Coccidia...bunch of questions.

Hi, I'm a newbee to this site and hope to get some info on my juv Beardie. Got her at PetsMart 5/21/15 and she was probably 3/4 months old. Was told she was a "Fancy" Bearded Dragon, very orange and kinda smooth. (Haha fancy!!) She's a huge eater...loves greens and fruit, eaten in her cage, probably 20 small crickets twice a day fed in a small plastic container box outside of her cage, plus 20 Phoenix Worms by hand, plus bit of scrambled egg too. Took her for wellness check a few days ago...exotic vet said she looked great, liked how I was caring for her, good weight (215gm) good setup, did a fecal and called a few days later saying she has a really high isospora coccidian parasite count/infection. Rx Albon once a day .03 for 2 weeks, stop for 2 weeks then redose for 2 weeks !! Then recheck fecal. She's only had 2 doses and it has already affected her appetite...barely ate today. I'm SO worried about her. Been reading how awful Albon is...why would he Rx her for such a long time?? Also...in the a.m. after I feed her breakfast, she gets a warm bath which she promptly goes potty in. Then I put her in a nice ,sunny open (screened) window for a bit or back under her lights and I dump the plastic container into the toilet and bleach it out. She rarely goes potty in her cage, if she does I remove the reptile carpet, clean underneath with reptile furniture cleaner and bleach carpet and hang dry,replace with spare. I feed and bathe her in the same plastic container. Now I read that bleach doesn't kill the parasite so have I just been reinfecting her all this time ? She has never acted sick...tho her poo smells pretty gross, but isn't it suppose to?? She quite active, alert, seemed just fine. I have no idea how to get her to take a probiotic...giving her the Rx is pretty awful. I'm SO scared she'll get sick from the stupid Albon and I'll lose her =( Thoughs/advice/help??? Thanks so much.

Hi there, sorry your pretty girl [ sounds like an orange leatherback ] has this problem. I think giving Albon for that amount of time may do a lot of harm and I personally would cut it out if my beardie stopped eating. There is another anti coccidial med. called Ponazuril....you can actually purchase it from beardeddragon.co. You only need a few doses compared to the Albon and it's less harsh. Someone may have other suggestions.....the go to person here is one of the mods. named Tracie [ username Drache613 ] Send her a p.m. and see what she thinks.

Hello Vicky,

I did PM you so let me know you received it!
How are things going today?

Tracie