Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my new snakes has a positive fecal for pin worms. He has been in quarantine since I brought him home. My female has a clean fecal, however I'm going to re-test. I am going back to the vet for treatment of the male later this week. What should I expect? Any meds I need to avoid? How long is this going to take? Anyone with sucess stories or advice? This is a very valuable snake which I don't want to make a mistake with. Thanks for any comments/advise...

You will almost certainly be prescribed fenbendazole/Panacur which is a very safe drug. I believe there is an initial dose with a follow-up a few days later. As intestinal parasites go I would prefer a pinworm diagnosis over any of the others. Everything should be fine.

T.B. is correct in that pinworms are typically not a serious issue in snakes and are relatively easy to treat. Fenbendazole is usually dosed orally at 25 mg/kg three separate times, each dose two weeks apart. Pins have a direct life cycle and so do not require an intermediate host. The units need to be kept exceptionally clean of feces during the treatment period to avoid re-infestation.

Another issue that should be checked is the feces of any feeder animals, especially if feeding rodents. While pins are class specific and mammalian pinworms cannot infect reptiles, the rodent pinworm eggs can pass through the snake intact after feeding, and cause it to appear that the snake has a pinworm infestation. It is best to have fecals run on both snake and feeders, and go ahead and treat the snake anyway if eggs are found in both. This unless of course you can rule out the snake issue by changing to pinworm free feeders.

Kelly

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!!!
I'm off to the vet today.

I had another fecal done and this time it was negative. The doctor said that the worms were most likely from previous food items. I'm glad I was patient and didn't jump into medicating.
Now the drag, during a "walk" he must have caught the scent of my female, which I walked in the same place the previous day, and got restless and rubbed some scales off the top of his head that night.
I guess introductions are going to have to wait another week or so with the help of some neosporin.
This quarantine thing is brutal!!!
Sorry so long, I don't have many "snake people" friends.
Thanks again...