Let's talk about Parasites!

Hey all!

We suspect parasites in two of our rescue dragons (because MAN, that stink!) and are going to be treating them with an appropriate dosing of panacur to see if it remedies their poop situations, along with reptile probiotics to build them back up afterwards.

Been working with reptiles in different capacities for a long time so I don't want anyone to assume I'm new at keeping or treating rescues in general, but I have a bearded-dragon-parasite-specific question that I don't yet know the answer to. Most of my medical experience has been with snakes, and beardies are relatively new to me as far as parasite situations go.

We have really nice bioactive tanks for these guys which we set up before learning they may have parasites. Now, I know they will need to be on clean paper towel for a while, lest they re-infect themselves after treatment from parasite-filled poop, but does anyone know how long various bearded dragon parasites can persist in the environment? I'd love to be able to keep them out of the bioactive tanks for the parasites that may be (and probably are) in that one tank - but I'd also love to keep the tanks 'alive' and going for long enough that they can be reintroduced once they're parasite-free and not get re-infected. (Instead of scrapping the whole project -- the 'cleanup crews' are really doing well and I'd rather not start all over again if we can avoid it!)

Does anyone know enough about various bearded dragon parasites to know how long most of the common ones will die off after the dragons are taken out?

Thanks in advance! These guys were both quite ill when we got them -- signs of MBD, lethargy, constipation and severe dehydration -- they're both doing very well now aside from the horribly stinky and slimy poops!

Depends on the parasites. Pinworms are something like a few weeks. Things like coccidia can persist in the environment for months, potentially years.

Have you identified the parasites and load levels? You can look up specific life cycles and dragon specific species will be similar to other animals in terms of how long the oocysts are viable.

If you have high loads of coccidia I’d provably remove the cuc and scrap the soil. There is some speculation that healthy soil and a thriving cuc would help reduce the parasite load in the environment but you’d be at risk of reinfection and would want to do a lot of monitoring.