Considerations before baytril use.

First of all, allow me to make clear I am not advocating for the laymen to treat their snakes by themselves outside of veterinary supervision. That is not my intention here.

Given the shortage of experienced exotic veterinarians available to everyone, its not uncommon for the layman to have a little anxiety when their snake is being treated for an infection though, and they may appreciate a little insight into how these choices are made.

Hopefully, it will instill confidence in those receiving care for their snakes, and may help some understand why baytril isn't some super safe wonder drug that any layman should shotgun treat their animals with.

So lets tuck into it.

Most veterinarians are not going to prescribe you baytril these days. Theres a few reasons. One is antibiotic resistance. The overuse of baytril has lead it to become less effective. Of course, best practice would be to culture, but the truth is we don't always have time to do so. Another reason is that baytril isn't without its risks. 

​Baytril is typically injected and is notorious for damaging the tissues surrounding the injection site. Sometimes it can cause a permanent discoloration of the scales, and sometimes that damage is so severe that the scales will even die.

The more severe reactions happen when the injection is done too shallow- under the skin as opposed to into the muscle. That's because there isn't as much circulation just under the skin as opposed inside the muscle. Makes a lot of sense for snakes to be built that way if you think about it. If they get a cut or something they don't bleed out, buuuuut the lower circulation makes things complicated for injections.

Since the baytril takes longer to metabolize there, it has more time to damage the tissues before being absorbed and filtered out of the bloodstream, hence why shallow injections create more tissue damage..
​

What about giving it orally then?

Well, that will prevent the tissue damage but there's trades there too. The issue with using it orally is that it becomes difficult to dose accurately. The absorption rate will vary with the metabolism of the animal even if gavage (tube) fed. That's challenge number one.

When gavage fed, it will become available very quickly but you run the risk of the it upsetting the gut microbiome, or even wiping it out entirely. If it stays that way long term it can be fatal, but it's easily treatable (benebac).

One way some have tried to pad that risk is to inject it into prey first.... but It's especially difficult to dose if injected into prey, because it may be several days before the body metabolizes the mouse to the point the baytril enters the snakes body, and the baytril degrades over time inside the mouse' body.

Sometimes people will up the dose to compensate for the rate of decay, so that the required dose is still available by the time its digested, but it's impossible to determine exactly how much would be needed. There's also a some risk of overdose in doing that, especially a concern if doing this when treating a small animal.

So, baytril has considerations no matter what route your taking.

So if you must use baytril, how to determine which route to take is by balancing the factors.

If you really need these meds in now (like an advanced RI that sort of thing) *and* the animal is in rough shape (thin, dehydrated, recently regurgitating anything where you can't risk damaging the biome) then you'll need to inject. It's better to lose the tissue and get a scar than risk further complications in a snake already in a more critical condition.

If you have a healthy body condition, and a severe infection to treat (you cant afford to wait) then gavage feed it, and keep an eye out for digestive distress (Inappetence, diarrhea, regurgitation) and if that shows up, replace the biome later with some benebac for reptiles.

If you have time, and good body condition, then you can inject into prey and feed and adjust course as needed.

You don't have to make these balancing act calls with ceft, so that's why if you do have the option ceft is the obvious 1st line choice. 

For those situations that need a heavy hitter, Amikacin is also sometimes used, but that is a seriously strong medication that shouldn't be used lightly. A proper culture would be necessary for that. 

Anyway baytril has been a staple of the reptile industry for decades, and it still has its place, but its not a wonder drug. It does have risks. So there are things people should know about it if they want to make educated decisions for the care of their snakes.

Hope that helps :)