Coughing and Pinworms...again :(

[DopplerMel2000]

Rexasaurus had an infection of some sort (vet didn't say respiratory though) back in January and he was coughing a lot so he was put on Orbax for 21 days. It seemed to clear up and he was much better after a few weeks. Now, the other day I noticed another bad coughing spell out of the blue so I got another refill of the Orbax and took a stool sample with me just to check that as well. He's got the Pinworms now too? He had them well over a year ago when I was feeding him lots of crickets at the time while he was growing. I read a lot about it and found crickets may have been the cause so I stopped completely.

So I feed him a lot of super worms. Does anyone know if these can cause pinworms like crickets? His favorite are Hornworms but I only get them every once in a while for him and he only likes freshly molted dubias since I have a colony (yes he's a bit spoiled lol). He's 2 years old and refused to eat vegetables after he turned 1 so every once in a while I try to force him to eat a little collards because I know he needs it at his age. His temps have always been fine and I've even increased his temps a little now that he's sick again. His appetite is still good thankfully and he's bathed every other day and he usually always poops in there, hardly ever in his cage. He's a pretty clean guy so I guess I'm just not understanding why the sickness all of a sudden? I plan on doing another major cleaning of his cage tonight when I get off work and I've always used cabinet liner as a substrate, but I'm going to be throwing that out (needed to be replaced anyway soon) and using newspaper until he gets better to keep it as clean as possible in there.

Hope I'm doing the right thing. I can't stand when my little buddy is sick and not himself and I'm grateful to have a good vet in the area. I just wish I knew how to keep these sicknesses from coming back like this.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....is Rex still coughing ? Maybe it was just a spell and not an actual R.I ? Hopefully he'll be fine. Also, do you know what the level of pinworms is ? A low level [ under +3 ] usually does not need to be treated, and since he has a good appetite you might just let him be. Beardies seem to get pins out of the blue, whether they are fed crickets or not. But as long as Rex is not acting sick and he's eating well, then he is really not bad off. He should be O.K.

 

[DopplerMel2000]

Hi there....is Rex still coughing ? Maybe it was just a spell and not an actual R.I ? Hopefully he'll be fine. Also, do you know what the level of pinworms is ? A low level [ under +3 ] usually does not need to be treated, and since he has a good appetite you might just let him be. Beardies seem to get pins out of the blue, whether they are fed crickets or not. But as long as Rex is not acting sick and he's eating well, then he is really not bad off. He should be O.K.

They didn't say what level he was, but I usually give fecal samples twice a year and the last time they said everything was good, that was in the winter. I'm assuming it's on the higher side but I think I'll ask them the next time. I didn't know there were levels like that. I haven't noticed him coughing since I started him back on the antibiotics though, but you could be right maybe it was just a spell? Do they get spells like that and it goes away? The coughing was so bad just that one day but it scared me enough to where I didn't want to even wait to see if it went away. I hope him being on the antibiotics is ok like this but I did notice the roof of his mouth had a bright red spot, almost inflamed looking like the vet showed me the last time, and it looks like that's back again. That got lighter when he was on this medicine before. wish I could get a picture of it. It's on the center front near his teeth of the roof of his mouth. It was never a diagnosed R.I., he said it was just some sort of infection.

I did pick up the Pancur last night and started him on it. This does make a lot of sense though because he definitely has not been himself. He's my first beardie (I've had him since he was a few months old) and I honestly thought maybe he was just getting real lazy because the weather got cold here again for a few days, I know that probably sounds stupid lol. But now that I know he's sick like this, I'm noticing the symptoms. Luckily no blood in his stool like the last time but the poor guy has been straining a lot getting it out. I really worry about a prolapse. I got hornworms last night to give him a boost of hydration to help that too. He gobbled 2 of them up even after all his medicine last night like a good boy. :lol: I also put all his cage furniture in the oven last night to kill off any bacteria. I like to avoid using bleach on that stuff and I read the oven works just as well. He seemed to be a little more perky when he woke up this morning so we shall see! :-D