RamenNoodles
Member
After a dose of panacur, flagyl, three trips to the vet for blood work and fecals, and soon to be four I've finnaly figured out what my little guy has. I believe its called Balantidium coli I've been seeing it in the trophozoite stage when its moving around and active.
You can see an example of what I've been seeing under my microscope in Figure 3, C at this link:
parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com
(Also under the Ciliophora section on this site: 5.1.2: Medically Important Protozoa)
And this website gives tips on treatment, but its for tortoises: Tortoise Trust Web - Balantidium
Now it talks about treating with Flagyl and I'm lined up with the vet to get some Flagyl soon for my lizard. I'm debating on doing a fecal again cause they only test for pinworms, coccidia, and the other super common parasites, but would it be a good idea to get the other medicines it mentions? I'll have to order them online, cause my vet won't look at the images I've taken from the fecal float I did.
I just feel so relived to be hopefully done with this whole mess. If anyone could tag the bearded dragon vet tech gods to help me that would be great!
Also it says this species is the only ciliated parasite capable of infecting humans so should I get tested for it? I have half the symptoms listed for it, but I might just be worrying too much oof.
You can see an example of what I've been seeing under my microscope in Figure 3, C at this link:
Occurrence of health-compromising protozoan and helminth infections in tortoises kept as pet animals in Germany - Parasites & Vectors
Background Exotic reptiles such as tortoises, have become increasingly common domestic pets worldwide and are known to host different gastrointestinal parasites. Some of these parasites bear zoonotic potential. In the present survey, we parasitologically examined tortoise faecal samples (n =...
parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com
(Also under the Ciliophora section on this site: 5.1.2: Medically Important Protozoa)
And this website gives tips on treatment, but its for tortoises: Tortoise Trust Web - Balantidium
Now it talks about treating with Flagyl and I'm lined up with the vet to get some Flagyl soon for my lizard. I'm debating on doing a fecal again cause they only test for pinworms, coccidia, and the other super common parasites, but would it be a good idea to get the other medicines it mentions? I'll have to order them online, cause my vet won't look at the images I've taken from the fecal float I did.
I just feel so relived to be hopefully done with this whole mess. If anyone could tag the bearded dragon vet tech gods to help me that would be great!
Also it says this species is the only ciliated parasite capable of infecting humans so should I get tested for it? I have half the symptoms listed for it, but I might just be worrying too much oof.
