Ruby the RETF needs your help ASAP

[Ruby]

Hello all,

i have been the proud owner of 3 RETFs for the past few months, 2 males and female, all about 8-12 months old. They were all initially doing great, each of them fat, green, happy, and eating well. About 2 weeks ago I noticed Ruby, the female, not eating and acting rather lethargic. At this point I decided to separate Ruby from the boys and put her into a quarantine tank, hoping she would start eating again (she had started getting a bit too skinny). Unfortunately this did not seem to help, she continued to get worse. I started soaking her in a 1:10 pedialyte/water solution daily, which seemed to help a bit, but it still did not fix the issue. Last friday, April 6th, I tracked down an exotic vet in my area and took her in. At this point she had a darker green color, with various small, light green spots on her skin (no sign of red leg tho). The vet diagnosed her with a bacterial dermatitis, and prescribed her baytril. The specific vet instructions are the following:

.01 cc baytril orally daily (for 10 days)
chicken/turkey baby food mixed with a drop of pedialyte, administered orally every day
warm tap water soaks daily for 30 min (with pedialyte)
raise temp and humidity; she told me to keep the temp around 90 (normal temp ranges around 78), and humidity as high as possible (mine is normally around 60-75%, she suggested 90% if possible)

Well, at first Ruby appeared to be doing better, and I was feeling so relieved (I saved her!), but that's no longer the case. Between last night and today she really seems to be taking a turn for the worse, shes soooo weak, and I'm starting to question the vets instructions: first of all, isn't it HORRIBLY stressful to be orally administering food/meds to her? That's 2x a day I have to take her out and work her little mouth open! Can't I simply put some baytril in with the water when I soak her? Secondly, should I really have the humidity that high? Doesn't that make a bacterial infection worse? And why tap water? The vet said it would help draw out the infection from her body, is this true?

I called the vet again today for help, and unfortunately the vet isn't in until this thursday, but they were kind enough to call her for me and she instructed that I do pedialyte soaks 2x a day now, keep handfeeding with baby food, and to stop the baytril (because it might be stressing her out to much). I have a hard time believing that stopping the meds is going to do any good for her at this point....

Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated, you guys know way more than I do regarding this sort of thing, and possibly more than my vet as well.

Thank you

[S13]

From what I have gathered in the past, yes high humidity makes bacterial infections worse, that tap water needs to be dechlorinated. Whenever I did pedialyte soaks it was once a week with 5 ounces of spring water to 1/2 ounce of pedialyte, and that pedialyte needs to be unflavored. Force feeding should be a means of last resort if they haven't eaten in a few weeks, if she's eating there shouldn't be a reason to force feed, I would think. Hopefully she pulls through, I'm sure more experienced keepers can chime in soon. Good luck.

[Ruby]

My Ruby passed away this morning, I'm heartbroken... If anyone reads this thread and has any opinions on the treatment I was told to give, I'd appreciate the insight. Also, I still have baytril left; how long may I store it for? Fridge or room temp?

Thank you

[helm96]

Sorry to hear about your Ruby!

[flybyferns]

My Ruby passed away this morning, I'm heartbroken... If anyone reads this thread and has any opinions on the treatment I was told to give, I'd appreciate the insight. Also, I still have baytril left; how long may I store it for? Fridge or room temp?

Thank you

Lauren ,
I am so sorry . I'm sure you are heartbroken. You tried so hard.

[RedHed]

I'm sorry for your loss. It's hard to lose the little guys