Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I just did a fecal examination on my chameleons and I have noticed at least a couple of infections (worms and eggs). I will bring same sample to the vet, since I am not sure what kind of worms they are even after checking on books.

I will definitively wait for the vet answer but, I have read that Panacur 10% is mostly used and Ivermectin follows if PAnacur dosn't work. I believe I also read somewhere that Ivermectin can be very toxic to chameleons.
Can anybody share thier experience with deworming?

Chiara
-----
1.1 Skipper & Sunshine - Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Jimmy & Hydra - Water Dragons
1.0 Trionix - Smooth soft shell turtle
1.0 Apalone - Spiny texas soft shell turtle
0.1 Irish Brook M - Standardbred mare (retired racehorse)
1.0 Sir Edward - Ragdoll cat, sire
0.3 Shannan, Jalisse, Slick - cats
?.? Some fish

I'm glad you took a sample to the vets. Its important to know what type of parasite it is in order to know how to treat it. I am not a fan of "shotgun" treatments...I think that the less drugs given to a chameleon the better...IMHO, its better to chose the fewest possible.

Although many parasites can be killed with fenbendazole/panacur, it doesn't kill all types of parasites. Here's an article about panacur...
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2002/july2002/panacur/panacur.html

Ivermectin also kills quite a few types of parasites...but not all. There was one report on ivermectin being used in a Senegal chameleon....but it could have been either a reaction to the drug or a reaction to the number of parasites in the chameleon's system (If a chameleon has too many parasites in its system, the amount of "debris" created by the dead parasite bodies that the chameleon's system has to be deal with can be toxic.)