Wanted to give an update on Frank's situation.
We did another fecal test with our vet and the result came back positive for coccidian parasite Isospora. Frank has undergone his 6 day treatment with Albon (sulfadimethoxine) and his poop today was completely normal. We stripped his cage down and cleaned it with Ammonia, also steam cleaned it three times while he stayed in another small sterile tank for 3 nights. I will continue to steam clean his enclosure over the next month while he's out adventuring in the living room.
Frank is still not eating unaided. I feed him a slurry through a syringe every other day. It's a mix of chopped up worms and crickets with baby food to make it flow. He takes that well but need him to start eating on his own soon. This whole situation has been going on and off since August of 2021. We want to get Frank back to normal asap so I will run down his daily routine and environment settings incase we are doing anything wrong.
Frank is 18 months old. His lights come on at 8am. He basks and moves around the enclosure. We change the water daily and offer him fresh salads / live bugs which he refuses but we try. We leave them in the enclosure. We leave him be until lunch. I working from home so I take him out and we make my lunch together. We both sit outside in the sun and I eat lunch while be basks on my leg for 1 hour. I bring him inside and place him at the patio door with only the bug screen and he basks for another hour on his own. Once the sun has left that area I feed him and he adventures around, poops and finds a cold spot to sleep. I pick him up at 4pm and bring him in the office with me. He spends 2 hours on the heat pad I have setup for 97F surface temp that I check with a heat gun before I put him on it. At 6pm I take him back to his enclosure, offer him food, mist or
bath him and he basks before lights out a 8pm.
He has a basking bulb 150w on a dimmer. The surface temp is 105F / ambient 95F in that area. He has a ceramic heat emitter (150w) on the other side hooked up to a thermostat to keep the cool side at 80F day and 70F night. There is a 24" 10.0 UVB strip mounted inside the enclosure. I removed all the loose substrate and I'm using paper towel until he's 100%. I think I will replace the substrate with tile or something similar once he's better. (it was 70% play sand 30% dirt which he liked very much, digging etc).
Current setup, Exo Terra 36" x 18" x 24"h.
Basking lamp left, Ceramic heat emitter right, thermostat, timer, heat gun, UVB inside.
24" Zoo Med 10.0 UVB inside.
Basking spot 105F
Franks favorite upper basking spot 86F
Cool side 82F
Thank you again for all the responses, we love Frank and only want the best for him.
- Paul, Lily & Frank.