Meeko prescribed gentocin in a mist diffuser???????

Hi my sweet 4 year old boy named meeko has a respiratory infection this is his 2nd. In April he got one and the vet treated him until he stopped "coughing" but I kept taking him back because he doesn't use one of his lungs barely at all like it doesn't work. Vet won't listen and then a 2 weeks ago he was showing sighs of respiratory problems and I took him back and was told he was fine. Then this Monday he started makin that sound and had bubbles in his throat rushed him to the vet. Vet said he was fine just shedding and that if I was still worried in a couple day we could try a lil antibiotic. So now your caught up meeko was given gentocin to mix with 10ml of saline in a mist diffuser for 5 days. My question is will this work? WHAT TYPE OF SALINE DO I NEED? Vet gave no explanation or any saline please help he need meds asap!!!!

1) sack that vet .... find a better one who actually knows what he's talking about.

2) why saline in a nebulizing solution ? I'd think distilled water would be better.

3) ask new vet about using F10 to
a) sterilize his viv (so he's not always reinfecting himself)
b) to nebulise him for his RI. See viewtopic.php?f=45&t=232783

Do you think I can use distilled water instead??

Hello,

You can use a sterile saline solution in the nebulizer. It doesn't have to be F10. Sterile saline has been used for years successfully. Distilled water is fine, as well. You can find a sterile saline solution at CVS or any drug store & distilled water at the grocery store.
I am glad he prescribed the gentocin, that is a very good antibiotic.
Be sure to keep her warm in her tank, around 80, overnight to help when she isn't feeling well.
Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie

hmc2015":atxvuqy2 said:

Do you think I can use distilled water instead??

Click to expand...

Yes .

Saline is just sterile salty water (about the same NaCl concentration as found in blood and tears approx. 0.9% NaCl by weight).

The salt in the water will increase the boiling point , but at such a dilute concentration of NaCl you are unlikely to find the BP will be raised by a measureable amount so no benefit using it if you have sterile distilled water on hand (all pharmacists will carry bottles of it) and a huge range bottles of saline many with additives for different "uses".

I've done numerous nebulizer treatments on my birds for upper respiratory infections, I even built a custom treatment tank that the bird/beardie goes in out of a plastic tub that the nebulizer feeds into. In my personal opinion, if a beardie, bird, etc. has an upper respiratory infection, the most efficient and effective way to deliver antibiotics to them is by nebulizer. It's far more effective than oral antibiotics, and every time I've given them a nebulizer treatment using antibiotics they seem to really feel much better within 24 hours. So it's wonderful that the vet suggested this treatment to you. Using F10 in a nebulizer is a fairly new way of treating respiratory infections, but so far has shown to be very effective.

As far as preparing the antibiotics, there are a few different ways you can make up the solutions for the nebulizer. Sometimes the vet or pharmacist will actually dilute the already liquid antibiotic to the correct concentration and you can just put the antibiotics directly into the nebulizer, sometimes the vet or pharmacist will prepare a solution that is ready to use out of powder antibiotics or they will actually make powder out of antibiotic pills and then prepare the solution. In all of these cases you need not dilute, you just put the pre-prepared solution into the nebulizer, so you always want to make sure that you have to dilute what you've been given and that it it wasn't already done. If you need to dilute the liquid antibiotics you have, you can use any number of things to do so. I've used distilled water, sterile saline, sterile water, and even carrier oils in some situations, depending on what antibiotic you're using. For Gentomycin you can use either distilled water, sterile water, or sterile saline, any of these will work fine and be safe for your beardie to breathe in. You can buy all 3 at any drugstore or even at Walmart, I believe the last bottles of sterile water and sterile saline I bought were purchased at Walmart because I saved some money that way, CVS is ridiculously expensive for everything, I can't believe they're still open, and Rite Aid isn't bad, but Walmart always beats them (I hate shopping at Walmart, I really do to the point I feel guilty, but since I went through cancer and was off work for a year and a half I have been trying to rebuild my savings). If you go to Walmart the sterile saline and sterile water are in the medical supplies aisle in little bottles near the rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. The distilled water is with the soda and spring water, and the advantage to using distilled water is that you can buy a gallon of it there for $0.88, versus $5 for small bottles of sterile water or sterile saline...

How are you delivering the treatments to your beardie? I guess what I'm asking is #1 are you actually using a nebulizer or just an oil room diffuser, and #2 are you putting him inside of anything that will trap the vapor in and allow him to breathe it fully? Obviously you can't really put a nebulizer mask on a beardie or a bird, or make them put their face down into a nebulizer breathing apparatus, and especially if you're using a little room diffuser you'll need to make sure that your beardie is breathing in as much of the antibiotic vapor as he can, as this really does work very well, but the vapor needs to be delivered directly into the tissue of his respiratory system. I've seen some people hold their beardies over top of a room diffuser directly over the vapor, which would work to a point, but it just seems to me that most of the medicine is escaping that way.

What I did with my male beardie is bought a plastic Rubbermaid or Sterlite container/tub at Walmart, not a massive one but one large enough for him to feel comfortable in, like a medium sized cube with a lid, the same size used as rearing tubs for babies. I think I got my last rearing tubs at Walmart for $7. Then if you're using a room diffuser it's quite easy, you just place the diffuser inside of the tub with your beardie, and then as far as the lid goes (I tried this several ways) I just placed it loosely, not clicked down on top but rather just tested it on top of the tub, and I found that just putting the lid over the tub sideways so that half the top was covered and half was open, and putting the diffuser under the covered side and my beardie on the open side facing the diffuser worked extremely well. He had proper ventilation, but he would be constantly breathing in the vapor that collected on the covered side before it escaped. He actually seemed to enjoy it (as opposed to my parrot), he just sat there and seemed to relax. And using the plastic rearing tub with the lid covering half the tub really worked extremely well to ensure my beardie was directly breathing in the vapor before it dissipated out of the open half of the tub. This is really very important, as I don't think it would be near as effective or as efficient if you just sat your beardie next to a diffuser in an open room. You can even put the diffuser inside his enclosure as long as it has a screen or mesh lid.

Just as an FYI, don't be alarmed if during or directly after each nebulizer treatment your beardie starts coughing and wheezing a lot, my beardie did this every time he had a treatment, and so do my birds. It stops shortly after the treatment is done, and it's normal for the warm vapor to loosen things up in their bronchials, and also, depending on the antibiotic being used, the medication can sometimes cause their bronchials to constrict, which can cause wheezing. It's normal, so don't freak out.

In all seriousness, I'm a huge believer in nebulizer treatments using antibiotics to treat both animals and humans, and every time I've given my parrots a treatment and the 2 weeks I gave my beardie daily treatments I saw marked improvement in their breathing and in their lethargy within 24 hours. Within a week of doing daily treatments most all of their coughing, wheezing is gone, as was most of the mucous in my beardie's mouth. I'm pretty sure I did the treatments to my beardie every day for 2-3 weeks, I don't remember exactly as it was 5-6 years ago, but I also didn't use Gentomycin, but rather Tylosin. So follow whatever dosing instructions your vet gave you for the Gentomycin.

Good luck, and if you have any questions at all just ask, I know Tracie is very familiar with antibiotic nebulizer treatments as well.

I hate to be that guy to hijack a page, but this is along the same subject but would be stupid to create my own topic on, due to being the wrong species, see below.

My chameleon was diagnosed with a minor upper respiratory infection yesterday and was prescribed .04ml clindamycin, orally, twice a day for a week. She is just a baby.
How would one go about setting up a nebulizer? I again apologize for hijacking the post, but I feel stupid making a post on a beardie forum about a chameleon, and the chameleon board, while super informative, I just feel better asking about this information here if that makes sense...

I agree, no reason to put this info into a separate post since it can help everyone looking into nebulizer treatments.

So I'm assuming he was given liquid Clindamycin to be given orally twice daily, or is it in powder or pill form? It sounds like it's liquid, and I'm assuming that they already prepared it to be the correct concentration for his weight, so all you have to do is measure out .04ml of the liquid and give it to him orally? If so, then you can easily use the liquid in a nebulizer for him. I use liquid Tylosin often, it's in a liquid form that is available in in two different concentrations, and I have to figure out the dosing from the concentration. You don't have to do this. The question is with nebulizing Clindamycin, is it necessary to dilute the already measured doses with distilled water or sterile saline...I don't know the answer to that, as I've never used Clindamycin, but I bet Tracie will know. When using the Tylosin I just put the properly measured dose in the nebulizer and directly vape it into the container without diluting it, it works great. I would assume that you can do the same with the Clindamycin, as long as what they gave you is liquid, and it's already prepared in the correct concentration for your chameleon, meaning you can just measure out .04ml of the liquid and give it to him. But you want to make sure of that, and also some medications actually work better in the nebulizer if you add an amount of additional carrie r liquid, I.e. distilled water. I'm sure Tracie will know.

Do you already have a nebulizer or a liquid room diffuser? They both work the same way, nebulizers are typically more powerful and you can usually set the rate at which the vapor comes out, etc. A room diffuser just has low and high settings typically, and it just emits the vapor without the use of a delivery tube, mask, etc. Like I said above, I put my parrots or my beardie into a plastic tub, like a rearing tub, and cover half the container up, then put the diffuser inside the tub, under the covered half of the tub, and then turn it on with my beardie on the other side of the container that isn't covered. I just let the nebulizer go until the measured dose of antibiotic was all dissipated. With my parrots I use an actual nebulizer that I bought on Amazon that has a delivery tube, which I built a custom tub for, running the tube through the side of the plastic tub and covering the tub completely. Either way the end result is the same, and the little room diffusers work extremely well for beardies as long as you use a covered tub to trap the vapor. You can buy the diffusers at Walmart (in the vitamin and essential oils aisle), and I know Bed, Bath, and Beyond has multiple different diffusers ranging in price.

I have no form of a nebulizer/difuser at all. The prescription is liquid, already diluted so I measure out .04 and administer it orally. She has only had 2 doses so far as she was just seen yesterday evening.

I've personally used a nebulizer (asthmatic) but it was at hospitals, and I do not own anything to convert the medication into a breathable mist. I'm sure I could google nebulizers to buy, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with one and would hate to just wing it, so suggestions and links would be extremely helpful. Maybe even pics of the setup you're referring to ><

I'm sure I'd be ok administering orally, but this thought arose before her vet visit as I do keep F10 as well and heard about that as a nebulizer, but I don't even know where to start. I figured as long as the discussion was already going I may as well ask, hence the hijacking.