Reptile & Amphibian Forums

-Help to identify this parasite would be greatly appreciated. The "patient" is my healthy new Eastern Blue-tongued Skink, Tiliqua s. scincoides, about a month old. I purchased him/her from a reptile specialty pet store at an expo (ON Reptile Expo) last week.

Her appetite is voracious, her attitude is fantastic and her stool is well-formed and not particularly odorous. She is currently in quarantine away from my other herps.

I am not suspecting that the parasites I found are causing any problems... But before I place her in the same room as my other herps I would like to know what she has!

Most of the photos from my digital camera turned out pretty crappy (which is unusual), so I will run the fecal again to get some better photos. Here is the best one, unfortunately only at 10x objective so the features of the organisms are not clearly visible. The slide is not stained. The microscope I used does not have a stage micrometer, and I am already terrible at estimating sizes under the 'scope, so I cannot estimate how large they are. Approximately 10/LPF.

They vary in size but not in morphology, some of the arrows on the image appear to be pointing to nothing at this magnification! I've looked through four texts plus the recent R&A Parasitology course, and to put it plainly, I got nothin'. Does anybody recognize these? They are bioperculated, symmetric, very thin-walled, vary in size... There's not much else I remember since I did this right before I left after staying late past 10:30 last night!

Christina Miller
www.herptiles.net

looks like pinworms. pretty common in reptiles.. both captive bred and wild caught. Normally, when seen in low numbers on a fecal slide, pinworms are not treated for as they usually don't cause a problem, but if the animal becomes stressed or immune suppressed, then the pinworms can sometimes get out of control... smelly stool, loose stool. Panacur (gotten from your vet as it has to be dosed according to weight of animal) will clear it up. Usually treat once a week for 4 weeks then recheck the stool. Even if you don't have a reptile vet, the photo looks clear enough that if taken to your regular vet in leiu of a fecal sample for them to check they might go ahead and prescribe the panacur for you based on the photo.
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PHWyvern

The problem is that with helminths, ova should be the same size for the same species. These ova are exactly alike except they vary in size, which is why I don't think they're pins or any other worm... Also I don't think I've ever seen operculated pinworms.

If I'm not mistaken, protozoan conspecifics can vary in size? But I can't find anything similar to these in any of my texts (including Mader, Klingenberg, Foreyt, and a VSPN course on herp parasites).

The vet where I work, while not an exotics clinic, agreed to prescribe whatever meds I'd need, so that's no problem. I have Panacur here (not off the net, "legally" from the vet where I guest taught reptile/amphibian nursing , I just don't want to treat without being certain what type of parasites I'm trying to eliminate.

Christina
www.herptiles.net

these are not pinworm eggs, as pin eggs are always asymmetrical and never operculated. The eggs in your photos are either whipworm or a type of closely related Capillaria. Also, it is not uncommon for female whipworms to deposit two different sizes of eggs, which is exactly what you have seen. Fenbendazole is the standard treatment.

Kelly

Kelly, I take it you've seen Capillaria with these same features? Other Capillaria sp. I've seen had thicker shell walls and an overall amber colour, but of course these could be different species.

Thanks for the tip that whips will lay different-sized ova. Do other families do this, as well?

Christina
www.herptiles.net

Christina, the eggs of some Capillaria sp. can be difficult to distinguish from those of Trichuris sp. on low power magnification. You are correct in that Capillaria usually has a thicker wall. Additionally, Capillaria are usually not as pointed as these. If I had to guess, I would say that these are some species of whip, but not sure which one. The two different size eggs of the exact same type would also point toward some species of whipworm as well. They are the only Family that I know of that has the peculiarity of the female depositing the two different size ova.

Kelly

Additionally, doing a quick image search on "Trichuris" (which I was not familiar with) I see that in general, they look very much like capillaria as you said, but one photo I found has a few in the image where the focal plane is a bit high (or low) and they look very much like this photo. Maybe just an artifact of the camera not focusing quite right?

Intuitively, it doesn't seem like it should work that way, but I'm not sure...

Just a thought.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

As I stated in my previous post, I do beleve that they are some species of whipworm (Trichuris) egg. They are not similar enough with some of the characteristics of Capilliaria sp. ova, and I would probably rule them out completely in this instance. The shell wall is thin and clear, the operculum is obvious, and the symetry is very good. This would point more toward them being Thichuris ova than Capillaria.

Kelly

Were these moving?

They look nothing like pinworm eggs. Maybe some form of Capillaria, but they look a bit too "pointy", and some are awefully big. A higher power shot would help a lot.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

They were not moving.

I thought Capillaria too when I first saw them because of the opercula and football shape, but all Capillaria sp. I've seen previously had thicker walls and a darker, amber colour.

Christina
www.herptiles.net

Kelly, you've been looking at crap since before any of us have graduated. Do you use any texts that Christina didn't mention, or is most of this just a combination of experience?

Ian