Is the advice of my vet trustworthy?

[Bmh123]

So after a couple months of owning my Bearded Dragon, Maximus, we've encountered our first health obstacle. It seems he somehow retained shed on a scale on his back. Yes, a scale. Being a worry-wort I immediately sought the attention of his vet for a second opinion. She couldn't tell me what caused the scale to blacken (though I was pretty sure I knew) and suggested we run a fecal. I inclined, just to be safe. After over a week (which I thought strange for such a simple procedure) she finally got back to me. Apparently he had very small amounts of pinworms and coccidia in his stool. She said the pinworms were not pathological and were not worth treating in their numbers but the coccidia, due to his "condition" were, despite that the treatment would need special ordered and would wipe out his flora. By this time after a couple days of special attention, the scale shed had come off and he was the same as always. Some condition he had!
Now, we're wondering what to do. It seems silly to treat him for coccidia since they'll always be present when they're in such low numbers. Not to mention he lives in pretty clean conditions. He eats and poops outside his cage where the area is sanitized with a steam cleaner and ammonium chloride solution daily and his main cage gets cleaned the same (though his wood is baked) weekly. He continues to gain weight, act and bask normally, and eat as he always does. I could be very wrong, as I am frequently, but I feel the clear solution would be to treat the pinworms and just increase sterilization of his habitat to decrease coccidia rather than destroying everything in his intestines . Are their any other opinions? I just want to know if it's worth seeking a new vet or if I have a complete misunderstanding of what's going on.

His care information and picture are below:

He is four months old, 12" and 89 grams and lives in a 55 tank at the moment with top and side ventilation. He has a cool side of 80, warm of 90 with basking points ranging from 98 to 108. His UVB is a Megaray 100w at 12" through a screen. He eats between 30-60 crickets a day probably give or take since he has bumped up a size and gets dubias on occasion (can't feed these too much yet since my colony is still small). His veggies are a hit or miss. He gets either collard greens, mustard greens, a couple different squash, dandelion greens, and alfalfa or a mixture of the preceding each day. Whether he eats them or not is variable to the day. He recieves calcium w/o d3 six days a week, with d3 once (on a separate feeding), multivitamin w/o vA instead beta carotene twice a week, and an acidophilus probiotic powder on his crickets/veggies twice a week. He lives on rough textured tile to help out with his nails. He gets a 20 min bath four times a week and gone over with a soft bristled toothbrush once out of those four.

Thank you for your input.
Regards,
Ben and Maximus!

 

[MilkToast]

Where do you get your feeders from?

Also, introduce Maximus to vertically cut in half plump blueberries. Start mixing them in with salad and you'll probably get him eating salads very quickly.

 

[Taterbug]

Maximus is a gorgeous little guy!

If he vet didn't know what his "condition" is then. It sure how the Coccidia would be linked... Retained scales can be from things like minor damage, dehydration, previous injury, previous suptuch shed, etc.

Do you have the egg count for the Coccidia? Usually that is the determination of when to treat. Did the vet tell you what drug they would use? I had fantastic results with toltrazuril - it is a targeted coccidicide rather than a broad spectrum antibiotic like Albon.

It's totally worth trying to keep the enclosure cleaner and recheck in a few weeks if the counts are low enough. If you don't have one, pick up a handheld steamer and use that, it's safe and effective against Coccidia.

As for the time, it sounds like they send the samples out. It takes about 20 mins to do a fecal float inhouse, but some vets send it to a lab for better analysis. Sometimes the lab will find more parasites than a standard float due to the equipment used being more effective.

 

[Bmh123]

Milktoast,
My feeders were originally from premium crickets. Since the first batch, I've bred my own and keep them under equally as sterilized of an environment. I've no flies in my house at all to assist with the spread of the coccidia oocysts or the pinworm eggs, so I don't suspect them to have any association with what's going on. I'm the only potential host who comes in contact with them. I do work at a pet store where I'm in constant contact with all types of animals and people, so that's a more likely suspect to how the eggs got introduced to Maximus . I've also tried all types of his favorite snacks including blueberries, raspberries, bananas, and phoenix/horn/silkworms into his salads with little luck. If it's not a day he feels like eating salad, he won't bite the bait even if I replace his live protein meals with only salad.

Taterbug,
Those were my thoughts exactly. The retained shed was probably due to dehydration. He did have one week where he refused to eat any salad at all. The problem with this is he doesn't drink. Dripping water doesn't work, water bowls don't work, baths don't work. I've determined it's because of the gutload his crickets are on (It's one I've made with a high water content) and the water from his salad, especially the squash. He was definitely suffering from a bit of dehydration that week, which was when his body shed came off (the scale was on his back). Finally, he ate a bit of squash from my hand after his shed and his skin popped right back into place like a rubber band. He then resumed to eat a good bit out of his bowl and we haven't had a problem since.
She did not give me the coccidia egg count, I can ask for it today. All I know is she said the count for both pinworms and coccidia were low and normally not worth treatment, but due to his "condition" we should.
I do have a steam cleaner and F10SC I use for cleaning. I couldn't live without them .
That's a good point about the exam, you're right.

Thanks for your responses.

 

[Taterbug]

That's great, Maximus sounds like he has impeccable care by a great owner.I too love the F10SC, It really sounds like you are doing everything really well. He's a lucky lizard.

 

[Bmh123]

Update: I called my vet to get a count on the coccidia and to get him some panacur to take out the pinworms before doing any drastic for the coccidia and it seems she decided to take another leave for a week. (She did the week before his appointment too.) It seems it will be impossible to get good attention to Maximus with a vet around here without constantly scheduling $69.00 appointments every other day. To the here and now, I would like to proceed with treating his pinworms, however I do not like the idea of waiting a week for shipping on panacur. I know it's a universal medicine often used in dogs and cats too for deworming, are there products with the same % of Fenbendazole anyone knows of I might be able to attain locally and would it be okay to use so long as I adjusted the dosing? Pay no attention to my frustration, thanks :|

 

[willige54]

I would recommend a vet who is a member of Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians (ARAV).
www.arav.org/Directory.htm