Bought a baby beardie who is chock full of coccidia!

[hibutan]

So on thursday (8/3/17) I went to Pinellas Country Reptiles in Florida (they are a great place that does take good care of their lizards) and purchased my baby girl, Luna. They tell me she is three months old. The day after I bought her, I took her to get fecal tested and she came back with off the charts amount of coccidia! So I brought her in that day to the vet to get her medicine. The vet instructed us to 5% bleach her entire enclosure and stuff every other day until the coccidia goes away.

I called PCRP and informed them about the coccidia problem and they plan on treating the other two beardies that were in the same cage as Luna.

My reason for posting is-
does anyone have any tips on how to rid of coccidia quicker? Is there anything I can do for her during this time to make her more comfortable?

This is her btw

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[kingofnobbys]

You are limited by the time it takes for at least one life cycle of the parasite and if your don't thoroughly and regularly disinfect their viv and all the furnature there in it will be impossible to eradicate as the it's eggs lay dormant until ingested on food or anything the dragon licks.

I think the life span of a coccidia is 8 - 10 days, and you wont kill off 100% of the coccidia in one life span, so count on time needed to treat for coccidia = maybe a 2 - 3 life cycles ( a month , maybe longer).

You need to get the dragon to a GOOD REPTILE / HERP vet who will likely give you a treatment plan that will need to be followed to the letter.

So you need to find a competent reptile/herp vet who knows his stuff , general and exotics vets are very hit and miss so best avoided.

The treatment plan will look something like

1) testing to determine the strain of coccidia (and if ,indeed, this is what the infection is)

and then need to take a three pronged strategy :

2) an anticoccidial medication

3) an antibiotic to treat secondary gut infection

4) regular F10sc sterilization of the dragon's viv and all it's furnature (I'd recommend F10sc used at 1:125 dilution to be sure of killing all coccidia spores/eggs).

5) regular testing during treatment to establish if the anticoccidial and antibiotic are working (some strains of coccidia are drug resistant).

See for more detail the discussion and what has already been pointed out in your other thread - viewtopic.php?f=45&t=235387&start=15

F10sc diluted 1:125 is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAN BLEACH , and safer to use.

and unless you do this , your dragon will never be cured.

There ARE NO QUICK FIXES .

 

[Mysty]

Yes, bleach is not very effective against coccidia. Steam cleaning is good for cleaning viv decor, food bowls etc quickly. The steam has to get up to a certain temp to kill coccidia but you dont need an expensive steam cleaner to achieve results.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, how is your beardie doing ? Is he eating yet.....if so is his appetite good ? Sometimes stress [ like from going to a new home ] can cause the number of parasites to spike so some people recommend waiting for a few weeks before testing. Then once they've settled in the number imay be much lower in which case they can be fine without treatment. So if he's eating well + active you might want to retest him in a few weeks or month.

The reason for being careful about hurrying to give a new baby meds. is that it can completely take away the beardies appetite even if probiotics are given.

So it can be a hard decision to make but if he's eating well you might want to wait to test him again to see if the count goes down, but if he's really lethargic + no appetite then it may be best to go ahead with treatment. Along with the F10 cleaner or the steam cleaner, another thing that kills coccidia is a 10% ammonia solution but you'd definitely need to make sure it is rinsed very well after use.

 

[hibutan]

I'm sad to inform you all that Luna left us yesterday.
I did everything I could to keep her alive and healthy, but the coccidia was just too much.
Thanks so much for all your help and I'll keep it in mind if I ever have another with coccidia.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Oh so sorry .... RIP little Luna.

Please make sure to very thoroughly sterile all her furnature and her viv BEFORE getting a new reptile to take over her home , else you will wind up infecting the new one with coccidia too.