Just checking in to see how the patient is doing...I'm glad she's getting better a little each day,. that's a sign she's finally on the "upswing". I can't believe she's gaining weight consistently throughout this entire ordeal, what a positive sign! I don't know how old your son is, but I think she's going to be around for a long, long time...hey, what's her name? Either you've not mentioned it or I've just forgotten, lol. I'm sorry your vet isn't keeping in communication with you, damn vets (and human doctors), they act like it's a hardship for them to return a phone call within a week. I am starting to realize just how lucky I am to have had the same Certified Reptile Vet for the last 15 years and the same Certified Avian Vet for the last 6 years. I never really thought about it being difficult to find a good specialty vet because I was born, raised, and have lived in the State College, PA area all my life, minus a year in Charlotte, NC (never needed a vet down there, I actually drove the 8+ hours back to State College once with my first dragon, Iggy, in 2007 when he had an upper respiratory infection so he could see my CRV, I used it as an excuse to visit friends and family, lol). I have always absolutely hated Penn State University, their football team (all their sports teams), I'm a die-hard Notre Dame fan and Penn State football is literally a religion here, more like a cult actually, it's hard to describe. Anyway, I never realized how lucky I have been to have access to their School of Agriculture and their School of Animal Health Sciences. I just always assumed you could find a good Certified Herp or Avian vet anywhere in the US. Wow, have my eyes been open wide just from reading the posts telling stories about trips to "exotics" vets...frustrating indeed.
Well, if she's consistently gaining weight and eating regularly then the parasites, whatever they were identified as being, are definitely not an issue right now, so that's awesome. And yes, I would definitely weigh her daily and keep adjusting her Allopurinol dosage as needed, because it wasn't until you adjusted the dose that she showed an almost immediate improvement (of course, she was getting half the dose she should have been getting, lol).
Tracie, on the subject of parasites and natural treatments, you mentioned Basil and Mint. I'm not at all familiar with any natural parasite treatments for dragons, like I said I've always strictly followed and trusted modern medicine and stuck to prescription meds, but recently I'm swaying in the total opposite direction (which amazes me). You've really opened my eyes up to this topic, and I really appreciate and thank you for that, because lately the sheer number of over-medicated dragons on here has gotten totally out of control, to the point that the owners don't even really know what's wrong with their dragons, they just keep getting different prescription meds on a "just in case" or a "guessing" basis without any diagnostic testing at all. And that's not responsible medicine, they're playing with strong, harsh, potentially lethal drugs that cause the dragons so much physical stress that they become worse off than they were to begin with. So my question to you is, do you have any particular suggestions as to natural treatments for both Coccidia and pinworms? The reason I'm asking is that Dee Dee has gone back and forth in the past week with his appetite, he was really starting to worry me so yesterday I looked at his fecal sample under my scope and I saw scant Coccidia and 6 pinworm eggs, so I have to think that this is the cause of his spotty appetite. He hasn't eaten on his own now in 4 days, I've been force feeding BSFL and slurries I make in my blender that include collard, mustard, and turnip greens, arugula, butternut squash, and some RepCal or Mazuri Bearded Dragon Pellets for protein (he's only 6 months old and I'm out of Alfalfa, just ordered some), along with calcium, multivitamin, probitotics with digestive enzymes, and bee pollen. So I'd love to throw in whatever herbs or supplements you know of working to treat Coccidia and Pinworms. I'm dropping a fecal sample off to my Certified Reptile Vet as soon as he goes today and I asked him to do a gram stain and also a streak plate to confirm the Coccidia and the Pinworms, plus anything I may have missed, and rule out any bacterial or other protozoa. I told my vet I'd rather try some natural treatments for a week before putting him on Panacur (I don't think the Coccidia is nearly high enough to need treating with prescription drugs, but I'll definitely treat it with natural herbs, supplements, etc. just in case), and he was fine with that as long as I do a repeat fecal after the week of natural treatment, and I get him on the meds if he still isn't eating on his own. So I'd appreciate any recommendations you could give me Tracie, thanks again...
And I'm sorry I hijacked your thread, lol, but it was just coincidental that Tracie mentioned the Basil and Mint to treat parasites, so I figured we could both learn something about this.