Coccidia tips please

[Spikeshuman]

I posted a whole thing asking on help with coccidia. I am not sure why.. but it got completely deleted. Spike got diagnosed with large amounts of coccidia and protozoa today. The doc gave her Albon mixed with something for the protozoa. She has had her first dose.. which was really difficult to get in her. He said theres no real way for me to kill off the coccidia other than to bake her stuff. Only her branch can be baked. Her carpet.. hammock.. etc obviously cant be baked. I took everything out but her carpet and hammock right now. I am going to wipe out the tank and put down paper towels.. other than that what can I do for her to help with this? Not sure if its relevant.. but she is 4 months.. 15.5 inches.. 200g.

 

[mikewithsfi]

Continue the meds as prescribed, and continue to clean clean clean. If you have an extra tank to hold your beardie for a few as a temp then use it. Then take everything out of the infected tank, and wipe the tank with a damp paper towel. Once this is done you want to use a mixture of 1/4 cup of bleach to a gallon of water and and start wiping down the cage and cleaning everything that was in the tank with the mixture. Allow the mixture to sit in the tank for about 15 minutes before you start rinsing. Now rinse the tank and items until you can no longer smell the bleach. Then let the tank dry completely. Once everything is completely dry set the tank back up.

 

[Spikeshuman]

The vet said bleach wont kill the coccidia. I doused the inside of the tank.. and her hammock with boiling water.. and thats all she has in there right now plus some paper towels. Not sure if that does the trick but he said a 250 degree oven would kill it.. so I am hoping so will boiling water.. not quite 250 but close-ish. I was going to boil her other tank items too and bake her branch. I actually have several tanks.. a 20g long.. a 10g.. the 75g and the 125g have fish in them though. She would be squished in the small space but the 20 could work.

 

[ohmybandit]

I'm currently going through the coccidia problem and morphmom has helped me so much. Do you have a steamer? You can steam the tank otherwise you can buy professional disinfectant from beardeddragon.co, it's in a pink bottle and is supposed to be really good and its 9%ammonia. I take everything out of the tank, spray it with the cleaner wait 15 min, rinse it boiling hot water And then I steam everything. Might be a bit excessive but I'm persistent on beating this. The professional cleaner has been recommended here by everyone and its only $6 I believe.

I had a branch in mine but I took it out since I don't want to constantly bake it and bought her a big plastic one since I can just douse it with the spray and its easier to clean.

 

[mikewithsfi]

Ok so I did some research since your last post, and dug deep on the web. Many people use bleach to kill coccidia, however many people believe that bleach will not kill this parasite, and your vets says the same thing. If I had a microscope and coccidia sample I could put it to test to see if bleach kills this parasite, but I have neither. The other product that is suggested to kill coccidia is ammonia. I am hoping this article url does not get removed but Amber technology wrote an article on coccidia http://ambertech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/8-steps-to-Overcoming-Cocidia-Giardia-and-Campylobacter-v.r-3-13-12.pdf the last paragraph on cleaning Qoute " You may use ammonia instead to kill Coccidia. DO NOT mix ammonia and bleach as it will create a toxic gas. Mix 10% ammonia with 90% water. We recommend that you steam clean and use disinfectants for best results"

I hope that helped...

 

[Spikeshuman]

Thanks.. I put both of Spikes carpets in the steam cycle in my washing machine.. so they should be good. Not going to use them for a while. I boiled a huge pot of water and poured it over the entire inside of her empty tank.. I was terrified the glass would crack but it didn't She is now in a sterile tank with paper towels on the bottom. I will look into ammonia tomorrow to clean her tank items.. I will probably throw her original wood branch away... too bad since she still loves it so much. I can clean the plastic one with the ammonia.. and I can probably boil her hide since it is ceramic. I also removed her veggie bowl. Will give her washed veggies on clean paper towels till this is over.. removed water bowl too. If I make sure she poops outside her house (bath or outside) for the next few weeks should this cover it?

Doc also said this is fairly hard to completely eradicate.. but we can bring it down considerably. Has anyone completely rid their beardie of this for good?

Thank you so much for the help and tips.

 

[mikewithsfi]

To answer about pooping coccidia is transmitted through fecal matter. So if she does not poop in the tank then there is no threat of coccidia contaminating the tank further. The second question you may, not completely get rid of coccidia right away. However reptiles can live with small traces of coccidia in their system for the rest of their life. When the reptiles become stessed and their immune system becomes weak this is when the coccidia begins to cause sickness. Since your beardie has had an outbreak, try to keep her stress free, ensuring that her tank is setup correctly with lighting, heat, uvb, etc etc, and proper feeding. Once her immune system comes back to normal, if she has small traces of coccidia her immune system will keep them at bay.

 

[Spikeshuman]

Wonderful.. thank you so much. I think my main goal is going to be making sure she relieves herself outside her house.. if not forever.. at least for the next few weeks. For a while she was waiting to poo until her outdoor time.. but since it got cold last week.. I haven't let her outside. I think we will try morning baths.. hopefully that does the trick. Thanks again for all the advice and info!