u/genuine-S-A-D

Been going through it a bit with my monitor, and thought I'd ask from more experienced keepers.

So earlier this month, my 10 month-old Ackie was diagnosed with a respiratory infection by our vet. He was sneezing the last few months, but it wasn't until I had him out and heard him audibly breathing that I knew I needed to call the vet. His one other symptom found was bouts of gular pumping (or what the vet calls 'bullfrogging'). We were given a set of very small-dose antibiotics shots to take once every 5 days. Unfortunately with him being so small and flighty, I was worried my inexperience with providing injections would only make matters worse. Thankfully our vet has graciously been able to help us on that front. Right now, I have him in a 40 gallon I had lying around so I could work on improving his 4x2x2, and so I could have an easier time getting him back to the vet. I'm only through 4 out of the 6 recommended injections provided to us by our vet, but not noticing much improvement in his symptoms. They don't seem worse, but it's hard to tell if they're getting better. I've had someone tell me sometimes RI symptoms just become a part of daily life, so now I have no idea what indicates he's getting better. What's throwing me off is that he's still pretty active and moves quite quickly. His appetite has been hard to gauge since he started growing larger. Just the other day he cleaned out his bowl of mealworms and superworms, but sometimes he won't. I couldn't tell if its metabolism changing or he's just not hungry or what. I've always been under the impression that Ackies ate a lot and quite readily.

I thought part of what caused his RI were his substrate becoming too dusty and his basking spot not being hot enough for his older self. I've done what I can to mix new and improved substrate, but my hang up now is the heat. When I told my vet that I was hitting temps in the 120's, about 30 degrees short of what I was told are my goals, he told me to turn it down even more. I remember one of the points was that meat starts to cook at 140 degrees (probably not the right wording, unfortunately this is only my paraphrasing.) But now I'm stuck between two extremes of either needing a cooler spot, or an even hotter one. It's got me going back and forth in circles and I don't even know where to start on it.

To put it simply, I'm just really worried about him. I know everyone says this about their pets, but I do genuinely love him to bits. It feels like any and all complications that come from an RI like this are a failing on my part as his caretaker. I would also imagine the need to forcibly remove him from his home has damaged the last couple months spent building trust with him. All I want is for my little guy to bounce back into a healthy adult and develop a better relationship with him.

I probably forgot some details writing this all out. I can answer any questions if it helps.