Parasite Update

[Arconna]

Just figured some of you would like to know how my re-check and fecal batch went on my leo's. I've had parasites for a while as some of you know.

Well I have good and bad news, but the bad outweighs the good by a lot.

2 of the girls I thought were going to be dirty turned out clean, plus one of my new ones was completely clean, and my oldest girl Melly. That leaves 4 clean and my crestie who has had no contact with any of them, but I'll fecal him soon anyway.

The bad news has me just down in the dumps. Nobody is acting overly sick though, so the good news about this is that it's not at the point where I'm force-feeding/slurrying my animals. They are all eating fine on their own, which is good.
My new girl from Marcia apparently has the highest parasite load of all of them and I have no freaking clue how this happened. She was isolated from everyone, fed before I fed the ones I assumed were sick, and not touched afterwards in any way. But she had 125 of hookworm-ish things in her float. It's got me confused how that happened. Two of my leo's didn't give me stool so I have yet to fecal them, but I'm treating them as if sick. Then most of the other leo's (I have 10 leo's, 4 clean, 2 no fecal done, and 4 sick) are just minor with the most being 11 shown in the stool, and the least being 1.
Then my beardie decided he would get coccidia again...at least this time he's eating though...

So Ii'm just...feeling really down and just so frustrated. I'll get more medicine (maybe stronger stuff for the worms) and get some albon (yellow goop that the beardie will hate me for) and I guess just treat them and pray I can get rid of this garbage ASAP so I can start treating everyone like normal. I've been so super clean in how I deal with my leo's. If I know an animal is clean it is dealt with before and separate from everyone else, if I don't know if it is clean I treat it like it is dirty, and dirty ones get thorough cleanings. Gah. Man, this is just devastating...

Anywho, any suggestions on medicines that would be better than Panacur? Something more effective perhaps...

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

My new girl from Marcia apparently has the highest parasite load of all of them and I have no freaking clue how this happened. She was isolated from everyone, fed before I fed the ones I assumed were sick, and not touched afterwards in any way.

I don't understand this either. Which gecko was it? Both have been housed individually for their entire lives on paper towel!

Can you please send me a copy of the vet's pathology report?

 

[Arconna]

Got some updates for anyone that views this (I'm talking to Marcia via email regarding this whole deal). The parasites turned out to be pinworm, and from what Marcia has told me this likely means that they are not infected with them but rather they are just from the feeders. Waiting on my vet to email me so I can get some more information about the whole deal.

Also, I know I mentioned to some that one of my geckos had a little bump on his lip and I was concerned about mouth rot. I took him in because the hydrogen peroxide wasn't doing anything. The vet looked, scraped something that was stuck under his lip out (a scab or puss thing or something) and there was a little blood. But, after only a few days of some cream to heal the wound, as far as I can tell the wound is gone. So, good news is there wasn't really any mouth rot (not like you see in the books at all). It was just like he bit a food item and maybe got something lodged in there and it got a little infected. All is good basically.

As for my beardie, who had 4 ova of coccidia showing. I'm treating him with albon (the yellow good that smells), and he seems like he doesn't hate me as much as he did the last time I did this. So in a few weeks we'll see what happens. I'm not touching ANYTHING AT ALL involving my other animals. I don't want coccidia in the rest of my animals.

All my leo's are still eating, actually I got bit the other day by Marcia's bold stripe girl cause she thought my finger was another worm and took a swing. didn't hurt, I watched her do it, it was just like "excuse me, that's my finger...wait til I bring you another worm before you bite...".

If any other information comes up that should cause concern I will post it here as an update. But I think everything is going to turn out better than I hoped.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

The parasites turned out to be pinworm, and from what Marcia has told me this likely means that they are not infected with them but rather they are just from the feeders.

Actually, I said there is a possibility the parasites came from the feeders. Pinworm infections are sometimes difficult to avoid when we feed crickets and pinkies. It is important for the vet to be able to differentiate between the kind that are actually infecting the gecko (Oxyurus sp.) and those that come from the feeders, which pose no health risk to the host. Pinworms have a direct life-cycle, and therefore cannot infect two hosts (feeders and geckos) at the same time. Feeder pinworms can sometimes be seen by the naked eye in the feces of of the reptile, while the type that infect the reptile can only be diagnosed by finding eggs in a diagnostic float test.

Something to keep in mind is that there is a type of pinworm that comes from ingesting ants (Physaloptera sp.).

In either case, pinworms are easily treated with Panacur (fenbendazole), which is a very safe medication when used correctly.