Today I took my 4 month old Grand Cayman hybrid iguana for a vet visit. He is nice and healthy, eating well and growing. I just wanted to get a fecal test done on him just to make sure doesn’t have worms or something bad. But once I saw the vet he said it is better to get him dewormed which cost me 70.00 (25 for dewormed and 45 for visit). My question is “is this what everyone else experience when they take their iguana to the vet for the first time or did the vet wanted to make more instead of just doing a fecal test.” Plus at 4 month old isn’t he too young to be dewormed. On top of that the vet automatically assumed he was wild caught even after I told him the iguana was from David Blair. Just want to make sure he will be fine after the deworm meds. Any input will be greatly appreciated.
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Is this what herp vets usually do?
Replies (2)
If you bought him from David Blair, there is no need to get him de-wormed. I have never had any of my cyclura wormed, and all are healthy and strong. The only iguana I ever got wormed, which was a healthy strong animal, started wasting away and died after 4 months getting de-wormed, so I have never been a strong advocate of worming healthy animals.
All my Iguanas live in outside enclosures and are exposed to all the elements under the Sun. This includes possible parasites that are a common part of a wild animal’s life. These parasites only become a problem when there is great stress on the animal where its defense system is weakened. Cyclura are very tough against stresses that would normally kill another reptile species. In my opinion, if you are going to treat an animal for something you should know what you are targeting. A fecal exam would be my first move if I wanted to search for something. I do not like to deworm my lizards if they are not showing signs of health decline. In addition, the leading cause of death would likely come from bacteria and other organisms that deworming does not take care of, which would be treated by antibiotics and other medications like Flagyl. Which intern kills both good and bad bacteria when administered.
In a nut shell, do not deworm unless you have run a fecal and the animal is showing signs of ill health.
The only thing I recommend is once a year, treat for mites by bathing the lizard in mineral oil.
Manny
