unkown meds for my beardie?

Hi, my beardie has been recently diagnoised with Coccidia . They didnt tell me the count but they said he has alot. They gave me the meds but its unfamilar to me, and its call "Metronidaz" to i guess kill or reduce the amount of paracites. Does anyone herd of this kind of med? Does anyone know how to clean clear of and parasites off the furniture cause i dont want to replace it it its infected with coccidia. And how to clean the cage? i have this thing called wipeout 1 if any of you have heard of it and it works well but it doesnt get rid of coccidia. Can i use hot water on the cage? and most of my furniture is wood so does anyone know how to treat wood? soorry for being so long but this is my first time dealing with coccidia and im so worried!

I am fighting coccidia myself so I will tell you what I have found out. Don't worry too much about the Coccidia but prepare to be really good at cleaning. I have 7 beardies. 2 came from breeders (one has low coccidia), 2 are older rescues (one had high coccidia) and 3 are from pet store chains (all have coccidia at different levels). That is how common it is depending on where you got your beardie from (age seems to factor in too). In fact, it is so prevalent in beardies that there are some who think that it is a commensal organism. This is why vets usually do not treat coccidia unless the levels are high or the beardie is showing symptoms such as weight loss, lethargy, diarrhea (smelly) etc. Usually dragons can either clear it themselves or they are not affected by low levels. It is during periods of illness or stress that their levels can skyrocket and then it may affect them adversely. This is the reason many folks want to get rid of all coccidia in their dragons to be safe but it is not easy to do. Since you only have one dragon you have a good chance of getting rid of it though.

I could be wrong, but Metronidazole (Flagyl) is not usually prescribed alone for coccidia. Did they perhaps send you home with metronidazole and something called albon or ponazuril?

As for cleaning, recommended things to do are:
1. Take everything out of your tank that you can. Minimal, barebones furnishings is what you are looking for.
2. You can put your beardie on paper towels. As soon as there is a poop remove and replace all the towels. Replace the towels once per day regardless.
3. You can soak your wood in diluted bleach or ammonia solution, rinse well then pop it in the oven at 285 degrees for 1 hour.
4. There is conflicing opinions on the best cleaners to wipe down your tank but ammonia and steam are thought to be the most effective. Quaternary Ammonium cleaners (quats) or diluted bleach sprayed on and left for 15 minutes are also thought to be effective. I believe Wipe out has quats in it. I'm not sure about using hot water since I thinkit has to be 165 degrees to kill coccida.
5. Clean up all poops ASAP, then clean with ammonia/quats/steam. Some folks recommend cleaning the tank each day or setting up a temp tank since cleaning is a pain.
6. Don't put your furnishings back in the tank till the coccidia is gone.
7. I have read that allowing your beardie to drink from their bath water is a no-no during treatment. This is due to the coccidia coming off the dragons skin, floating in the water then getting ingested when they drink.


You can get a Shark steam cleaner for a reasonable price. Steaming is pretty easy with no chemicals but you have to remove your dragon while you use it and then let it dry/air out before they go back in.

Anitibiotics and parasite treaments are hard on beardies. Get some probiotics (soy yoghurt, Acidophils+, bene-bac etc.) to replace their normal gut flora. Makes sure they stay hydrated too.

Good reads:
http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/parasitecare/
http://www.exclusivedragons.com/HealthIssues.html
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Parasites.html

First off , no i didnt get anyhting prescibed with the Metronidazole thats just it. Oh never i did i got something but its not to help with the parasites its to cut down the smell of poop they said their was something esle causing the poop to smell. Its called Toltrazuril. if i do get soyyourt what knid to i get just any soy yougurt that sugar free? and do i give it to him after the treatment for parasites? Another question wont puting flamable wood in the oven at 285 catch it on fire. and when i take the ammonia how much do i mix it in the water? 50% ammonia with water? do i fully submerged the log and for how long. Lol sorry for so much questions.

Toltrazuril can be used to treat coccidia according to what I read online. Flagyl is for flagellates (giardia), protozoans and can help with other bad bacteria when the levels are out of whack.

I'm not sure if the yogurt has to be sugar free. Just don't use milk based. An actual probiotic is recommended more than yoghurt but that will do if it is all you can get. You should probably search this site for soy yoghurt since I don't use it and therefore have no experience.

Ammonia should be 10% I believe. I have never used it because I have chemical sensitivities due to a medical condition. I think soak time is 30 minutes.

I put my soaked mopani wood and sandblasted grapevine in the oven with no issues. You can decrease the temp to 200 for 2 hours if that makes you more comfortable but when the wood is wet it should not burn unless its close to the heating elements. Or even add some tinfoil to tips if its a tall piece. Here's a good thread that talks about it a bit.

viewtopic.php?p=759766

Thanks, do you know anything about the repti rugs? i just put my in the washer and add soap and then put it in the dryer but i dont think that will kill all the bacteria and or parasites? any suggestions? hopfully i have a conventional oven so it wont burn the wood. How is your beadie doing with coccidia?

Others have said they put theirs in the washer and dryer but you might need to soak and rinse in bleach or quats first? Maybe someone else can chime in on this one. I melted a portion of one in my convection oven so I just threw all of my rugs away since I didn't want to deal with it LOL.

I have a heated wood in both a conventional oven and a convection oven with no problems. When the wood is wet it resists burning pretty well. Just check on it from time to time and use tinfoil on top etc. I also heat my slate tiles, bamboo and ceramic dishes in the oven. I let them do a slow cooldown in the oven to avoid severe temp changes which could lead to cracking.

Thanks for asking. All of my beardies are doing well considering. They range from 8-400+ grams, a couple have MBD, others have issues from malnutrition, dehydration, bad lighting, pinworms, hookworms, falgellates and coccidia. Since I have 7 of them, I am doing my own screens and floats to monitor them as well as figure out who needs to see the vet. If I get rid of the coccidia completely with the number I have, it will be a miracle. But as long as I keep moving in a positive direction, get all their parasites to dissappear or go down to low numbers and they all keep improving and are happy, I'll consider that success.