EllenD":1zkoagsx said:I also wasn't in any way "suggesting that antifungals or medical treatment be replaced with probiotics" as someone else suggested. That just sound like you didn't read my prior post to that one in the original thread, which I'm sure you didn't since the OP only posted my final post.
No. I didn't read the prior post (though I've skimmed it now and stand by my statements), I don't generally have the time or interest to read through pages and pages of what ends up being irrelevant conversation. This is now the discussion at hand and it seems like a good one to have, really... Maybe there was some nuance in the other posts that I missed from not reading them, but this is the internet and one of the things information does best is get taken out of context.Tater, the point I was trying to make regarding the antifungal was that the poor owners had a dragon who had already been through the ringer, taken many prescription meds, and then acquired a yeast infection on top of everything else, secondary to the antibiotics it had already taken. So what I was trying to say was "What are their options here, they can put the dragon on yet ANOTHER prescription medication, an antifungal to treat the yeast infection that was caused by the prior multiple rounds of prescription meds, and then they'd be risking the dragon losing their appetite again, or they could spend $6 at Walmart and buy the Digestive Enzyme/Probiotic tablets that my own dragon has had great success with. Those were their options. So what was the harm of trying the latter first, since the poor dragon had already basically been poisoned by so many unnecessary meds prescribed by multiple vets. So Tater I'm sorry you didn't get to read the entire thread about this dragon, nor my post prior to this one that this OP posted. Bottom Line, I was offering an alternative to the dragon's owner instead of putting her on yet another medication, which they were not happy at all about doing.
SHBailey":279yktlq said:That story sounds awfully familiar. Our beardie was diagnosed with adenovirus about 3 years ago, and we did several courses of several different antibiotics with him, trying to clear up what were apparently some opportunistic infections in his elbows, wrists, and fingers. I believe they were probably all broad spectrum antibiotics because they were never able to culture anything identifiable from the goop that came from the infections. Before that, he used to attack his salad like he was afraid it was going to get away, but he lost his appetite when he got sick, and when he eventually recovered, his appetite never came back to what it was before the illness. He seems to have decided he's supposed to be a strict carnivore, so he still goes after bugs with some enthusiasm, and he also goes absolutely nuts over Repashy Grub Pie, but the only way we can get him to eat any greens at all is to slip them in his mouth while he's busy chewing on a bug. We haven't tried probiotics with him, because our reptile vet believes the jury is still out about their effectiveness in terms of empirical research, as well as about which sorts of microbes are most beneficial for which species of reptiles -- she says that many of the probiotics sold for reptiles are the same ones that are sold for humans, even though it may turn out that what's most beneficial for reptiles may be completely different than what's good for humans. She did prescribe a supplement that was supposed to help with his immune system after we'd run the gamut with the antibiotics -- monolaurin, an extract of coconut. It's supposed to be antimicrobial, and it was sold under the name "immune booster" -- tiny little pellets that I would crush up, then I'd spray a superworm with calcium spray and roll it in the powder. Our beardie will eat just about anything if I put it on a superworm. :wink: I'm not really sure how much it helped, but he did slowly recover, although his appetite and activity levels never did come back to quite what they were before the illness. There's no cure for adenovirus, but our vet says it's not a death sentence either. The strategy is to treat whatever other conditions arise ("supportive care") and just hope that their own immune system can get a handle on it. At this point, I'm still not sure if probiotics would be worth a try. I've always assumed that his slightly decreased appetite (at least for veggies) and his slightly lower activity levels are due to the fact that he's older now, as well as ADV positive, and not due to his gut flora being whacked out because of too many antibiotics, but I could be wrong... :?
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