Hi there,
I have a graeca here who had been showing signs of a respiratory infection since late November. Exotics vet prescribed Baytril (10mg/kg once every other day) for 2 weeks. The tortoise was moved inside from its heated greenhouse, quarantined and kept with UVB lighting, basking temperature 35.C, background temperature in the 20s.C. A ceramic heater was provided on a thermostat, 30.C at night (to keep the immune system at its peak) Substate is deep topsoil and humidity is in the 60% range although this varies +10%.
It appeared the tortoise was making improvement after the first course of antibiotics but I kept her inside, well heated for a further 2 weeks just to be sure. However, in December one morning, it was clear the infection was back, my vet decided to increase the injections (10mg/kg) to once daily, for 2weeks and ran pcr for mycoplasma which came bag negative, twice. She made a remarkable improvement, airways were clear no signs of any congestion, nasal discharge, etc and she appeared to be her normal self again.
Today it seems the infection is creeping back (clear nasal discharge) I'm lost what to do I have contacted my vet and we will begin antibiotics again tomorrow (perhaps a different drug) It seems the minute antibiotics are stopped she's fine for a few days and then the symptoms reoccur. My vet did say that some infections are complex, difficult to irradicate and it can seem like a losing battle but "we will sort this".
Does anyone have any insight or recommendations?
I have a graeca here who had been showing signs of a respiratory infection since late November. Exotics vet prescribed Baytril (10mg/kg once every other day) for 2 weeks. The tortoise was moved inside from its heated greenhouse, quarantined and kept with UVB lighting, basking temperature 35.C, background temperature in the 20s.C. A ceramic heater was provided on a thermostat, 30.C at night (to keep the immune system at its peak) Substate is deep topsoil and humidity is in the 60% range although this varies +10%.
It appeared the tortoise was making improvement after the first course of antibiotics but I kept her inside, well heated for a further 2 weeks just to be sure. However, in December one morning, it was clear the infection was back, my vet decided to increase the injections (10mg/kg) to once daily, for 2weeks and ran pcr for mycoplasma which came bag negative, twice. She made a remarkable improvement, airways were clear no signs of any congestion, nasal discharge, etc and she appeared to be her normal self again.
Today it seems the infection is creeping back (clear nasal discharge) I'm lost what to do I have contacted my vet and we will begin antibiotics again tomorrow (perhaps a different drug) It seems the minute antibiotics are stopped she's fine for a few days and then the symptoms reoccur. My vet did say that some infections are complex, difficult to irradicate and it can seem like a losing battle but "we will sort this".
Does anyone have any insight or recommendations?