Coccida & anti-parasitics

[Katie92]

I bought my 3ish month old dragon on 3/30/24. Once home we noticed he had nothing but urates and blood in it. We took him into our vet Monday and he was diagnosed with high levels of coccida so we were give .4ml of Ponazuril for 3 days. We finished treatment yesterday. Once his tank was up to temp this morning he regurgitated all his supper from last night completely undigested (all he ate was one bokchoy piece and 6 wax worms, he doesn't have much or an appetite right now) and though he finally did have actual feces they are still bloody. I've called the vet and am waiting on him to return my call but I was curious if anyone had any insight. He has the arcadia T5 12% uvb and the arcadia 100W heat lamp PAR38. I'll have a temp gun today for basking spot temp reads but his ambient Temps run 88°-92° and 75°-85° on the cool side. Humidity is at 15% on hotside and 30° on cool side.

 

[KarrieRee]

I bought my 3ish month old dragon on 3/30/24. Once home we noticed he had nothing but urates and blood in it. We took him into our vet Monday and he was diagnosed with high levels of coccida so we were give .4ml of Ponazuril for 3 days. We finished treatment yesterday. Once his tank was up to temp this morning he regurgitated all his supper from last night completely undigested (all he ate was one bokchoy piece and 6 wax worms, he doesn't have much or an appetite right now) and though he finally did have actual feces they are still bloody. I've called the vet and am waiting on him to return my call but I was curious if anyone had any insight. He has the arcadia T5 12% uvb and the arcadia 100W heat lamp PAR38. I'll have a temp gun today for basking spot temp reads but his ambient Temps run 88°-92° and 75°-85° on the cool side. Humidity is at 15% on hotside and 30° on cool side.

The meds upset his stomach - please get him some probiotic I will post a link for you- please get 2 digital probe thermometers place one on the spot where he basks- you want that temp 105-110- ambient temp around 100- cool side 80ish during the day- whare is your Arcadia placed? Top of screen or inside the tank? The screen will determine where the uvb needs to go
Reptophilus Tracie can help w/ the meds issue -- did you disinfect the tank after the pooping -- you want something like F 10 Rescue or Wipe Out -- or he will reinfect himself --
@Drache613

 

[Katie92]

The meds upset his stomach - please get him some probiotic I will post a link for you- please get 2 digital probe thermometers place one on the spot where he basks- you want that temp 105-110- ambient temp around 100- cool side 80ish during the day- whare is your Arcadia placed? Top of screen or inside the tank? The screen will determine where the uvb needs to go

OK I'll definitely grab him some probiotics! Both heat and UVB are on top of mesh but i leave the mesh off if he is under supervision. I've got a temp gun coming in but will definitely order a couple probes today too. I've attached photos of his lighting. Does this work. I'll be ordering him a 4x2x2 from dubai roaches this weekend and will be able to put them inside once we get it set up.

 

[KarrieRee]

OK I'll definitely grab him some probiotics! Both heat and UVB are on top of mesh but i leave the mesh off if he is under supervision. I've got a temp gun coming in but will definitely order a couple probes today too. I've attached photos of his lighting. Does this work. I'll be ordering him a 4x2x2 from dubai roaches this weekend and will be able to put them inside once we get it set up.

Ok he needs a piece of basking decor directly under the UVB 12-15 inches --- your 120 gallon tank is good and the UVB will need to go inside the tank -- your basking bulb can stay on top of screen -- I would leave the screen off so hes getting the full UVB rays as of right now - if you want to swap sides and place the UVB towards the end of the tank w/ the screen butted up to the UVB and have your basking lamp next to it that would be good

 

[Katie92]

I've got a slate cheese board directly under his lighting. It's about 12" I'll have to measure to be positive but it's definitely close to the 12" mark. I'm so worried I'm going to loose him. I'm doing everything in my power to nurse him back to health. Our vet is almost positive he has MBD too because the local pet shop I got him from wasn't taking the best care of him. We will be doing an xray in 2 weeks when we do our follow up from the coccida. We are doing daily trips outside for real sun basking, gut loading his bugs with calcium bites and calcium powder.

 

[KarrieRee]

I've got a slate cheese board directly under his lighting. It's about 12" I'll have to measure to be positive but it's definitely close to the 12" mark. I'm so worried I'm going to loose him. I'm doing everything in my power to nurse him back to health. Our vet is almost positive he has MBD too because the local pet shop I got him from wasn't taking the best care of him. We will be doing an xray in 2 weeks when we do our follow up from the coccida. We are doing daily trips outside for real sun basking, gut loading his bugs with calcium bites and calcium powder.

I would not think he's got mbd- but your uvb you have is a good one- and outside time is good but be careful you can loose him in a second- I recommend you leave him in his tank for now to adjust to his tank and surroundings --No ENEMAS at the vet - please take a fecal in w/ you- lightly coat the insects 5 x per week ONCE per feeding-- is he eating any salads?

 

[xp29]

Coccidia is a real pain to get under control. It's damn hard to kill. It will drink bleach and spit it back out at ya. The only thing that kills it is strong ammonia (ammonia is toxic and has to be rinsed and aired to zero fumes) or high heat (200ish) degrees. Both have to be in contact with the parasite for about 10 minutes to kill it.
You need to do a very deep sanitization of his habitat and decor, dispose of anything that can't be sanitized.
The best way to beat Coccidia is to break it's life cycle, luckily for us it does have a chink in it's armor. In order to multiply it has to be pooped out and reingested. That is our chance. Beardies test everything with their tongues, so if they track through their poop and spread it around they will inevitably reingest it.
The trick to beating Coccidia is to keep their habitats sanitized, poop ABSOLUTELY has to be cleaned up asap.
3 doses seems very low for the antibiotics. Both times I've dealt with it, I had to give doses daily for a coulpe weeks. But my beardies were adult, so that might be why the low dosage.
Keep us posted on his progress, we all always root for them and get invested in everyone of them.

 

[Katie92]

Coccidia is a real pain to get under control. It's damn hard to kill. It will drink bleach and spit it back out at ya. The only thing that kills it is strong ammonia (ammonia is toxic and has to be rinsed and aired to zero fumes) or high heat (200ish) degrees. Both have to be in contact with the parasite for about 10 minutes to kill it.
You need to do a very deep sanitization of his habitat and decor, dispose of anything that can't be sanitized.
The best way to beat Coccidia is to break it's life cycle, luckily for us it does have a chink in it's armor. In order to multiply it has to be pooped out and reingested. That is our chance. Beardies test everything with their tongues, so if they track through their poop and spread it around they will inevitably reingest it.
The trick to beating Coccidia is to keep their habitats sanitized, poop ABSOLUTELY has to be cleaned up asap.
3 doses seems very low for the antibiotics. Both times I've dealt with it, I had to give doses daily for a coulpe weeks. But my beardies were adult, so that might be why the low dosage.
Keep us posted on his progress, we all always root for them and get invested in everyone of them.

Yeah I've got a hard road ahead getting this under control. I've taken everything out that I can't easily disinfect, ill be replacing his wood&petrified wood I'm also putting him in a warm bath afterwards then rinsing him off too because he keeps getting it on himself since it's not healthy feces yet. I'm going to look into the f-10, for now I'm using ammonia and a steam cleaner. This afternoon he is ravenous which is a great sign since he's barely eaten since I got him!

 

[KarrieRee]

Yeah I've got a hard road ahead getting this under control. I've taken everything out that I can't easily disinfect, ill be replacing his wood&petrified wood I'm also putting him in a warm bath afterwards then rinsing him off too because he keeps getting it on himself since it's not healthy feces yet. I'm going to look into the f-10, for now I'm using ammonia and a steam cleaner. This afternoon he is ravenous which is a great sign since he's barely eaten since I got him!

Try eBay for the F10 just the regular F10-

 

[xp29]

Yeah I've got a hard road ahead getting this under control. I've taken everything out that I can't easily disinfect, ill be replacing his wood&petrified wood I'm also putting him in a warm bath afterwards then rinsing him off too because he keeps getting it on himself since it's not healthy feces yet. I'm going to look into the f-10, for now I'm using ammonia and a steam cleaner. This afternoon he is ravenous which is a great sign since he's barely eaten since I got him!

It's great he is getting his appetite back, antibiotics usually causes them to loose it. It's also good your keeping him clean, thats the most important part of beating Coccidia.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That's great he is doing better. Ponazuril is a pretty mild medication but it's very effective.
As Karrie has suggested, a big issue is simply keeping the tank as clean as you can.
Did you ever get him a probiotic, just to help out his little tummy?
I hope he continues to improve.

Tracie