African Fat-Tail Rescue ID Help

[Squeakingeckos]

Hello everyone, I apologize for this being my first post ever here and not properly introducing myself but I promise I will shortly Anyways here's the story on this gecko: I came across her on craigslist being sold as a mack snow leopard gecko, she was skinny and beat up by her leopard gecko tank mate. I decided to take her in and set her up in a quarantine tank on paper towels, precautionary dewormer with panacur for three days and hand/syringe fed food. She had some runny feces for awhile that went away with time. She then gained 5 grams but then the runny feces came back and she's lost weight since it began again. Noticing the change I did a direct smear on her and found a few parasitic eggs I need help to ID. I believe one is a pinworm egg and read that's part of normal gut flora and shouldn't be of too huge of a concern. Didn't find more than two pinworm looking eggs (under 40X) and one round unknown egg 40X). The last slide I was looking under Oil Immersion 100X I found ghostly looking oocysts... professor said Crypto. I'm fearing the worst and getting her tested asap but I would like opinions on my findings please..

 

[DrCarrotTail]

My guesses would be pinworms and/or roundworms and possibly giardia. According to my source: "Understanding Reptile Parasites" Crypto is a type of coccidian parasite and you can usually see four sporozoites inside small oocysts (usually less than 4 microns). Because of its small size its super hard to see on a float and usually you have to test another way to be accurate. Since I don't see anything inside the last picture I don't think its crypto.

The only test for crypto that I know of that is reasonably accurate is a PCR test done by avianbiotech.com. They'll send you a free test kit and you can send a fecal sample to them and have it tested for $25+ shipping.

 

[Squeakingeckos]

My guesses would be pinworms and/or roundworms and possibly giardia. According to my source: "Understanding Reptile Parasites" Crypto is a type of coccidian parasite and you can usually see four sporozoites inside small oocysts (usually less than 4 microns). Because of its small size its super hard to see on a float and usually you have to test another way to be accurate. Since I don't see anything inside the last picture I don't think its crypto.

The only test for crypto that I know of that is reasonably accurate is a PCR test done by avianbiotech.com. They'll send you a free test kit and you can send a fecal sample to them and have it tested for $25+ shipping.

Hello, Thank you for the reply and help I received a test kit last week but due to the holiday and upcoming weekend I held off on submitting a sample until this week which I just did this morning. With Priority Mail should arrive at the lab 3-4 days the gentleman at the post office said so hoping for results later this week or next week. I did test her for giardia using a SNAP test here at my college but I'm not sure if the SNAP tests used to test for giardia in small mammals do the same for reptiles. And if I'm not mistaken the tests we have here and use for practice is expired So I'll see if I can re-test with a non-expired test shortly.

 

[Squeakingeckos]

Well good news I think... the results just came in today as negative for crypto.

 

[geckobabies]

Congrats on the great news Have you tried a once a week for three week cycle for the other possible parasites?

 

[Squeakingeckos]

Congrats on the great news Have you tried a once a week for three week cycle for the other possible parasites?

I hope it's great news. I do know even those tests aren't 100% and I'm always worrying about something haha. When you say once a week for three weeks do you mean look at a fecal smear once a week to try catching any parasites that shed eggs/oocysts intermittently? Or try Panacur once a week for three weeks? I'll probably be doing both or maybe switching to Flagyl. If the oocysts I found under the microscope isn't Crypto then they are probably coccidia.

 

[geckobabies]

I meant the treatment

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I treat most of my new geckos with Panacur (fenbendazole) once a week for three weeks like Jessica suggested. I believe the dose I've been giving is about 100 mg/kg so the total amount is very small for a 50g leo or AFT. That dose/method has cleared up all parasite issues that I've encountered and from what I understand the drug is very safe.

 

[Squeakingeckos]

I treat most of my new geckos with Panacur (fenbendazole) once a week for three weeks like Jessica suggested. I believe the dose I've been giving is about 100 mg/kg so the total amount is very small for a 50g leo or AFT. That dose/method has cleared up all parasite issues that I've encountered and from what I understand the drug is very safe.

After the first Panacur treatment it looked like she was getting better and gained 5 grams, but then the runny feces came back and she started regurgitating food. The one Crypto test did come back negative but sadly she passed away a few days later. I couldn't keep her hydrated and eating with her constant diarrhea and stress from being syringe fed.. I looked into getting a necropsy but my "local" herp vet told me it'd be close to $400-$500. I just don't have that kind of money at the moment. I'm putting a hold on any of my breeding, selling and buying for minimum two months out of extreme caution, that's all I can do at the moment.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I've heard (but don't have any evidence to prove that its true) that wild caught AFT have fairly unique compositions of beneficial bacteria in their digestive systems. Many times if they're housed with WC geckos from different locales or if CB geckos are housed with WCs there can be harmful side effects from being exposed to different gut fauna. It also could have been something that didn't have to do with parasites or bacteria.

So sorry you lost her