pinworms and coccidia ????

so me and my boyfriend took our bearded dragon to the vet and gave them a fecal sample just to make sure he didnt have any parisites, as we got him from petsmart. turns out he has pinworms and coccidia :/ i have never had exotic pets before, only cats and dogs so i have no idea what to do. my vet left a message saying 'were calling around to try and figure out what the best treatment would be' so to me, sounds like they habe no idea what theyre doing either. can anyone direct me? we have only had him for three weeks and took him to the vet last week. he has not been eating very much the past three days. im really worried about him and i dont know what to do

Welcome to the forum! No, I'd say the vet you took him to has not a clue what they're doing, which is very bad...Bearded dragons naturally have some pinworms and coccidia in their gastrointestinal systems and most fecal samples will show positive for both, what matters is the COUNT or LOAD of the Coccidia and the Pinworms. If they are in the Low Range then typically you don't do anything, as it's normal and won't cause any problems. Only if the Counts/Load is in the Moderate to High Range will a reptile vet prescribe an Antiprotozoan Medication for the Coccidia, like Ponazuril, and an Antiparasitic/Dewormer Medication for the Pinworms, like Panacur... Sometimes if they have a high count of Coccidia and a low count of pinworms they will only treat the Coccidia and then do a follow-up fecal test after the Ponazuril treatment, and if the Coccidia is gone and the Pinworms are low, they will not treat the pinworms at all.

So you need to call your vet back and find out the Counts/Loads of both the Coccidia and the Pinworms before giving him any medications, as this vet obviously doesn't know what he's doing. We can help you with whether to treat him and what to use/what dosage if we can see his fecal test results. They should be able to email you the test results if you call them, then just post them here.

Also, I'd also post a photo of your beardie along with photos of his entire enclosure and lighting, as it's best to get his setup and lighting correct now, while it's early, before bad husbandry causes any health issues. Most pet shops and even a lot of breeders give horrible advice about what lights to use for bearded dragons, what the temperature gradient inside their enclosure should be, what diet to feed them, what substrate to use, etc. The absolute most important item you will ever purchase for your beardie is his UVB light, as they are desert reptiles and getting them both the adequate strength and proper wavelength of UVB light for at least 14 hours every day, at an appropriate distance from the basking spot, unobstructed, along with appropriate Basking Spot, Hot Side, and Cool Side temperatures within the enclosure will be responsible for whether or not he digests any of his food, absorbs and processes his nutrition, Calcium, and other nutrients and vitamins, and ultimately whether or not he grows correctly or develops any Calcium deficiencies like Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD), which is unfortunately very, very common in a lot of pet beardies because of horrible advice from the pet store employees and breeders.

So listing his age, size in length from snout to tip of tail, size of his enclosure, brand, model, type (tube, compact, or coil), color, and wattage of both your UVB light and your basking light, listing the temperature of his Cool Side, Hot Side, and Basking Spot, the type of thermometer you're using to measure the temperatures, what substrate you have in the bottom of his enclosure, and what his daily diet is (what is his live staple feeder and how many feeding sessions per day do you give him, as well as how many live insects per session does he get, as well as what his daily fresh greens and veggies are, and any commercial foods), and what Calcium and multivitamin supplements you are dusting his live feeders in and how often is a good idea so that we can help you get him setup to grow properly and stay healthy. Typically a lack of appetite in a new beardie has to do with relocation stress, but after the first week or two then it can be do to inadequate lighting, temperatures, etc.

Even more than that, you need to do what I am in the process of doing and finding a specialist. Not an exotic specialist, but a reptile specialist.

Garrus":2p22fgxa said:

Even more than that, you need to do what I am in the process of doing and finding a specialist. Not an exotic specialist, but a reptile specialist.

Click to expand...

Yes, good point that I failed to directly say...I would never take him back to that vet, he's obviously a general vet that knows nothing about reptiles, and they very often cause more harm than good, and are a horrible waste of time and money. You need to find a Certified Herp/Reptile Vet or at the very least a Reptile Vet or "Exotics Vet" that can confirm has a lot of bearded dragon experience. Typically "Exotics" vets don't know much more than general vets do, as "Exotic" simply means that they are willing to see any type of pet, regardless of whether they know anything about them or not. So you're best to find a Certified Herp/Reptile Vet and confirm over the phone that they have much bearded dragon experience.

I know too well how ignorant lots of pet owners are and try my very best to do research on pets. My beardie is 8 1/2 inches in a 40 gallon tank. he has a 10.0 reptisun UVB bulb UNDER his mesh cage top (i have it stuck to the side of the tank using the strong velcro strips) I have three temperature monitors. One strip temp monitor that is at the top of his cool side is at 70 right now. I have a humidity and temp one stuck to the middle of the other end of his cage and the humidity is inbetween 50-60, the temp is 96. And lastly we have a digital thermometer which has a lil cord that we can move around easily to find the temp of any area in the cage. It is on his lil tree right now, where he is and the temp is reading 98. I don't know his age, the petstore did not tell us. He is 23 grams (when we took him to the vet a few days ago). We are using carpet for his substrate as I know the loose substrate can be ingested and cause impaction. We got the 40 gallon Zoo Med brand bearded dragon kit. We chucked the sand and the UVB coiled bulb. We agve Deep Dome lamp fixtures for the basking bulb (Repti Basking Spot Lamp brand) and a black CHE (All Living Things brand) We have been giving him bottled spring water only but I have never seen him drink. We spritz him with the spring water every so often. We have offered him two different kind of pellets the kind we have now is Rep Cal brand Growth Formula for juvenile bearded dragons (they are red green and yellow pellets) I spray these with the water also but I have never seen him eat them. We have been giving him small crickets (we were getting them from petsmart/petco but last batch we got is from a local pet shop) Crickets are what hes been getting most, but I also have given him small dubia roaches (from petco) and we just recently got small horned worms from the local pet shop and gave him those. I gave him a few canned meal worms when we first got him but then read that they are not very nutritious so didnt offer more and I also gave him two super worms once but then again read that they were not good. As far as veggies I have offered him kale, mustard greens, dandylion greens, collard greens, carrots, butternut squash, yellow squash, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon and black berries. I've only ever seen him eat the kale, mustard and collard greens. I usually leave the veggies in his food dish but ive never seen him eat them. He doesnt ever eat anything thats not moving, even when i hand feed him i have to sort of twirl the greens before he will eat them. On days where my bf and I don't work 8-5 I offer him live food three times. I still try to offer live food twice when I get home after five but sometimes at night around 9 he starts glass surfing and doesnt stop unless I turn the lights off. He was eating really great but the past few days he hasnt been eating as much crickets. I offered him collard greens tonight and he seemed to like them a lot! I know this is horrible but I really never could count the number of crickets he ate we tried keeping track but he would eat them so fast it was hard. I know I should be paying close attention to that. The calcium we use to dust his crickets is National Geographic brand (from petsmart) and it is Reptile Calcium Supplement Powder with vitamin D3. I also have some Zoo Meds Reptivite that came with the cage (a trial size) but I have not used it. I give the crickets gut load and the same fruits and veggies I offer Goomy and I use the Flukers brand cricket quencher (it says calcium fortified) If i missed any questions im sorry! Let me know if there is any other info you need. and if there is anything im doing wrong dont hesitate to call me out. I am a new reptile parent. im an expert with cats and dogs but this is all new to me and I have been trying very hard to learn all i can about them.

i forgot to say we dont always turn the CHE on at night. I got it just in case it ever got too cold at night but usually it stays around 70 with all his lights off. Is it important to keep it consistent? I read that as long as its not under 65 degrees he should be fine. Also I put a pillow case in his cage folded up at night for him to sleep on, last night he kind of put his head under a corner of it. also this morning when I fed him calcium crickets he would not touch them, but then my bf offered him ones without calcium and he ate some. not much. hes only eaten about 9 crickets today total

May I suggest a diet switch to dubia roaches or another kind of cockroach? Arthur isn't crazy about crickets but he loves his dubia.Might want to try them out and see if yours will take them. Only problem is you have to put the calcium on by hand I find.