comparing an infection in the lungs, compared to an infection in the mouth (stomatitis, sometimes called "mouth rot" which is also a term I kept clear of because people have a misleading idea of what this means too). And something like lung worms would need an entirely different approach. You would need surgery to actually remove the worms.

I attended a talk with Dr. Mader and he went over a lot of these things and was quite comical on why we need to get away from these generic terms like "RI" which could cover huge amount of things where treatment has little to no similarities.



03/25/09  10:20am


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