A preliminary study on the use of carbenicillin in snakes

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Abstract
The results of a 10-yr survey on the in vitro antibiotic resistance patterns of Pseudomonas spp. isolated from clinically ill reptiles, showed a high degree of sensitivity to carbenicillin. On the basis of sensitivity testing, carbenicillin was used to treat nine snakes of 4 different species, with confirmed Pseudomonas infections. Plasma carbenicillin levels were assayed, by a microbiological agar diffusion technique, at intervals of time after a single i.m. injection at a dose rate of 400 mg/kg. Peak plasma levels of 177 and 270 .mu.g/ml were reached 1 h after the initial injection and therapeutic levels persisted for at least 12 h. This initial study indicated that a suggested dose regime in snakes, derived by extrapolation from mammalian dosages, of 100-125 mg/kg daily was insufficient to produce plasma levels of sufficient magnitude and duration to effectively treat Pseudomonas infections in snakes.