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Nematode treament/Cage cleanup

zhivago97 Apr 11, 2006 07:05 PM

I learned from a fecal I gave to my vet that my 2 kings have nematodes. They appear otherwise healthy and eat, shed, don't regurge etc.

Don't know the species of nematode, possibly pin worms. I've read conflicting info on the forum and was hoping someone could summarize/clarify.

My snakes are on oral treatment from the vet, something yellow and paste like. One dose, wait 2 weeks, then another dose.

What type of cleaning/precautions should be taken? I know with some "super" parasites everything needs to be bleached or thrown away. For nematodes, do I just do a common sense cleaning with bleach/soapy water or is this condition a lot more serious than I realize?

Thank you, Tom

Replies (8)

zach_whitman Apr 11, 2006 08:16 PM

Most nematodes require multiple species of animal hosts to complete their lifecycle. (Usually one mollusc and one vertibrate) The larva are almost always aquatic. So if you kill off the adults you should be good to go. If you want to be carefull, you should give them a tiny water bowl (so they can't soak and poop in it) I would bleach the cage down too. why not, right? But you dont need to go crazy.

The real question is how your snakes got them. Are they wild caught? Do you use dirt or other materials from outside in the cages?

good luck
zach

zhivago97 Apr 12, 2006 06:14 AM

Thanks - they are captive bred and I use paper towels and only sterile things in their cage (dried wood, water bowl, hide box).

The do eat live mice, so maybe the nematodes came from the mice. Very interesting...I may need to try again with frozen.

Glad to hear it's not one of those end-of-the-world health issues.

Tom

zach_whitman Apr 12, 2006 11:15 AM

Freezing does not necessarily kill all flukes. I would check out where you are getting your feeders from. This is a very rare issue in well maintained captive bred herps.

xelda Apr 12, 2006 11:47 AM

Nematodes are roundworms. Flukes belong to a different phylum called patyhelminthes (flatworms).
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xelda Apr 12, 2006 11:54 AM

That was supposed to read platyhelminthes. "Platy" meaning flat and "helminth" meaning worm.
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xelda Apr 12, 2006 11:45 AM

If it was a yellow paste, I'm guessing it might have been pyrantel pamoate.

Knowing what species of nematodes would help a lot because there are so many different kinds. Pinworms are no big deal but tend to be species-specific so I doubt the mice could have transmitted those to your snake. (It's possible to find mice pinworm eggs in your snake poop but that doesn't mean the snake was infected with those pinworms.) However, hookworms and strongyloides can hop from species to species. They are the reason why you don't want to go traipsing barefoot on your lawn. The larvae burrow through your skin, continue burrowing, and even after they infect you, they still burrow and cause blood loss. They're extremely common in reptiles and often don't cause any outward symptoms.

Luckily, nematodes are pretty easy to clean after. The key is to clean OFTEN--ideally every time after your snake poops or at least once a day. This is really important because your snakes could very well reinfect themselves. Cat-dog vets don't emphasize this very much because their patients aren't living in cages. The medicine is only effective against the adult worms, so there are probably eggs and larvae still cycling through the snakes, hence the need for a second and sometimes third dose of medicine.

A good washing with dishwasher soap and water is enough to do the job. I'm really weary of using bleach because even if you air out the cage, there's still enough residue vapor to harm the snakes. At the very minimum you should change the substrate, but wash everything in the cage everyday if you can.
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zach_whitman Apr 12, 2006 08:40 PM

I should stop answering post so late at night. I dont really know what I was thinking...

All of the stuff I mentioned above is true of flatworms of the genus platyhelminthes. Thus, useless to you!

Roundworms (nematodes... and I'm sure this time) are a totally different ball game! Round worms are contracted via fecal oral contamination and sterilization of everything is the right thing to do.

Everyone I know, from vets to breeders, uses bleach to clean everything. Just make sure you rinse and dry thoroughly.

terribly sorry for the misinformation.

xelda Apr 12, 2006 11:54 PM

Do they wash their hands with bleach? Absolutely not, but diseases and parasites can be transmitted between animals through human hands.

The best cleaning method is traditional soap and water. It's cleaning power lies in its ability to wash away what it can't kill. It's also a necessary first step in the sterilization process because you have to wash away all the poopy crust before you try to sterilize the cage. People tend to skip straight to bleach, but that would be like showering with your clothes on.

My vet says she's seen more damage done by bleach than good, especially when you have people relying on their not-so-great sense of smell to determine when a cage is free of residual fumes. On top of that, bleach isn't even effective against things like coccidia or crypto.

Sorry for the long-drawn posts but parasitology was one of my favorite subjects in college and I totally dig these discussions.
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