Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember a recipe for tropical fish included GARLIC to help or completely eradicate paracites,and figuring that BDs are primarily vegetarians, might be a good propelactic treatment.
You never know they might love it!?

Garlic is more likely to kill your dragon. It may be toxic to them. If you want to act pro-actively to help prevent parasites, better to just order Parazap. Its been around for about 5 years now, maybe longer and so far I have heard nothing negative about it. I believe you just give it once a day for a couple days every 4 or 6 months...not sure off hand. For more info about it, you can do a search on the forums, or check their website.

www.parazap.com/
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PHLdyPayne

I've had good results with Parazap. Gave it to a rescue about a month ago that wasn't eating and losing weight. After a few days he started eating. Might be the reason, might not, who knows.

Garlic is probably a bad call, fish are not dragons, and dragons are not primarily vegetarian.

I don't have any scientific proof of parazap working, but I use it as a preventative and I like the results you get. My dragons tend to eat a little more than usual for a day or two after giving them parazap, and I dragon I found at a local pet store who clearly had some kind of internal parasite, and I tried parazap. After about a week of use it cleared up and she quickly reached normality and a clean fecal.

I use it for a day or two, twice a day, every month to every other month just for prevention.

When I used it as "medication" I gave it to the dragon twice a day for 1 week.

Phil

This is from an article on Ornate Uromastyx written by Philippe de Vosjoli in Vivarium Vol. 7 No. 3 : "A folk method for treating intestinal nematodes appears to work with uromastyx: a small amount of garlic powder sprinkled on the food every 1 to 2 weeks can help keep nematode levels down and help a uromastyx gain weight."
This is not a recommendation, just information related to your question.
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Jim@DREAMTIME DRAGONS

ok, i dont get the idea of randomly deworming reptiles...if you think they may have a parasite, get a fecal read by a vet, these guys are not in the wild! they are not places to pick up parasites! beardies at this point are CB, and so not brining in parasites from the wild, they should be being feed clean veggies and "clean" insects (i have been breeding my own mealworms for so many genarations ID eat them)
yes i know our cats and dogs are on heartworm and other deworming preventitives each month, but they are out and about where they can pick uo stuff!
garlic works to keep some parasites from people cuz we sweat, dont know how it works in fish, but reptiles dont sweat! so its unlikely to work...(this is also why its a crapy flea prevention for cats/dogs, who only sweat fron the feet)
i am a vet tech and i have to say about parazap, even though it gets rave reviews cuz its "natural" i can tell you a part of it can lead to kidney failure (i had a post erased on another forum when i revieled that info before so i wont say what part it was )
i think an animal (unless you have indoor/outdoor beardies) thats in a cage 99% of the time is at more risk of damage from to many chemicals then from the chance of a parasite!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

The ingredients in parazap are all natural herbs, and they are organic, so there is no harm done. I have studied reptilian parasites and digestive properties and I have never heard of kidney failure due to herb intake.

And about reptiles not being in the wild and not brining in parasites, thats true. But, in the wild, they would not come into contact with their poop like they do in captivity. And considering that reptiles maintain a healthy number of bacteria in their digestive track, that gives them the opportunity to spread and re-enter the body because captive dragons run through their poop, it just happens. Not to mention, I would rather use parazap than the sulfur meds and most others, they are nondescript, they kill of all the bacteria they can.

Phil

I ordered some parazap yesterday. I have a beardie that I bought at a reptile swap... he has grown quickly but doesn't seem to put on wieght. He is sluggish at times and has kinda loose stool. He never eats more than a dozen crickets at a time and just doesn't look 100%. I fear pinworm or some other bugs... I wonder if this stuff will cure him up?

well we will just have to agree to disagree on parazap i guess, cuz there are many herbs that can be FATAL to animals if ingested, and one in parazap is really bad at high dosages

as for the bacteria they come into contact with in the cages, its beardie bacteria! so why kill it off? as for parasites, if they are CB, hopfully vet checked and/or raised by someone responsabe, then parasites should not be an issue! they will not magicly develop them, so why give the body something to process that isnt needed?

abnormal bacteial overgroth can happen and should be treated by a vet, but the topic was started about deworming healthy animals for no aparent reason, and i think its usless and potentially harmfull
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

I think you misunderstand the way parazap functions, not to mention that periodical parasite control happens in the wild with certain things they eat. We cannot reproduce the exact plants so we work with what we can. Also, consider the fact that yes, CERTAIN herbs can be fatal, but parazap contains non of them. its harmless, you make tea with it and give it to the dragons, your just giving them the liquid runoff of the crushed leaves.

True, its beardie bacteria, and don't forget that dragon poo contains small amounts of parasite protozoans, and they goal in using parazap is not to constantly deworm dragons, it just helps keep them in balance.

Just because its beardie bacteria doesn't mean its good if it re-enters the body.

Phil

Also the insects we buy and feed are not raised in a sterile environment and may sometimes have parisites. The same could happen with greens and vegs.