Preliminary care for collected snakes

[SCReptiles]

I would like everyone’s opinion, but I am mainly wanting to hear from MsTT and Ray G. For snakes freshly collected, do you suggest any type blanket medical treatment such as antibiotics or parasite treatments

[Scales Zoo]

Cool topic!

Blanket treatment for parasites is not so bad in my opinion, but blanket treatment for bacterial infections with antibiotics is just wrong.

Resistance to antibiotics is a huge issue in my opinion, and I would always get a swab culture and sensitivity test, and decide apon an antibiotic treatment with the results in hand, with a veteranarian. Not doing so is a huge danger in the hobby I think!

Remember this 5 years from now when no one can treat simple pseudomonas infections because of simple baytril treatments being administered incorrectly. (Baytril isn't bad, but incorrect usage, like shotgun treatments is)

Ryan

[MsTT]

Baytril (enrofloxacin) is not the best choice of antibiotic treatment for venomous snakes in the absence of a culture and sensitivity test for two primary reasons.

1. The injectable form will cause sterile abscess at the standard concentration sold in the US, and it is a painful irritant. The injectable form may be given orally with similar effects.

2. Dosing interval for enrofloxacin is 24 hours. We prefer to minimize handling by making an antibiotic choice such as Ceftazidime (Fortaz) which may be given as a rapid painless injectable using a pole syringe. The dosing interval on Ceftaz is 72 hours.

As a general rule, it is better to verify that a bacterial infection is in fact the underlying cause of a snake's problem and to do a C&S to make sure you are using the right antibiotic. Realistically even veterinarians end up doing a lot of guessing. Many veterinarians have a reflexive response to a sick reptile - they inject it with Baytril, since they don't really know what else to do. This is not particularly good quality reptile medicine. Baytril is a good drug for snakes, an excellent one even, but it does have limitations and should not be handed out like candy without making any diagnostic efforts.

Ceftaz is generally a better "guess" choice than Baytril for venomous snakes, if you do make the decision to shotgun with an antibiotic. It is more expensive than Baytril and has storage issues, but snakebites and severely stressed snakes are even more expensive than Ceftaz so that's what we stick with. The best choice is always to do a C&S and find the correct drug to target the underlying problem, but this is not always an option for all patients.

If you have a group of snakes imported from the same area or kept in the same collection, it is a good idea to run a few representative fecal checks so you can identify the parasites you may be dealing with. This is inexpensive or free if you have your own basic microscope. You can run fecals with a sugar/salt floatation solution and a cheap toy microscope, or you can pay a vet $5 to $15 to run them. So there is not really an excuse not to do fecals, at least one or two out of a group of snakes from the same area or collection.

Diagnostics are always better than shotgun treatments. Some diagnostics aren't realistic or feasible (we don't have an ELISA for most snake viruses, for instance), but simple diagnostics like fecal exams are cheap and easy to do at home so there's not a lot of excuse not to do them.

Support antibiotics are not a bad thing for sick snakes, even if their underlying problem may not be bacterial. Opportunistic bacterial problems can worsen an immunodepressed animal's condition.

Do not assume that a respiratory infection is bacterial, especially in any snakes that are known to frequent wetter environments. Primary parasitical pneumonia should be suspected and tested for in any RI case especially in Bitis nasicornis and Atheris hispida. Check cottonmouths and other water dwellers for flukes on oral exam. A tracheal smear is a good diagnostic tool for Rhabdias and related lung parasites.

Viral and fungal problems should also be considered. A snake with a fungal infection treated only with antibiotics may actually have a poorer outcome than one that is not treated at all. Clinical presentation may not be of much help in determining whether the origin of a problem is viral, fungal or bacterial. Historically most diseases in snakes have been treated as if they were bacterial, but this is really not always the case and the differentials must be considered.

[MsTT]

To answer the original question specifically, this is the protocol I recommend for new arrivals.

1. Good quarantine protocols.

2. Get an accurate body weight before the animal is placed in the cage, and make a record card.

3. If they are apparently healthy, they have some time to settle into captivity. Leave them alone and let them settle. Take a few weeks to adjust their habitat and to offer food. Monitor daily to check for feces, and when you get some, run a fecal exam to identify the parasites they are carrying. Some parasites have self limiting life cycles in snakes and you do not need to address them. Others should be eliminated. Mark down what you identify in the animal's records and begin administering antiparasitical medications to the voluntary feeders in dead prey, as soon as you get them switched to dead prey. Continue doing fecals and dosing small prey items until you get clean results.

4. If the snake does not eat voluntarily within a few weeks, or if it is visibly sick or skinny, begin veterinary procedures immediately. Perform a fecal wash and a tracheal wash to identify any parasites. Give medication to eliminate the parasites, and a small assist feeding/hydration. Other diagnostic procedures may also be called for depending on the animal's condition.

5. Support antibiotics are indicated if a snake is heavily parasitized with potentially damaging organisms, like hookworms or lungworms. But if you don't have a specific medical reason to give antibiotics to a patient, don't do it. That's a pretty good guideline for any drugs including antiparasiticals.

6. Identify the problem and treat it with the drugs specifically indicated. Shotgunning can be acceptable if you have performed diagnostics on a few snakes in a large group from the same area or the same collection; this is known as "herd medicine" in veterinary lingo. But please keep in mind that diagnostics are good and passing out drugs like candy is bad, so do as much of the former and as little as the latter as you can manage.