Question about Strongyles Parasites

[denver2890]

Well one of my geckos was acting abnormal the past few weeks. I decided to take her in to have a fecal test done to check for parasites. Well today I got my results back and she had found strongyles parasites and said it was normal for reptiles to have them. She told me most animals have it their whole life without acting any different. Is this true?

At first she tole me to treat it with pancur. But after I told her I had 30 plus geckos she said I shouldn't treat them for it, to just let them live with it. Should I go else where and get them all treated? Or is this a common parasite that is ok? Thanks a lot for your help,
Denver H

 

[denver2890]

sorry, I posted this in the wrong section.

 

[BGalloway]

The trick with parasites is that some animals can carry a heavy parasite load and show no symptoms and other animals, when exposed to that same parasite load, will show signs of disease including but not limited to weight loss, lack of appetite and so on.

I don't know how many healthy reptiles have strongyles, but livestock animals usually have some parasites and do just fine carrying this limited parasite load.

The general rule of thumb with livestock is that 20% of the herd carries 80% of the parasites, it seems a fair assumption to think the same is true of reptiles. What this means is test all your animals, or just test the ones that aren't doing as well. Those with heavy parasite loads should be treated.

You may want to treat all your animals, you can treat all your animals, and depending upon your situation that could be the best course of action. If it were me with 30 geckos and just one that showed symptoms of having parasites then I would quarantine the affected animal, treat just the affected animal, and keep it in quarantine until the parasite levels drop to either uninfected or minimal levels. If other animals were showing symptoms of having parasites I would run a fecal on them before quarantining and deworming. Honestly quarantining isn't required but it keeps you from reinfecting the main tank with strongyle oocysts and ensures you keep the affected animal extra clean to minimize reinfection with any oocysts shed in the feces.

The trouble with treating all your animals just because one has parasites is that you run the risk of ending up with parasites resistant to dewormers. Dewormers may not kill all the parasites and regular dosing with dewormer will mean that only those parasites resistant to the dewormer survive.

 

[denver2890]

Thanks alot. I have 2 or 3 more leopards that eat every 3 days or so that I will take fecals in on. Im going to a new vet tomorrow by the way. Also, when quarantining an animal is that just housing it alone? I keep all my animals in their own tubs in my racks. Or would being next to his tub be any risk?

 

[BGalloway]

Quarantining is keeping one or more infected animals away from the healthy population of animals.

Parasites shed in feces can be spread by the fecal oral rout, that doesn't mean the gecko has to eat another gecko's feces, it mean the gecko has to walk on the feces and get some eggs stuck to his/her feet, then walk through the water bowl/mealworm dish/calcium dish or a cricket might crawl over the poo and get eggs stuck to it. the gecko then eats/drinks from any of these things and reinfects itself.

So being next to his tub is no risk for other geckos, just follow quarantine procedures like keeping his tank very clean, washing out and disinfecting his water dish and calcium dish, if you use a substrate like tile, repticarpet, or shelf liner make sure to wash and disinfect it. Don't forget to wash your hands very well, take care of all your healthy animals first and then take care of the infected animals last, that way if anything does stay on your hands or you forget to wash them you won't run the risk of contaminating the tank of a healthy animal.

All your animals might be carrying this parasite at low levels so ask your vet about appropriate deworming protocol, how many eggs need to be in the fecal to warrant treatment or will you go by behavior of the animals and run fecals to make sure the symptoms are from parasites etc.