Can you get stuff delivered from Amazon? Antibiotics kill off good gut flora in addition to the bacteria that cause RI. I've found that NutriBac can help snakes recover afterward.

https://www.amazon.com/Nutribac-Diet...6243505&sr=8-1

Just checked up and they do say they can deliver Nutribac to Fiji (not everything can be), so I'll give it a try - although it can take anything from 3 days to 3 months to get here. I did have Reptaid on hand for a while but it must be pretty elderly (if I can even find it). Thanks for the idea.

HE ATE! :thumbsup:

I know we're not out of the woods yet, but last night he took 3 smallish pieces of chicken wing, slowly but voluntarily. I am VERY happy not to have had to force feed him. This morning he's lying flat, hopefully harnessing all his energy for digestion.

awesome news!

Thanks April. I'm just crossing all fingers and toes that this is a cure and not just a break in symptoms...

Researching around it seems he has had pneumonia, which can result in a glottal discharge as exudate moves from the lungs. He had none of the symptoms associated with an upper respiratory tract infection, which is what I see most commonly described as an RI. Now just hoping that it was bacterial in origin, properly sensitive to Baytril, and that he has no secondary infections. I guess I'll just have to wait and see (and also hope than none of the others develop the same thing).

Still no clue where he got it, although we did have them all out for an educational session with kids from a local conservation organisation about a month before he first started gaping and wheezing. We did have everyone using hand sanitiser, but kids are such a hothouse of colds and flu that I suppose it's not impossible.

I can't find any reference to humans transmitting diseases to reptiles, but I've seen Psuedomonas, Klebsiella, Aeromonas, E. coli, and Proteus species of bacteria listed as agents in reptile pneumonia. These families do exist in humans, just not sure of exact species.

Aaand... we're back on the rollercoaster. Today he was wheezing and gaping again. Once more, after another hour in the "sauna", he was pushing mucus out of his glottis. I managed to get some onto the swab I was given by the vet, so it's off for a culture tomorrow.

I'll post again as/when we get any result, I'm starting to feel like I'm jinxing the good news!

Fingers crossed the vet can find what strain it is and give you the correct antibiotics for you then Helen
Cheers rich


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Thanks Rich. It will take 2 - 3 weeks to get results, so I just have to hope he keeps eating and doesn't succumb by then. There's also no guarantee that we'll be able to get more advanced antibiotics in country even after that.

At the moment I'm pinning my hopes on native vigour and basic nursing. I'm going to keep giving him 30 minute steam baths and take him out every evening in the hopes of encouraging him to expel the mucus from his lungs, on the principle that in humans pneumonia is fatal mostly in sedentary invalids.

I've just read that it's possible that RI's may occur more in snakes kept in tubs than in those in larger enclosures, as those who move around more obviously use their lungs more. I don't think this has been proven, but it makes sense to me, and as he's currently in a smaller quarantine tub instead of his normal larger enclosure, I want to make him move around every day while we fight this.

He's survived this for 2 months, so he was obviously pretty strong to begin with, and I'm hoping this will continue to work in his favour. So far the other 4 seem fine, so I'm also concentrating on quarantine and enclosure sterilisation. What fun!

Well good luck Helen and keep up the hard work ,hopefully it will pay off


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I once had a newly acquired (shipped to me) ball python that had an infection of the glottis, but I returned him under guarantee so I don't know how or even if he was treated for that, much less whether it worked. Sorry.

One other thing occurs to me though: could it be some kind of parasitic worms? I know snakes can get lung worms. Have you ever (de-)wormed him? I've had a w/c snake with roundworms before. One word of caution: giving meds to deworm a snake can cause them all to die off & plug vital organs, resulting in death. (though if he can't breathe now, it's a slow death...ugh) but when I treated for worms, I used a somewhat low dosage, and repeated it several times...that was successful and NOT fatal to the snake. Just a thought?