This is one thing that I'm very interested in discussing with my vet. Most of those vitamins serve to boost the immune system, which I feel could lead to more efficient healing. The only drawback I can think of is the food item itself - if the snake is a rodent eater, it seems pretty straight forward. I've never tried to inject anything into a f/t fish, but I doubt it would be as agreeable.
There is one area of vitamin addition with snakes that is often overlooked in the US side of the reptile keeping hobby and has only relatively recently begun to be studied in comparison of in situ versus in captivity and that is circulating levels of D3 and the metabolites of D3. Tests on several different reptiles in the wild have shown that if given the opportunity they will behaviorally modify their circulating levels of D3 and its metabolites through basking.
Ferguson, Gary W., et al. "Voluntary exposure of some western‐hemisphere snake and lizard species to ultraviolet‐B radiation in the field: how much ultraviolet‐B should a lizard or snake receive in captivity?." Zoo biology 29.3 (2010): 317-334.
Acierno, Mark J., et al. "Effects of ultraviolet radiation on plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 concentrations in corn snakes (Elaphe guttata)." American journal of veterinary research 69.2 (2008): 294-297.
Ramer, Jan C., et al. "Vitamin D status of wild Ricord's iguanas (Cyclura ricordii) and captive and wild rhinoceros iguanas (Cyclura cornuta cornuta) in the Dominican Republic." Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 36.2 (2005): 188-191.
Considering D3 solely as a vitamin really undersells its position in the metabolic process as it acts much more like a hormone and impacts multiple systems in the body. D3 is important in the proper function of the immune system so the ability of the snakes to regulate their levels of D3 can be an important resource for the animals to deal with immune threats.
Another vitamin that is important and overlooked is vitamin E (tocopherols) as the levels of vitamin E in the body are the result of what they consume in their diet and since both A and E are derived solely from the diet you need to watch the ratios of A
3:E in the diet as ratios out of the 10 to 1 to 0.1 can result in conditional deficiencies. Deficiencies in these vitamins can also cause issues such as immune function deficiencies but modifying them is best done through an analysis of the diet.
with respect to E see
Dierenfeld, Ellen S. "Vitamin E deficiency in zoo reptiles, birds, and ungulates." Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (1989): 3-11.
I've been looking for information on this and can't seem to find any - bleach seems to be the only rock-solid solution. Hopefully as more research is done we'll learn more. It may also help to see if there's any information on similar fungus spores and how those react to those (or any) alternatives.
Keep in mind that this pathogen was only recently separated out from the CANV (Chrysosporium anamorph of Nannizziopsis vriesii) which is one of the reasons if you search for SFD you only get much more recent articles as a real analysis has to also consider those prior articles where it diagnosed as the other closely related pathogen so disinfectants that work for CANV should work just fine for this species.
In the one article that specifically tested SFD and disinfectants, bleach, ETOH, and quaternary ammonium disinfectants all worked on them and if you don't want to use bleach quaternary ammonia disinfectants like Roccal-D should be fine.
here is a free access link to the above article (can't say for how long the link will work)
https://www.researchgate.net/public...a_the_Causative_Agent_of_Snake_Fungal_Disease
some comments
Ed
