wretchedprocess
12-01-2011, 05:06 PM
Warning: lots of background, in case it's relevant to set up the questions I have. In case of TL;DR, skip the next 2 paragraphs.
So poor little Whisper has not had a good year. She got a mild case of mouth rot when I was out of the country and the snake-sitter did not notice that her UTH had slipped behind the shelf she was on. I then failed to notice for a week or so myself. I caught the mouth rot pretty quickly, took her to the vet, and got it cured. Unfortunately it seemed that this stressed her, so she quit eating for a while and began to dwindle. I got very worried and took her back to the vet, where testing occurred. Her fecal was negative, but her white cell count was elevated, which indicated an infection. So, hooray, injection time, which she and I both love. When I picked up the antibiotics the vet took a culture to send to a lab and make sure it was the correct medication to kill the whatever-it-was.
I've finished the course, she seems to be better, though her poop is still pretty watery. The vet's office just called me with the results of the culture. Nothing bacterial was growing anymore, but apparently they found some yeast. Both the lab tech and the vet suspect that this was the result of contamination rather than actually being found in Whisper, but I wanted to see what the accumulated wisdom of cornsnakes.com had to say on the matter.
It seems from my search that snakes can get opportunistic yeast infections. Does that affect mainly snakes who are already ill? It seems like it would, since it's obviously not a normal thing. And if a snake has a yeast infection and is treated and becomes otherwise healthy again, is the infection likely to go away on its own, or would it also need treatment? And just how do you treat a yeast infection in a snake? And what are the symptoms if she still has one? And how dangerous is a yeast infection in an otherwise healthy snake?
That's a lot of questions. But it's a weird one, and proving difficult to research. I would immensely appreciate any advice or experience anyone has to share. If it makes any difference, Wisp has regurged exactly once in her life, and I think it was back in March or April. She's eating fine and beginning to gain weight again, and getting rather feistier since a few days into the antibiotics. She may well be fine, but I'd rather be informed than otherwise.
Thanks!
So poor little Whisper has not had a good year. She got a mild case of mouth rot when I was out of the country and the snake-sitter did not notice that her UTH had slipped behind the shelf she was on. I then failed to notice for a week or so myself. I caught the mouth rot pretty quickly, took her to the vet, and got it cured. Unfortunately it seemed that this stressed her, so she quit eating for a while and began to dwindle. I got very worried and took her back to the vet, where testing occurred. Her fecal was negative, but her white cell count was elevated, which indicated an infection. So, hooray, injection time, which she and I both love. When I picked up the antibiotics the vet took a culture to send to a lab and make sure it was the correct medication to kill the whatever-it-was.
I've finished the course, she seems to be better, though her poop is still pretty watery. The vet's office just called me with the results of the culture. Nothing bacterial was growing anymore, but apparently they found some yeast. Both the lab tech and the vet suspect that this was the result of contamination rather than actually being found in Whisper, but I wanted to see what the accumulated wisdom of cornsnakes.com had to say on the matter.
It seems from my search that snakes can get opportunistic yeast infections. Does that affect mainly snakes who are already ill? It seems like it would, since it's obviously not a normal thing. And if a snake has a yeast infection and is treated and becomes otherwise healthy again, is the infection likely to go away on its own, or would it also need treatment? And just how do you treat a yeast infection in a snake? And what are the symptoms if she still has one? And how dangerous is a yeast infection in an otherwise healthy snake?
That's a lot of questions. But it's a weird one, and proving difficult to research. I would immensely appreciate any advice or experience anyone has to share. If it makes any difference, Wisp has regurged exactly once in her life, and I think it was back in March or April. She's eating fine and beginning to gain weight again, and getting rather feistier since a few days into the antibiotics. She may well be fine, but I'd rather be informed than otherwise.
Thanks!