Annual Deworming

[robbiep23]

I am learning first hand the effects that worms can have once they get truly in to a geckos system. When i bought him i was told that he had been checked for parasites and other problems none were found so my little gecko recieved no worming medicine. 6 months down the line i have the sickest little pet, the worms in side my gecko were nearly an inch long (think size of gecko then size of worm) the vet removed 5 while i was in the room definately not pleasant. My leo now has 2 staples holding part of his belly closed where the worms had eaten away inside the skin. We are treating him with daily doses of Panacur @ 0.07ml, Baytril (antibiotics) @ 0.03ml twice daily, Metacam (painkillers) @ 0.1ml every other day, as well as having to hand feed him the ggg slurry recipe. All this could have been avoided by worming him in the first place. Please don't take the risk, its so not worth. See my story in "My poor leo" thread.

 

[acpart]

It's not a question of affording it for me. The problem is that I have been looking and so far there are no Herp vets in this country (Poland) that have a bloody clue about the health of leopard geckos. It's very frustrating as I know my leo has an infection. Any vets want to come over?

While I think the best is to take a leo to a reptile vet, I also think that in certain situations if necessary a non-reptile vet could also be helpful. Any vet will know how to do a fecal test to find out if there are parasites and should be able to identify them. If there are parasites, the vet should be able to look up the proper medication and dose (or else someone on the forums can get you the info). While a non-reptile vet may not be able to diagnose a reptile specific problem, I would imagine that if you ask for something specific, like a fecal exam, any vet may be able to take care of that.

Aliza

 

[rubym]

The herp vet that we use has seen quite a few of our geckos so now she only has me bring in a stool sample to test. Luckily I everyones yearly isn't due all at the same time. I sell mealies to the several people locally and our small mom and pop pet shop in town buys them from me. The money from that goes into my vet savings to pay for the yearlys and those unexpected times.

 

[Snowy & Petra de Gecko]

Part of the problem

A part of the problem with parasites is that Leos "can" harbor a certain parsite load without showing any affects.

However, stresses, unclean living conditions, etc can cause the load to become out of control and then sickness results and sometimes death.

So how or if you treat is up to you.

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

I have a very heathly Beardie that eats like a pig, has grown like a weed and poo was fine ... I took him for his first Vet visit thinking we would get a thumbs up as healthy as he looks/acts ... His Fecal came back positive for Hookworm and Giarda.



From what I have read on this forum ... Seems to me a lot of folks only go to the Vet after they have a very sick Gecko ... I would rather help avoid/prevent them from even getting to that point with routine visits. I know it cost a little extra money ... But it is part of the husbandry of the animal and if you can not afford to care for an animal should you have it? ... Just a thought :main_rolleyes:

We have taken a few geckos to the vet with no visible signs of infection only to have the same outcome you mentioned. Since then we have decided to test the geckos once a year. A few of my geckos grew up with parasites and it would've been hard to tell. Now they've all blown up. The girl in this thread has now gained 40 grams and is 82g. http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=47072

 

[T-ReXx]

I have a somewhat large collection and taking every single animal in for routines can get tricky in such cases. What I do is run yearly fecals, any vet worth their salt will tell you that treating animals for something with no evidence can be risky. Now, I work in a vets office and luckily am capable of running my own fecals at work if necessary, but for the average person with only a few animals I'd say a yearly checkup is a good idea.

 

[v2s13]

Im planning to deworm one of my gecko. Its been 1 week and he is not touching his food. Whats the general medecine for deworming parasites? Is it panacur or its just for pinworms? Any idea about the dosage?

 

[Anakan2]

OMG, how does a human know if he has any of those organisms? Would we feel physically ill if we had worms? I imagine we would be extremely sick with diarrhea if we had crypto. (?)
Jenny

 

[CapCitySteve]

i deworm myself w/ fenbendazole since I work in the vet field. The main parasite I've found to have to worry about are pinworms which most geckos have. The eggs of these guys are extremely resistant to disinfectants and you have to actually run your setup through a sterilizing wash in your dishwasher to get rid of them and feeders are infected once they eat an infected geckos poo. So reusing uneaten feeders to another gecko can be a source of infection.

 

[JordanAng420]

OMG, how does a human know if he has any of those organisms? Would we feel physically ill if we had worms? I imagine we would be extremely sick with diarrhea if we had crypto. (?)
Jenny

If you had crypto, you would wish to be put out of your misery. Have you ever been so sick that you have to alternate between having blowout diarrhea and then have to turn around and puke in the same toilet....over and over again? That's kinda what it's like. It's no fun.

The pinworms that reptiles get are usually a strain that humans don't carry. Same with coccidia and hookworms.

Roundworms, however, can cause blindness if untreated in a human being.

 

[CapCitySteve]

If you had crypto, you would wish to be put out of your misery. Have you ever been so sick that you have to alternate between having blowout diarrhea and then have to turn around and puke in the same toilet....over and over again? That's kinda what it's like. It's no fun.

The pinworms that reptiles get are usually a strain that humans don't carry. Same with coccidia and hookworms.

Roundworms, however, can cause blindness if untreated in a human being.

Blindness from the abberant migration of the worm. Among other things the worm can really go where ever it wants. Did anybody else see that episode of House? I got this question in my vet school interview, LOL.

 

[ceduke]

I might be paranoid, but I run a fecal on every new animal that comes in, and once a year I pick an animal in my collection to run another fecal on. Last year the snake I randomly picked came back with pinworms, so I had everyone else checked too. He was the only one who had them. I have no idea how it happened since he was negative when I got him and only eats F/T prey, but I was glad I caught it before my valuable Indigo snake became symptomatic. I would be absolutely crushed if anything happened to him.

Well worth it IMO.