CruelBenevolence
Member
Hello all,
My little Aerogore had an upper respiratory infection the end of last month (April) and I started treating him with Baytril 2.5%, 0.20mL every night before bed (at least 2 hours after food/supplements) for 10 days. After 1 week, he started to show improvement in his breathing and color. After the 10th day, he was good for about a week, but the last three days or so I noticed he is starting to breathe heavy again, and fluff out his beard making that weird gargling sound. The saliva came back. His stress lines came back and his beard went dark. So his upper respiratory infection obviously relapsed.
My issue is, he has only been off of the Baytril for like 14 days, and I know Baytril, like any antibiotics, tend to be pretty stressful on the system. Obviously, I have to treat the RI, but I am hesitant about giving him another round of Baytril so soon.
I basically put him on "bed rest" status, just like I did in April when I noticed he wasn't looking well before I started the Baytril.
I have been giving him a supplement called Reptaid which supposedly gives the immune system a boost.
I raised his temperatures a few degrees, so now we are flirting with 107-110F on the basking site, and about 78-80F on the cool side.
I also raised his heat at night and have him sleeping on a bed with a heating pad underneath so his temperatures stay up throughout the night.
I have been giving him a warm bath daily in hopes of breaking up some of the mucus, since they can't cough. Also, since he really only takes a drink in the bathtub, I want to make sure its offered in the way he likes it every day to keep his fluid intake up. He really won't drink any other way. We tried the eye dropper, or the dripping sink method, but he just sits there and doesn't respond to it, and closes his eyes and waits for it to be over.
Another question is, his humidity gauge reads 10-15%, so I have no idea what is causing him to get sick, let alone, get sick again. The humidity gauge is definitely not broken, because I took it in the bathroom when I took a shower to make sure it registered the change of the hot steamy shower. It definitely works. His temps are good. UVBs are brand new, changed them in April.
His appetite is a little wishy washy because he is sick, so I have been using Repashy Grub Pie, Grubs and Fruit, Bluey Buffet, and a few others to ensure he gets adequate nutrition. Also, its way easier to shove supplements like Reptaid into the slurry food instead of fighting him with an eye dropper. Plus he is kind of used to this feeding method, and willingly licks up the food off the tip of his nose. He seems to like the flavor, and seems to enjoy it. Especially the Grub Pie.
We did try the downward slope sleeping method, but every time I would lean him forward like that, even on a small incline, he would freak out and turn the other way so his head would be at the top of the incline. I don't really want to force the position on him if he is really not into it. Especially since he can't vocalize what he is feeling. So we gave up on that.
He is about a year and a half old. He is in a 48 x 18 x 18 tank. Reptisun 10.0 UVB strip light. Regular basking bulb. Old Temps 100-105F / 73-76F New Temps 107-110F / 79-82F.
Wipe down his tank every week, and throw his reptile carpet in the washer machine on HOT for 2 cycles, one with soap, and one without. Extra rinse cycle at the end of each cycle. I use F10 SC vet disinfectant to clean his tank, and then wipe it down twice with water afterwards, and ensure it is completely dry and no trace of disinfectant is left on any surface. I also take his basking rocks and decor and soak it in HOT water. He usually has a normal bowel movement every 48-72 hours. Pretty regular. His diet mostly consists of Repashy. He started turning his nose up on insects a few months ago, and since then will only eat Repashy. He is a little spoiled. Every couple of weeks, I buy a small batch of dubias from the petstore and see if he would be into them, but the end up dying off because he won't eat them, and waits for me to spoon feed him Repashy like a baby. He gets multi vitamin twice a week, I use two different kinds. I use the RepCal Herbavite, and then I alternate with a liquid multi that I found on beardeddragon.co. He seems to enjoy the flavor. I think its like the Flintstones vitamins for Bearded Dragons. I am not sure which of them is better for him, so we kind of alternate between the two. For Calcium, I alternate between Repashy Calcium Plus, and Rep-Cal's calcium. Every other meal. Again, not sure which one is better for him, so we alternate between the two. He gets plenty of baths. Anytime he poops, he gets a bath. Everytime he sheds, he gets baths daily until its over.
Also to note, since I keep reading that humidity is the main cause for RI's in beadies, I bought a cordless dehumidifier (should be here Thursday) as an extra precaution in case the humidity gauge is wildly inaccurate and I am relying on a POS. Oh, yeah, anyone have a brand/model of a humidity gauge they trust? Please share. I feel like they are all crap at this point. I went through at least 10 of them in the past two months trying to figure out how my baby is getting sick.
Anyway, getting off track here. What I want to know is the following:
1 - Is doing a second Baytril dosing 14 days after his last dose okay to administer?
2 - Is there anything else I can do aside from the Baytril?
3 - Is there anything else I can do to improve his comfort and symptoms while he gets better?
4 - How does he keep getting sick if there is no humidity registering in the tank?
5 - Reliable procedure for monitoring humidity and/or a dehumidifier brand/model they trust in their tanks.
Thanks in advance
My little Aerogore had an upper respiratory infection the end of last month (April) and I started treating him with Baytril 2.5%, 0.20mL every night before bed (at least 2 hours after food/supplements) for 10 days. After 1 week, he started to show improvement in his breathing and color. After the 10th day, he was good for about a week, but the last three days or so I noticed he is starting to breathe heavy again, and fluff out his beard making that weird gargling sound. The saliva came back. His stress lines came back and his beard went dark. So his upper respiratory infection obviously relapsed.
My issue is, he has only been off of the Baytril for like 14 days, and I know Baytril, like any antibiotics, tend to be pretty stressful on the system. Obviously, I have to treat the RI, but I am hesitant about giving him another round of Baytril so soon.
I basically put him on "bed rest" status, just like I did in April when I noticed he wasn't looking well before I started the Baytril.
I have been giving him a supplement called Reptaid which supposedly gives the immune system a boost.
I raised his temperatures a few degrees, so now we are flirting with 107-110F on the basking site, and about 78-80F on the cool side.
I also raised his heat at night and have him sleeping on a bed with a heating pad underneath so his temperatures stay up throughout the night.
I have been giving him a warm bath daily in hopes of breaking up some of the mucus, since they can't cough. Also, since he really only takes a drink in the bathtub, I want to make sure its offered in the way he likes it every day to keep his fluid intake up. He really won't drink any other way. We tried the eye dropper, or the dripping sink method, but he just sits there and doesn't respond to it, and closes his eyes and waits for it to be over.
Another question is, his humidity gauge reads 10-15%, so I have no idea what is causing him to get sick, let alone, get sick again. The humidity gauge is definitely not broken, because I took it in the bathroom when I took a shower to make sure it registered the change of the hot steamy shower. It definitely works. His temps are good. UVBs are brand new, changed them in April.
His appetite is a little wishy washy because he is sick, so I have been using Repashy Grub Pie, Grubs and Fruit, Bluey Buffet, and a few others to ensure he gets adequate nutrition. Also, its way easier to shove supplements like Reptaid into the slurry food instead of fighting him with an eye dropper. Plus he is kind of used to this feeding method, and willingly licks up the food off the tip of his nose. He seems to like the flavor, and seems to enjoy it. Especially the Grub Pie.
We did try the downward slope sleeping method, but every time I would lean him forward like that, even on a small incline, he would freak out and turn the other way so his head would be at the top of the incline. I don't really want to force the position on him if he is really not into it. Especially since he can't vocalize what he is feeling. So we gave up on that.
He is about a year and a half old. He is in a 48 x 18 x 18 tank. Reptisun 10.0 UVB strip light. Regular basking bulb. Old Temps 100-105F / 73-76F New Temps 107-110F / 79-82F.
Wipe down his tank every week, and throw his reptile carpet in the washer machine on HOT for 2 cycles, one with soap, and one without. Extra rinse cycle at the end of each cycle. I use F10 SC vet disinfectant to clean his tank, and then wipe it down twice with water afterwards, and ensure it is completely dry and no trace of disinfectant is left on any surface. I also take his basking rocks and decor and soak it in HOT water. He usually has a normal bowel movement every 48-72 hours. Pretty regular. His diet mostly consists of Repashy. He started turning his nose up on insects a few months ago, and since then will only eat Repashy. He is a little spoiled. Every couple of weeks, I buy a small batch of dubias from the petstore and see if he would be into them, but the end up dying off because he won't eat them, and waits for me to spoon feed him Repashy like a baby. He gets multi vitamin twice a week, I use two different kinds. I use the RepCal Herbavite, and then I alternate with a liquid multi that I found on beardeddragon.co. He seems to enjoy the flavor. I think its like the Flintstones vitamins for Bearded Dragons. I am not sure which of them is better for him, so we kind of alternate between the two. For Calcium, I alternate between Repashy Calcium Plus, and Rep-Cal's calcium. Every other meal. Again, not sure which one is better for him, so we alternate between the two. He gets plenty of baths. Anytime he poops, he gets a bath. Everytime he sheds, he gets baths daily until its over.
Also to note, since I keep reading that humidity is the main cause for RI's in beadies, I bought a cordless dehumidifier (should be here Thursday) as an extra precaution in case the humidity gauge is wildly inaccurate and I am relying on a POS. Oh, yeah, anyone have a brand/model of a humidity gauge they trust? Please share. I feel like they are all crap at this point. I went through at least 10 of them in the past two months trying to figure out how my baby is getting sick.
Anyway, getting off track here. What I want to know is the following:
1 - Is doing a second Baytril dosing 14 days after his last dose okay to administer?
2 - Is there anything else I can do aside from the Baytril?
3 - Is there anything else I can do to improve his comfort and symptoms while he gets better?
4 - How does he keep getting sick if there is no humidity registering in the tank?
5 - Reliable procedure for monitoring humidity and/or a dehumidifier brand/model they trust in their tanks.
Thanks in advance