Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I brought Darwin (beardie) to vet for routine fecal and checkup. He's been keeping one eye closed a lot, with no other signs but he's also in this very lethargic semi-brumation. In the course of the visit I mentioned his last slow (REALLY SLOW) and partial shed. He commented on humidity and our dry air and I told him Darwin gets daily baths. He said that can actually exacerbate the problem due to the excess evaporation! I had never thought about that - makes sense, though. I will start putting a mini-humidifier in his tank a few times a week.

The fecal showed no coccidia, but pinworms! I am really baffled. he said that they can come only from other lizard feces. The only herps I have are Cyrus, Darwin and Skippy (frog) and none of them ever come in contact with each other, I am obssesive about disenfecting and use gel alcohol on my hands b/t any handling. Gee, none of these guys are even in the same room!

Any thoughts as to how this may have happened? He gave him injection of Ivomec and needs to repeat in 2 weeks.

thanks
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

The pinworms could have come from the insects that you feed him....especially if you use wild insects that you have collected.

I asked him if they came from insects and he said no, they would have to come from a contaminated lizard (feces). I just looked it up in Kilingenberg's Reptile Parasite book and he says they can be treated with panacur (which I have) and says that rodent feeding herps might get them from it food.

The only wild collected I do is an occasional moth but in their adult stage they will unlikely be exposed since they feed on nectar or not at all. Lep larvae feed on plants (99% of them) and even if they somehow ingested some they (caterpillar) would not live to adult stage. hmmm....Might call my cham vet for another opinion.

K - any specific info?

thanks,
lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Here are a couple of sites that talk about it...
http://www.drgecko.com/raisingbugs.htm
http://www.gexfiles.com/leocs.html
http://www.reptilerope.org/parasites.html

Not putting this one in here because its flies, but to show that insects can carry pinworms...
http://www.thebestcontrol.com/bugstop/control_flies.htm

You said..."K - any specific info?" I can't find any from a "scientific" source. Its one of those topics that are hard to chose words to get results when you look it up. I'll try again later.