Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, so my newly acquired 5-inch leopard tortoise has what I believe to be hookworms and a few flagellates. He's asymptomatic for the flagellates, so I'm ignoring them as normal intestinal critters and treating the hookworms with panacur. Problem is the tortoise is "semi-quarantined" in that he's in his own wooden frame on our lawn. During treatment, I am removing feces and surrounding grass/soil with a shovel and backfilling with fresh soil. Once the treatment is complete, I'll move him to a different section of the lawn for a month and verify consistently clean fecals before introducing him to my other tortoises. But what about the patch of lawn he's on now, during treatment. I am considering saturating the area with a Diazanon spray, then keeping all the tortoises off until at least next spring. But at some time or another tortoises will be grazing on this area agian. Any other suggestions on eliminating/reducing chance of reinfestation in this area?

I don't know that there's any way to eliminate parasites from your yard, unless you pave it.

The big thing, I think, is to make sure that animals that are kept in outdoor enclosures have ample room. That way, direct life-cycle parasites will tend to be self-limiting because the animals has enough room to avoid prolonged contact with fecal matter and the surrounding soil. Indirect life-cycle parasites shouldn't be a problem once they have been initially eliminated because there should be no intermediate hosts available. A certain load of some types of parasites is considered normal in herbivorous reptiles and is thought to help in the process of breaking down the vegetable matter they consume.