What can be done about mouth rot?

[mimibozzo]

We have 12 8-month old panthers. The mother and father passed away. The mother had mouth rot and other medical problems. Now, all the offspring seem to have mouth rot. We have made sure their temperature and humidity is always right, they are in big size cages with nice size plants, they all have drippers, we feed them crickets (which we feed repashy cricket food to), we dust the crickets with the reptile vitamins and calcium as directed, we spray them with a mister a few times a day, we take them out twice a week for an hour or so to get some real sun light and of course, we have uvb lights and basking lights in all their cages and we clean their cages out on a regular basis. Please help me.....What are we doing wrong for them to all be getting mouth rot? What can be done to prevent it? What is it caused from? And, what can be done to help it go away besides spending about $1200 to take them all to the vet?

 

[jpowell86]

Mouth rot can be the result of many variables. Poor temp, poor nutrition, poor supplementation, etc.. From your post, it looks like all of these areas are covered. The only thing I could think of that could be causing this is something within the enclosure. All of your chams getting this is not a coincidence. Mouth rot is actually an infection and it can be caused by the items listed above, as well as bacteria and fungi. If I were in this situation, I would tear down the enclosures and clean them from top to bottom, sterilizing everything that your cham could come in contact with. Including the drippers. I know that a vet visit would be expensive, but they could offer antibiotics to stave off advancement of the infection. I really do wish you all the best with this and I'm sorry to hear about the parents passing.

 

[kinyonga]

If it's turning up in all of them it makes me think that somehow you are cross contaminating them. The most common bacteria involved in mouth rot is pseudomona aeruginosa....an opportunistic bacteria that is found "everywhere".

Usually the areas where the mouth rot is have to be cleaned/scraped out and a culture and sensitivity test done to determine the best medication to treat the infection with.

As was suggested, it would be a good idea to clean the cages and equipment out well.

 

[wodesorel]

You should be able to find an understanding vet that will charge you for a single office visit and one culture if they're all showing the same signs. I come from a cat rescue background, and while some offices refuse to break their protocol and insist on charging per animal when there is an entire group with a problem, the understanding ones will charge by the time spent with you instead. It might be a double appointment if it takes a while to look them all over and get weights, but it shouldn't cost anywhere near what you're thinking! If you're lucky you'll have a few vets that specialize in reptiles near you, and if you call they'll tell you what they are willing to do.