Posted by:
CheriS
at Mon Jun 16 20:33:04 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by CheriS ]
Coccidia occurs natural in a bearded dragons digestive system, but when the animals is stressed or ill, certain emzyne levels increase in the stomach acids. Those enzynes feed the coccidia and promote reproduction of them. The dragon shows signs such as runny and very smelly poo, we take a fecal to the vet and get meds to treat the coccidia.
We are not really treating the coccidia, the meds do not kill them, they interfer with the production of those emzynes that are fueling the coccida, allowing the dragons own immune system to deal with the existing adults, not reproduce(or at least slow it) or simply time.
Now, we have treated the dragon and he gets a clean fecal 
BUT!!!!! We have also killed off the good bacteria in the digestive system that keeps others things in check, especially the yeast. So the yeast start thriving. Now you have two problems.... yeast overload that can be very irritating for them and no or little bacteria to help digest food. The dragon slows in eating, the bacteria is not starting the digestive process and the dragon does not know he is hungry, and he also has this yeast flair up that is irritating the lining of his stomach and may even start to speard to the skin/scales around the vent (much like a female with a yeast infection)as a yellow discoloration on the skin/scales
What usually happens at that point? We take the dragon back to the vet with a skin problem. Many vets in the past saw a dermatitis, assumed is was a bacterial infection and decide to treat with anitbiotics....... Guess what, we are only increasing the yeast load and soon have a very ill dragon on our hand that will become fatal if left in this cycle.
Its all about balance, until we know exactly what is the normal digestive make up..... we need to make sure each time we treat a dragon, we are also replacing whatever we can in them. Probiotics certainly can help.... maybe we are not repalcing everything or maybe we are putting things in they do not need, but its better than the alternative and much cheaper!
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reiko got this right, but here is the cycle explanation - CheriS, Mon Jun 16 20:33:04 2003