Hi everyone,
I just bought a pair of these neat guys from Pet Smart two days ago. I love them. I was lucky enough to get a male and a female. Unfortunately the female seems to have a touch of a R.I. At Pet Smart they were kept in a 16" by 16" square cage with a UVB bulb, but no heat lamp. She doesn't seem bad at all, and, knock on wood, seems to be getting better. (i am really, really hoping for the best. They are both very heavy and seem healthy.) I, of course, gave them a heating lamp and pad so they have access to 100-105F degree temps. She has been spending quite a bit of time under them when she isn't soaking in the water bowl. (They didn't have a water bowl they could soak in at PetSmart.) So I am really hoping that I will not need to give her baytril.

On to the worming aspect. I am lucky enough to have a vet who is willing to sell me panacur. He sold me a large bottle of it for use at my discretion. Now, as with any medication, it took me a while to learn what I needed to, and spend the money I had to to get accustomed to what was necessary for new imports. I think it is appropriate for all advanced herpers to have their own supply of meds on hand.

The night after I brought them home I started to work worming them. No easy task I can tell you. Not as difficult as Hingebacks, but still challenging. Anyway, after several failed attempts at grabbing and holding their heads while attempting to administer the meds, I decided to try a different way as they were too fast and too strong for that method to work. I ended up lightly tapping their beaks until they attempted, out of irritation (I think), to bite the syringe. When they bit it, I repositioned it to the corner back of their mouth and very slowly administered the Panacur. I found out with the first turtle that this must be done very slowly to allow time for the turtle to swallow the meds. Also, it is important to leave the syringe in their mouth for a few seconds even after the meds are dispensed. If you pull out immediately, then they will likely spit a lot of it out. As I said, I learned this with the first one. He was a tricky son-of-a-gun!

The trick with panacur is that it comes in three forms (that I am aware of) a liquid, a powder, and a paste. Where I am in C.A. the only O.T.C. form is the paste. It is sold at farm and feed stores as an equine dewormer. It is much stronger than the liquid form. The Liquid form is at 100mg per ml, where the paste is at 100mg per g. The paste is thicker and much more concentrated. Some people just eye ball the dose based on the size of the animal, I don't feel comfortable using it that way though.

I do think that it is OK to "shotgun" treat imports with panacur as it is very safe and has such a high range of effect and and high margin of safty.

Good luck to everyone.


Evan

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