Parasite infection over and over again...

[dzaamgurl]

Hi, I have a 3 1/2 yr old male beardie who keeps getting coccidia/pinworms and another parasite that I can never remember the name of (it's initials like G.M...something???). He has been treated several times for it, has samples done that come back negative, and then a few months later, it's back. I've done everything the vet has told me to do as far as cleaning, I've even gone as far as getting a new enclosure and all new accessories. At this point I just don't know what to do anymore, or what other options I have... Any suggestions???

 

[GoFast]

how frustrating this must be!! Here a few questions for you. Maybe we can come up with something....

How old is your dragon?
How long have you had your dragon?
How long is your dragon?
What is the sex of your dragon?
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in?
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank?
Do you use UVB lights?
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb?
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
How old is your UVB bulb?
How close can your dragon get to the UVB?
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage?
What are the basking temps?
What is the cool side temp?
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun?
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps?
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad?
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc?
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them?
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)?
Do you bath your dragon? How often?
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath?
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon?
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?

 

[spyder79]

have you baked in the oven any rocks/tile/or drift wood furniture that is in the enclosure and clean with dilluted bleach any plastic furniture. this needs to be done as it will help kill off the parasites still hanging out. Also what are you using to clean the actually cage. I would suggest going to the beautifuldragons website and purchasins some nolvason which will help you kill off things living on the floor or the walls or something. also make certain you always sanitize your hands and try to clean out his poop as soon as you can after he does it.

 

[Tigg]

How often have you been cleaning the cage? What have you been using to clean? were you disinfecting the furniture?

Coccida, pinworms and most other parasites have a direct life cycle. and can only be contracted through the mouth, or the vent. Most cases of reinfestation is due to improper cleaning of the husbandry... I am thinking that there is something your vet didn't tell you to do, or something you are missing.

While treating for the afore mentioned parasites, and for a couple weeks after...

A initial, total disenfecting is needed, this should be repeated once a week after treatment has begun.

You will need to mix a bleach solution. 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. This will kill any living organisms that have been passed onto the enclosure and prevent reinfestation.

You should begin using a substrate of paper towel or news paper as you floor liner should be replaced with each defecation, or daily.

Start by removing everything from the enclosure, and scrub everything inside the tank down with your 1:10 bleach solution. This includes all sides of enclosure. be sure to allow to FULLY dry and air out before putting your pet back into it's home.

All furniture, rocks, hides, drift wood, water/food dishes ect should be fully submerged in your 1:10 bleach solution and allowed to soak for 10 min. Thoroughly rinse and allow to dry before returning to the enclosure.

This total cleaning should be done once a week while treating for parasites, and stool should be cleaned as soon as it's seen. After treatment is complete and fecal test is clean, you will want to do this once a month.

 

[Tigg]

Spyder is right about the Novalsan, I didn't mention it because I thought it was only available through vet supplies... This stuff is available in a concentrated liquid which lasts forever as well as very handy wipes (If you are in Canada like me, the Canadian equvelent is called Peroxigard)

It is a 100% non toxic cleaner/disenfectent... Works great for killing anything living, and you don't have to worry about your dragon coming into contact, or even forgetting to rinse a spot.

 

[dzaamgurl]

Re; to GoFast

He is male
3 1/2 years old
I have had him for a year and 3 months
His enclosure is 36"x18"x18"
He is on coconut mulch
He has 2 UVB fixtures in order to cover the length of tha tank with Reptu Glo 10.0 UVB bulbs in it which I replace once a month
He has a rock that is about 10" from the heat/UVB and a hammock that is within 5"-6" of it
His basking bulb is a Sunglow 100W bulb by Exoterra
Basking temps are usually around 98 to 104 degrees and the cool side is usually at 70-75 during the day and 60-65 at night
I take my temps where he usually likes to hang out the most
He has a heat pad, but he hates it. If i turn it on he wont come off the hammock and his beard blackens
He eats crickets, a few times a week he has silkworms, superworms, or butterworms
He gets a mix of collard greens, endive, escarole, dandelions leaves everyday, and a few times a week I will add some mango, papaya, carrots, pepper, squash (he likes spaghetti and butternut)
He gets salad in the morning and bugs in the early evening
When he's feeling good, he poops everyday between 11 and 12, when he has a parasite, he only goes in the bath
The crickets are gutloaded with Zilla cricket drink with calcium, and the the same veggies I feed him, I also throw in some of the orange jelly criket food (i don't know what it is called)
He won't eat any bugs that have been dusted, so i spray his lettuce with Zilla calcium supplement food spray and feed the crickets a calcium supplemented food
He loves bathes so he get one at least once a week
He will drink from a syringe so I offer him water every morning or after I feed him
He is the only one in his enclosure
He's been to the vet quite a few times, each time they did a fecal sample and (twice) blood test, I give him the meds the vet prescribes, he goes in for another fecal sample exam, test comes back parasite free and then 6 months later, he has it again... so I did it all over, and then 4 months later he has it again, so same thing and now this is the 3rd time in a little over a year now!
I threw out his tank, and everything in it! The vet gave me some Peroxiguard to clean his tank and to soak all new accesories in it. The vet seems to think it might be from the crickets...

 

[ChamNW]

This is exactly why I developed Reptaid because I had a persistant case of coccidia and albon or tms didn't cure it for good. But Reptaid will knock it out. Just because you got one clean fecal does not mean that the parasites are all gone. Dr K in his book teaches that you have to see there clean fecals to know that he is clean. A couple of other things. Neither bleach nor nolvasan will kill coccidia. They will kill bacteria and many parasites but not coccidia. What you need is a strong ammonia solution mixed 1 part ammonia to 6 parts hot water. Wash everythin
Down very well let it soak and rinse good. Rem
ove everything except paper liner rocks and bowls which have all been disinfected very well. Treat him with Reptaid and it will NOT come back. Oh also you should change your food source. You c
an get reinfestation from infected crickets. To be safe discard the crickets you have and buy from a good source. We use Millbrook Crickets.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Are the feeder insects you are buying clean? Is the source a good source?

 

[GoFast]

Thanks for the answers! I have 4 things for you...

1. get rid of that mulch. Any particle type substrate can and will hold parasites. My personal favorite is tile because it is easy to clean, looks nice, and doesn't hold and germs. However, paper towels, news paper, repti-carpet are also good options.

2. As someone else has already said, switch your food source. Pet stores tend to not clean out there tanks very often and stuff like this happens.

3. get some Reptaid. It is some very good stuff and if you do a search for it here you will find tons of glowing reviews.

4. I noticed you have the repti-GLO 10. While this has nothing to do with parasites, it is known as a bad bulb. I would recommend getting the repti-SUN 10.0 or the repti-glo 8.0 instead

Hope this helps!!

 

[dzaamgurl]

Thanks for all the help...and when I checked the actually bulb it is a ReptiSun 10.0, the other box is for my bro's reptiles..oops!
So just any normal tile will work?
I will need to really search around for another food source... Worms are very hard to get where I am from!

 

[GoFast]

excellent news on the bulb! Just be sure you change that out every 6 months....


As for the tiles, just make sure that they are not shiny tiles...Many people use the slate tiles because they offer traction for the little beardie feet.

as for bugs/feeders, I really recommend either buying online or breeding your own. I breed my own dubia raoches. The great thing about it is that once you get the colony going, you don;t have to pay for food ever again.