Trichomonas, to treat or to not treat

[npgeorgeuw]

Have a beardie with moderate pins/hooks just finished panacure for that and fecal symptoms resolved but we also had moderate numbers of trichomonas/flagellates. Since we aren't eating yet we are tempted to treat for flagellates as well since metronidazole is such a short course. Anyone have experience with trichomonas?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Personally, if the stools are bad such as being very loose or smelly, I would go ahead & treat for them. What are the counts, 2 or higher?
Did the worm levels come down?
I would be giving probiotics too for helping with the appetite since she has been on meds recently.
Metronidazole/flagyl is a short course, only 5-7 days most of the time.

Tracie

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Hi Tracie,
Her stools have firmed up with the fenbendazole treatment for pins. We've unfortunately had to extend that treatment to 5 days (and boosted her dosage) since she still had a few pin eggs but less than 1/100th of what she did have. Interestingly her direct fecal (not the float) was loaded with bacteria this time as compared to last time it was 4+ as scored by the vet (my wife) for trichomonas/flagellates. We can only guess that the benebac is having the desired effect and pushed out the flagellates or just that we can't see them due to all of the bacteria. Last night for the first time in a week we got her to eat three hornworms and she's been hastily gobbling down 1.0 mL of carnivore care and 1.0 mL of baby food/green blends/benebac. She started this at a shakey 27g and is now up to a solid 30g and hopefully her fecal tonight will be clear of all eggs. I've been praying that the eggs we saw were just a few stragglers and not indicative of adults but I doubt it. Throughout all of this it's been amazing how her persistent stress marks have resolved.

-It's interesting that when we double-checked the other dragon who had only coccidia previously, we found a few hookworm eggs. Literally only three days between fecals and one soft stool later...

n.