Parasite treatment?

[doch]

Hello all,

Shortened story...plans did not go as planned and we accidentally ended up with 3 dragons (such a long story). One was very sick from day one. Unfortunately, we did not have them means to have 3 separate cages, so the sick one has been in direct contact with the other 2 at various times.

As time passed, we tried to save the sick one but failed. 2 days ago, we finally got a decent poop out of her and brought it in for a fecal. She ws infested with flagellitic protozoa and a few coccidia.
Due to other issues, and a vet recommended mandatory surgery, we opted not to treat her parasites and she's been euthanized.

Now... the other 2 dragons, a cat, 2 dogs, my daughter, her mom and myself have all been exposed to this parasitic infestation. Can the mammals catch these parasites? Do we need to be tested? The dogs and cat?

Next question... assuming that I can do my own fecal exam on the dragons, is there something over the counter that I can treat them with? Or am I wasting my time and cash by buying a microscope? The vet charged us $80 for a smear and flotation... are both of these needed, or is the smear sufficient?

Thanks in advance.

PS I know that this info is likley in the search function... but honestly, I looked, and just don't have the time to weed through the 10+ pages of topics. Thanks for understanding.

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to save her. It is possible the other dragons are infected but less likely the other animals or humans are infected. Keep an eye out for odd symptoms though. For the dragons a microscopic exam should show flagellates if they are present. Treating them would require a prescription of something like Metronidazole or Ronidazole from a compounding pharmacy. It's probably best to have an experienced vet test and treat for this. Coccidia can be passed to dogs but can be treated with Panacur I believe. The key is to sanitize surfaces that come in contact with poop quickly and thoroughly. Since coccidia is involved I recommend using a steam cleaner to sanitize surfaces as the heat will kill coccidia. An ammonia/water mixture will kill coccidia too. Bleach and water will not. If you wash hands frequently and keep surfaces sanitized, then you stand the best chance of preventing spread or re-infection from these parasites.

 

[EllenD]

I really don't suggest buying a microscope and trying to self-diagnose. Just my opinion, but unless you're skilled in microbiology and you're able to buy a pretty good compound light microscope (along with slides, wet mount supplies, and all of the different reagents and dyes like Safranin, Crystal Violet, etc.,) along with agar plates, a Bunson burner, plating loops, etc. and are versed in plating culture swabs with a metal loop and then are able to identify the bacteria and the parasites you're seeing on the slides and the plates (which is a very difficult process with a lot of room for error), you're most likely to misidentify any bacteria you see on a slide or a plate, and plating bacteria colonies to the point where you come up with low enough counts to be able to identify single bacterium for identification, not to mention if you don't have the skills down it's also very easy to miss parasites under a scope as well. And then you'll need a doctor to write you prescriptions for the antiparasitics and antibiotics anyway, and very few doctors that I know will just write prescriptions without running the tests themselves.

I don't know what your microbiology education and skill levels are, but streaking plates and properly staining wet mounts are the easy parts (and plate streaking is screwed up by the best of us), it's the colony and individual bacterium morphology that requires a lot of education and practice, and it's so easy to misidentify anaerobic from aerobic, cocci from bacilli, I could go on and on. Hell, I've had judgement calls between a simple gram stain...Is it pink or purple? That's when you have to use the rest of your morphology skills to rule in and rule out.

I think in the end you're going to spend a hell of a lot more money buying a compound light microscope, slides, reagents and stains, etc. (and agar plates and the rest of the equipment to identify counts, which is very important as well, you have to realize that if you don't plate bacteria it's hard to know what your beardies bacteria count is, thus how bad the Infection is, thus proper medication and dosing), and then you'll still need a veterinarian to write you prescriptions...And honestly I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for misdiagnosing my pet and giving them the wrong medications. But again, I think you'll spend a ton more money anyway, and since you'll need prescriptions written and have to pay for them too anyway, you're much better off letting a vet and/or a lab do it.

I've got a Master's Degree in Animal Health Science and my Bachelor's is in Health Science/Pre-Med, which was bio-chem intensive, and I worked at the Animal Diagnostics Lab at Penn State University. I have an operating home lab where I do basic cultures and sensitivities, gram stains, colony plating, etc., but only because I had the equipment and the lab set up because of what I used to study and do for a living. But when it comes to my own pets I always take them to my veterinarians and pay for them to run their own diagnostics, even if I do a gram stain or a culture at home first....You know why? Because I've been wrong before! Their labs (depending on how high-tech your vet office is) usually involve a lot of computers now, along with a lot of expensive and very accurate testing with little to no human error, like mass spectrometry. So I definitely trust them more than I trust myself, and I've got 8 years of schooling and 5 of practical experience at one of the largest animal diagnostics labs in the country.

 

[doch]

Very interesting perspective. I've watched several videos, and read a few articles explaining what they claim to be the simplicity behind doing the exams yourself. Now I don't know what to believe!! Has the internet lied to me!?!?! hahaha

I do understand that if I was to successfully learn to read the exams, and I found something that I would need a vet to do a separate exam and a prescription. At about $100 for the microscope and unlimited tests, I could at least potentially eliminate some vet fees for testing at $80 a pop.

Thanks very much for the very detailed opinion... I am definitely taking it into consideration. Should I decide against the DIY method, what do you suggest for testing... do I need both the smear and the flotation? Or is a smear sufficient?