While I am not disagreeing with you, in that these animals often come in with parasites(many/most of which were most likely acquired in the exporters confines, and not in the wild), I will disagree in the level of severity that parasites pose on the well being of importer monitors. I think that parasites are one of these 'reptile myths' that so many people are lured into believing, because it "makes sense"..('parasites sounds right.. besides, what else could there be to blame? I can't think of anything else....')

It is all too often that misinformed keepers, dealers, and yes, even vets, misdiagnose a skinny animal which is rapidly losing weight as a parasite-infested animal which is being 'eaten alive' on the inside.. Because of the wild origin of these animals, people are so quick to jump to the conclusion and blame parasites for the animal's demise. While parasites do not help the situation in any way, they are not the the underlying cause(ultimate causation) for the problems we see with imported wild caught monitors.

I would have to say that virtually every imported wild caught monitor comes in in some state of dehydration, whether it be minimal and less noticeable, or quite evident(bag of skin and bones). So many people fail to address this problem as being attributed to dehydration, as most keepers, dealers, and even many vets, fail to understand the physiology of these animals, and what they need to live a healthy life.

So instead of attacking the problem at hand(dehydration), they erroneously pump the animal full of medicines(which are nothing more than poisons/toxins- which can't be too good for the animal); many times at which the animal was never tested for parasitic infection to begin with, as if these people were so sure of themselves that the problem was caused by parasites.n Therefore, these people go through ridiculous lengths and measures, and dosages, of such treatments- working further and further away from the problem; never addressing the underlying problem in the first place.

We also see these same erroneous practices and measures carried out in other wild caught reptiles in this hobby- snakes, uromastyx, agamids, iguanids, etc, even with captive bred individuals!!(parasites in a captive bred leopard gecko!! highly unlikely...).

The point of my post, is that it is all too often that keepers, dealers, and even vets fall under the 'spell' or 'myth' that parasites are the cause to all the problems and deaths that we see with wild caught specimens. While parasites may very well be capable of overpowering the body of an animal that is already weakened(dehydration, et al), I think that if people would look more towards the ultimate causation(dehydration) of the problems that we see with sick or dying wild caught monitors, they would then see the importance and neccesity of such vital resources as WATER, and the lack of importance of such things as metronidazol or fenbendazol(the "conventional" approach)..

Parasites aren't the big problem here, it is dehydration... If more people understood the importance of hydration, we would not see the same alarmingly high death rates that we currently see in wild caught herps. Put down the syring, and fix the problem at hand...

Cheers,

Bob
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Treemonitors.com

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