iHerp Answers: Intramuscular Injection in RTB

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Intramuscular Injection in RTB

Posted By:

wilderwomann

I believe my redtail boa has a respiratory infection (RI). I know it requires intramuscular (IM) injections. I can get my own antibiotics. Where do I give the injections? I am familiar with mammals, not snakes. Thanks.


Points:	150
Topics:	Respiratory , Infectious Disease , Medications
Tags:	Antibiotics, Infection, Injections, Intramuscular, Respiratory
Species:	Boas > Large Boas > Boa constrictor imperator
Administrative:	Show/Hide

Member Comment

12/27/2009 3:54:14 PM

vonnick52

In snakes you want to inject in the forward 1/3 of the animal to prevent overstressing the animals organs. I urge you to contact a vet regarding dosing and which antibiotic to use prior to attempting to do so.

Member Comment

12/27/2009 6:09:19 PM

Synath

Ya get your dosing from a vet.. forward 1/3 so that the medicine actually makes it to the right area and is not pulled out by the kidneys. The vet gave us prefilled TB syringes and instructed only to insert the needle about half way on our BP, bevil up just under a scale.

Assisted Answer

12/27/2009 8:16:53 PM

wintersreptiles

Giving injections on a snake is not very different than a mammal. You want to be in the upper 1/3 of the body like said in the previous two posts. You want to give it in the muscles just to the side of the spine, not in the very center of the snake. Give the injection under a scale and not through one. However I would go to your vet to get the medication and dosing instructions. Most antibiotics do not have a good shelf life so if you are getting them second hand they are most likely not going to be effective, not to mention could even be toxic. Correct dosage is very important in reptiles as their metabolism is very different than mammals. Only a licensed veterinarian will be able to help you with that. Please keep in mind most medical studies on medications are done on mammals, not reptiles. It takes a good reptile vet to know what will be a safe antibiotic to use and how much should be administered in each particular case. Not to mention the vet should be willing to give you a demonstration of how to properly give the injection. Then you can have a hands on experience, which I think are the best kind. Good luck

Accepted Answer

12/27/2009 9:46:03 PM

AAS

My understanding is that the dosing range is actually very wide (from a zoologist/keeper I know) for most of the abx used, so there may be no "correct" dosing. Given the albeit successful but "shotgun" approach typically recommended (treating with broad spectrum antibacterials without knowing what you're treating), and the paucity of well founded guidelines to base a decision like this on, it seems you're unlikely to do any harm if you get a reasonable recommendation from someone whose been doing it a long time.

This is what he's been doing for a long time... Cefotaxime, approx 20 mg/kg in a single IM injection, daily to every other day, for 2-3 weeks. Because of the rapid decline in potency once reconstituted, he recommends drawing up the med in those little TB syringes as recommended previously, and freezing the syringes until ready for use. The dosing is arbitrary, and I think it is an assumption that the drug remains potent after freezing. Sometimes he goes daily, other times every other day, depending on the suspected infection or the status of the animal, or culture results if available. Clearly some reptile species can be harmed more easily than others by the use of these meds, but at least one experienced keeper has been using this regimen for a long time on many different snakes, and has not seen any apparent adverse reactions. He does however report great success with this drug regimen.

Aren't there any exotic vets on this site??? Probably, but certainly they're reluctant to offer medical advice without a proper eval.

Member Comment

12/28/2009 1:44:05 AM

Aimee

I personally think it would be crazy to give a boa injections because you think he might have an RI. even if you're an experienced keeper, you could be possibly misdiagnosing the illness and giving your snake unnecessary and potentially harmful medications. to me, it just wouldn't be worth it in the long run.

good luck with him.

Assisted Answer

12/28/2009 10:59:01 AM

WhiteHillReptile

forget the injections and look into nebulizing.

half the trouble
no risk to the kidneys from stronger medications
less stress on the animal
less stress on the keeper
less of a chance of "user error"
no worries about necrosis of injection site
medication goes to the source where its needed

i started nebulizing any animal that even looked like it was beginning to get a RI a couple years ago without a single problem and knock on wood, i havent lost any animals with RI since i did.

its worth looking into

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