How to get rid of pinworms?

[Geoffrey16]

What is the best way to clean and disinfect the enclosure for pinworms? Would a hand steamer work to steam clean/disenfect? Ive taken everything out of the tank except his basking rock and am using paper towels as substrate. And am planning on geting his bugs shipped instead of at petsmart from now on. If the steam cleaner wont work i can also get any type of disinfectant I need. He was prescribed panacur suspension. One 0.08cc by syringe today when we get home from the vet and one in two weeks. Also what would be a good probiotic for him while he's on the treatment?

 

[CooperDragon]

Pinworms shouldn't be too bad. I would probably use F10SC and dilute it with water in a spray bottle. That's what I use for most disinfecting. It seems to be out of stock at a lot of places at the moment for some reason though. Pinworms should also be wiped out by steam/heat but it can take a bit longer to reach all surfaces depending on the type of steamer you have. A diluted bleach mixture should do the trick too, just be sure to rinse it off and let it dry well.

 

[Claudiusx]

I use a steamer for disinfecting. it will work fine as long as the steamer is powerful enough. I'd replace paper towels daily and sanitize daily too. Pinworms have a way of sticking around and the goal is to clear them from the system, and the tank.

But if you have doubts of your steamers capabilities, bleach will work too like cooper suggested.

-Brandon

 

[MrSpectrum]

Pardon my noobïveté, what kind of "steamer" are you guys referring to? I'm familiar with hotdog steamers, wallpaper steamers, hat steamers, curtain steamers, nebulizers, vaporizers and maybe a few I've forgotten about. This one's new on me.

I can see potential downside to bleach, i.e. it's bleach. Any other kinds of veterinary disinfectants, like Betadine, etc.?

 

[CooperDragon]

They are steam cleaners. They can take on various shapes but mine is a small tea kettle shape/sized device that fills with water and has a screw on lid. Plug it in and it creates high pressure as the water boils. There is a small hose and a nozzle that shoots out a pressurized stream of steam when you pull the trigger. The heat from the steam disinfects surfaces and kind of looks like a pressure washer. The nozzle of mine is not much bigger than the diameter of a pencil though so it's a bit of a pain to sanitize more than some of the smaller "furniture" with it.

 

[MrSpectrum]

IC. Tanks! [sic]

I've been looking on goggle for a list of veterinary disinfectants that kill pinworm eggs (that's what OP is asking about, right?) Not finding much on a cursory search. Does anyone know of such a list? It might be handy info for an article on prophylactic BD health.

 

[CooperDragon]

F10 is usually what I use as mentioned. My shelter uses ResCUE disinfectant by Virox which is hydrogen peroxide based and also a fairly animal and human safe option when diluted properly. I'm sure there are some other options available but I don't have firsthand experience with them.

 

[Geoffrey16]

I use a steamer for disinfecting. it will work fine as long as the steamer is powerful enough. I'd replace paper towels daily and sanitize daily too. Pinworms have a way of sticking around and the goal is to clear them from the system, and the tank.

But if you have doubts of your steamers capabilities, bleach will work too like cooper suggested.

-Brandon

How should i dilute the bleach to clean the tank. I can get the f10 but it will probably take a few days to ship.

 

[CooperDragon]

I'd probably dilute it at around 1:10 or so with water and give it 10 min of contact time before rinsing well.