Any RI tips before her appt on Friday?

[kaylorin]

Does anyone have any ideas to help combat a respiratory infection besides upping the temps? My vet took an oncology internship in NH. Thursday was her last day. My appt with the vet she recommends is not until Friday (and it is now 3.5-4 hours away from me...). Saryn was on a sulfur based med and it did nothing. I tried reptaid - thought it was getting better, then it started getting worse. Took her back to the vet and she was on baytril for 2.5 weeks - was doing great till just past the 2 week mark - then she started getting worse again. Switched her to doxycycline right away, and she was doing great - at about 2.5 weeks, she has started getting worse again. The buggies seem to become resistant to current med after 2 weeks. She is fully hydrated - urates are soft and pure white. She is eating 5/8" roaches (5-7) each day. When the meds are doing good, she eats her greens well. Once she starts going downhill again - she hardly touches her greens. She gets 1cc of water with her meds every morning. Her temps are 84 cool side and 110-115 basking spot, but she spends most of her time under the ramp - which is about 105. She spends the nights in my closet in her bed. That's where I keep my roaches so it stays 83-87 all night. Humidity hangs around 35% - there is no water in her cage, so can't get that any lower. She has an Arcadia t5 fixture for her UVB, and it is only about 2 months old - about 12 inches from her basking spot. She gets her roaches dusted with calcium no d3 every day and herptivite once a week.

Does anyone know of any supplements or foods that might help fight the infection? I have heard of bee pollen, just not sure about dosing. If you need anymore information please, just ask. I just don't want to be back at square one by Friday =(

Saryn is a rescue that I bought from a kid here in town that was not taking care of her. He would not let me have her unless I gave him $100. I had to do it. When I walked in, she had sand with calcium on the floor of her tank. There was an aluminum shop fixture sitting on the sand, with a 6 watt cfl. It would reach 96 degrees on the surface of the bulb.... her uvb was a small tube that I am sure was several years old and over 20" away from her - so she had no uvb. She was getting a few dozen crickets every 2 weeks that he would dust (at least it had D3 - only reason she didn't have mbd). The rest of the time he fed her pieces of banana and potato - and an occasional orange peel....She had a little 4 inch dish that was about 3/4" deep for water. He never soaked her. I don't know how she wasn't in worse shape... The only thing that she is suffering from is this respiratory infection that we can not get rid of. She does have a fairly mild infestation of pinworms - but we were holding off treating that until she is over the RI. Did not want her on two harsh meds at the same time... Not sure if that is hindering anything or not?

I will post a picture of her when I figure that out =) Thank you so much for your help.

Kathy and Saryn

 

[AHBD]

Hi Kathy...I'm sorry to hear that Saryn is having R.I trouble. How big is she ? Will she eat more dubia if you offer them ? She could use more feeders. As far as the calcium supplement, you can use the type with D3 every other time, it's safe with the UVB bulb you are using. So what are her symptoms ? Are they mild or severe ? Is she struggling to breathe , any mucous from nose or mouth ? If her symptoms are mild, you might just let her recover for a while on her own. The excessive antibiotics might be damaging. That's just my thoughts. If you haven't used a probiotic [ to restore gut flora that is depleted by the meds. ] you might want to be giving her some Acidophiliz or Benebac. I hope that she recovers...thankfully she is eating + drinking. You might p.m. Drache613 about bee pollen. I think that natural, raw honey [ unpasteurized ] is good for human R.I.'s, so it may help your dragon as well.

 

[kaylorin]

Saryn is 2-3 years old and is 17.25". When I got her in Feb she was 15.75". I am not sure if she will eat anymore dubia - I kind of have to coax her to eat all of those, but she is a little overweight...the vet said to cut her down to 5/day and that was when she was 440 grams...she is about 470 grams now...She really is healthy other than the RI. She is still growing/shedding and gaining weight...Her tail base is nice and fat and squishy now

At the moment her RI is more moderate. It was moderate when we started the sulfur-based med, and it only got worse as it did not help at all. By the time we put her on the baytril it was severe enough that she was not comfortable putting her under sedation to get a culture sample. I am worried about the prolonged use of the antibiotics, but it gets worse, and they will continue to get more resistant to meds if we don't get it finished off. She has some mucous in the sides of her mouth occassionally. A week ago, there was none. I have not been using the probiotic yet, since the anti-biotics will just kill them off before doing her any good. I do have acidophiliz for when it will help to give them to her.

This is when I first got her in Feb. She was like 250 grams and dehydrated. She gained about 80 grams just from water over a period of a week.

Here she is about 2 months later. She had gained 110 grams and grew almost an inch.

I can't get a more current picture into my photobucket acct at the moment, but she looks about the same as the second one, just another 110 grams heavier and a little darker because of her not feeling well.

 

[Lauram63110]

Wow! I have no solutions for your RI problem, but the difference you made in her over a 2 month time frame is profound. Kudos to you for saving her! :headbang: :headbang:

 

[AHBD]

O.K., I didn't realize that she's a big girl already. I would try the raw honey diluted with warm water. It's a natural antibacterial/antibiotic. It's approved in several countries for humans as a wound dressing [ Google raw honey as medicine ] and also been tested on animals for the same thing. It's very promising as researcher have done studies on children with R.I's that have responded well to natural honey, better than the drugs they were on.

 

[kaylorin]

Well, the xray showed that the infection is mild at this point. So it wasn't getting worse as I feared - though the colloidal silver treatments could have something to do with that. He is very happy with how healthy she is otherwise. We are going to continue her antibiotics for another week, then take her off and see if it is gone, or if it returns. It could be a recurring infection from her previous mbd bout (only know this from xrays - she shows no sign of mbd now). She does have arthritis on both knees and her left ankle - that explains her stiff walking.

Hoping that it clears up completely and that she gets a clean bill of health soon =)

 

[Esther19]

Hi! Glad to hear that the infection is not worsening. Have you tried serrapeptase for her joints? It is supposed to help. I give it to my girl. I get it at http://www.bug-de-lite.com/index.html.

 

[kaylorin]

Thanks, I will try that once all this other is cleared up. I have added acidophiliz and colloidal silver along with her meds, and she hasn't been eating as well this week. Going to let her tummy clear up a bit before adding anything new. But will definitely be getting that =)

 

[kaylorin]

Update on Saryn: After 6 weeks straight of antibiotics for a RI, we now think the shelf liner I had for the beardies' cages were off-gassing causing respiratory issues - but not an infection. I think the first 2 weeks of baytril took care of the RI - the other 4 weeks were not actually needed. We have run 2 sets of bloodwork - everything looks good, except for her calcium. It is off the charts high - normal is 3-4 and hers is 16.7..usually indicates cancer or kidney failure - but neither of the other values that would back up either diagnosis is there. It might have something to do with the anti-coagulant in the tube they use. So, she will have to get one more blood test. But, the good news - her sleeping and not eating is definitely due to brumation. I finally left her alone all week, and she has good color and is not dropping any weight =) I am beginning to have hope that she will make it. Thank you again everyone and especially Tracy for your help =)

 

[Valerie]

So you got rid of the shelve liner and her uri is gone?
I am so glad she is doing better.

 

[kaylorin]

I think the baytril took care of the RI, but she was still having symptoms of an infection, but there was no infection. Getting rid of the liner, took care of those symptoms. When we did bloodwork, that told us there was no infection. Vet bills are expensive, but so worth it.

 

[Valerie]

I may have to try that. My bd is getting over a uri and I want to be sure she dors not suffer anymore.
Wonder why the liner would cause these symptoms?

 

[kaylorin]

Mine was Duck brand (that is all our walmart carries) and it has an antimicrobial agent. The doctor and I are figuring it was off-gassing causing breathing problems.

 

[Valerie]

That is so interesting. Maybe we should start a post asking others how many dealt with shelve liner problems and did not even know it.. I wonder if certain bds have an allergic react
ion to shelve liners.

 

[kaylorin]

Both of mine were showing respiratory issues, and cleared up after taking it out. My vet is actually compiling a list of things - he is trying to learn more. He asked me to get what they use, so that he can add it. I just need to go to walmart to get the upc and call them... when I bought it, I had a feeling I shouldn't use it...