blood with pin & round worms!! need info.

Yve · 04-25-02, 03:27 PM

My blood finally took her first poop since I bought her and I took it for a fecal test. Turns out she has pinworms and roundworms.
My vet said pinworms are passed down from parents and roundworms can be picked up from rodents and amphibians.
Can anyone give me more information about this, can this happen to a captive bred animal? The vet also said that it is unlikely for these parasites to be passed from reptile to reptile unless they eat the others feces. Blah!! I don't think they would do that. Any information about this would be greatly appreciated!
The vet fit me in to pick up meds. on Monday so if anyone can tell me what meds. they've used and found to be most effective and the least harmful...I would appreciate that as well. I've heard some scarey stories about the wrong meds. being used....and I don't want that to happen with me girl.

Darren Hamill · 04-25-02, 06:56 PM

Yve,

It's normal for a CB animal to have pinworms or round worms but it is possible for them to pick it up. IMO an animal can get some parasites without consumption of faeces. Simply sharing water bowls is an easy for roundworms to travel to a different host.

I would suggest using Panacure for the pinworms and if I remember correctly it will also treat roundworms as well. The dosage is small in comparison (I can't remember it off hand) but there is no real danger if it is over dosed to some degree. Flagyl and Salfa based antibiotics can be very harmful if not properly used although you wouldn't be using these two drugs in this case.

Sorry I couldn't take longer to explain. Post any questions you would like to know and I'm sure others and myself will be able to help you out.

Thanks,
Darren Hamill
http://www.hamillreptiles.com

Yve · 04-25-02, 07:17 PM

Darren,

I've had her for a short time and she's housed sererately from my other two. They're tests were clean. Could she get those parasites from frozen feeders?
I'm trying to get to the bottom of this!

Anyways, thanks for your help, especially the info. on meds. I'm going to get a book on reptile diseases and parasites soon, there's just not enough information on the web, I couldn't find anything on internal parasites. Thanks again!

Yve

Darren Hamill · 04-25-02, 10:04 PM

Because of the fact that your blood has never been housed with another herp, that would lead me to believe that she had these issues when you first acquired her.

There is no way that pinworms or roundworms could have passed to your blood by the consumption of frozen thawed mice or rats. The only thing that I'm aware of that could withstand such extremes would be a few different forms of bacteria.

I also forgot to mention earlier that Droncit and Panacure are both used to treat pinworms and roundworms. The dosage should be 5-7 mg/kg but there is no danger of overdosing with these two antibiotics to a degree. I have used both at 10-15 mg/kg and have found that in some cases it may actually work better and faster. (Although I would not recommend it to every body) There are many people that use these two drugs this way with no ill effects.

Thanks,
Darren Hamill
http://www.hamillreptiles.com

Grant vg · 04-25-02, 10:23 PM

Well, i'm guessing mine have them as well....So how much is this gonna cost me Darren. Can u give me a ball park?
Obviously, ima wait for them to defecate so i can get a fecal done, but i might as well start savin up now .

Darren Hamill · 04-25-02, 10:52 PM

Grant,

It shouldn't cost you much at all as far as I'm concerned. The trip to the vet and the fecal would cost you about $50-65? The Droncit and Panacure are both fairly cheap antibiotics as well. I imagine you could have it all said and done for $100 or less. I wouldn't consider that expensive at all really.

What makes you think that your Blood has worms as well?

Darren Hamill
http://www.hamillreptiles.com

Grant vg · 04-25-02, 11:29 PM

All three were purchased together.... So unless it happened after Yve took posession of hers..mine probably have it too.
Thanks for the pricing info!

Joe · 04-27-02, 07:46 PM

also you can buy panacure from most farm supply stores and it's cheaper than getting it from the vet

Yve · 04-27-02, 07:50 PM

Joe & Melissa,

thanks much for that tip.

Corey Woods · 04-27-02, 11:18 PM

Yve,

Panacur will take care of the pins and rounds. The correct doseage is 100mg/kg given once and then again in 2 weeks. To work out the dosage you will have to know what strength the Panacur is (for example 100mg/ml). If you post all the info on here I can work it out for you.

He's an example:

Panacurs strength = 100mg/ml
Dosage = 100mg/kg

Therefore 1ml of panacur will worm a 1kg snake.....so, if your snake is 5 kgs you'd give him 5mls of panacur.

Another Example:

Panacurs strength = 250mg/ml
Dosage = 100mg/kg

1ml of panacur will now worm 2.5kg of snake.....so, if your snake is 5kgs you'd give him 2ml of panacur.

Hope this helps,
Corey

Yve · 04-28-02, 01:40 PM

thanks Corey, your explanation was very clear!

I'll be taking her to the vet anyways to get an accurate weight. and purchase the panacur from the farm store. Also, I'll post what recommendations the vet gave me to administer the drugs.
appreciate your help

Corey Woods · 04-29-02, 05:17 AM

Yve,

A fairly good vet in the area is Dr. Tracey Burrows (sp???) at Lincoln Village Animal Hospital at the corner of University Ave and Bridgeport (I believe). There phone number is 519-746-7557.

They don't really specialize in Reptiles but in my opinion they are the best ones in the area. I use them for my reptiles.

Corey

Yve · 04-29-02, 05:04 PM

Corey,

the vet gave me panacur 100mg/ml strength
and the dosage was .75ml(she said she rather give her the lower end dosage because it is hard on their system to give high end dose)
the blood weighs 3.89kg (not quite the 20lbs I estimated!)
Yve

Yve · 04-29-02, 05:20 PM

so the dosage is only 25mg/kg, I hope it does the trick. She's due for another dose in 2 weeks.
i ended up getting the panacur from the vet because I could not find it anywhere else.

Corey Woods · 04-29-02, 06:28 PM

Yve,

The standard dosage range for Panacur is 50-100mg/kg. Panacur is very safe to use and to tell you the truth I don't even dose out Panacur.....I just eye ball it. I don't know if it is true or not but I've been told that whatever Panacur isn't used is passed out of the snake. I haven't killed a snake yet worming it. Last year I wormed everything with Panacur and Flagyl just to be safe. Now I have a standard policy to worm everything with Panacur and Flagyl (if I didn't produce it then I worm it).

Corey