Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thank you all for your help, we were right. I took her to the vet today & he diagnosed a bacterial infection. He said I can use the same bottle of Flagyl I had from my other leo's flagelate infestation. I have lots of hope for her. He's a great vet, extremely attentive, will give advice over the phone once he's seen the animal & he only charged me for one fecal when he did 2 over 2 days & for only one exam when I had him look at 2 of my girls. What a guy! Lucky I found him. He was our local zoo's herp vet for 20 years
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0.3.0 leos, Geo, Tang, Ginger
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
0.0.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I dealt with a bacterial problem in a het colony late spring/early this summer. My vet prescribed a shotgun approach with panaucur, flagyl, and an antibiotic on all my affected leos, I suggested Panacur for all and but treating isolated leos with different meds as both a diagnostic tool, and also because I was concerned about giving my leos that much drugs at one time. The only leo that improved- and improved rapidly and dramatically, was the one given the oral antibiotic. While I have read Flagyl has antibiotic activity, all I can say is that it didn't work for the bacterial infection my leos had, at leats not as fast. When my leo turned arounf dramatically after the antibiotic, of course I administeed to all. Whether Flagyl alone would have cured it over time, I don't know, but I saw improvement on the antibiotic in 3 or 4 days.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Flagyl is for treatment of parasitic/protozoal ailments, if I understand it right (I know they use it for giardia in humans, cats, and dogs). Why would it be used in the treatment of a bacterial infection? I thought an antibiotic would be the standard treatment, but I'm basing this assumption on what I know of herp medicine (torts and snakes). Don't know if it would be different for leos.

And what is the difference between a bacteria and a protozoa?

Thanks for your help!
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Jeannie

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa (Bella)
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake (Bess)
1.1 Rubber Boas (Isaiah & Esther)
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise (Moxie)
1.0 Leopard Gecko (George)
2.0 adopted DSH Cats (Amos & Silas)
1.0 rescued English Springer Spaniel (Jimmy)
and...
2.0 Kids w/ 0.0.1 California King Snake (Rex), 0.1 Leopard Gecko (Geico), 1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa (Lucas)
1.0 Husband (no pets, just us, lol)

flagyl is used to treat certain types of parasites yes but it does have some antibiotic properties. in some bacterial infection it is used to treat the particular bacteria but sometimes these bacteras can cause other infections in other areas of the body that is when true antibiotics are used. All in all flagyl and all other medications should only be prescribed by a qualified vet. there are litterally millions of bacterias and tons of parasites and virus's and all bacterias are not treated the same, just like not all parasites are treated with flagyl and/or panacure. I am glad buffy's mom did the right thing and took her gecko to a qualified herp vet i would follow what he has prescribed and contact him if you have any questions. we here on this forum are not professionals and can only speculate and speculation cant treat and diagnose reptiles ailments... neither can shot in the dark treatments.
Jeanie i would do a search on parasites,protozonas, bacteria and virus's for the best answer or contact your local vet for a clearer understanding on these different types of ailments
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-robin struck (new married name)
Geckoheads And Geeks

Flagyl has antibiotic activity, it is precibed as an antibiotic in humans actually for certian infections, but its primary use in reptiles is for protozoal infections. Maybe this vet did a bacterial resistance test or something and knows this one would work, I just know it wasn't brought up as an antibiotic from my regular vet or the reptile specialist I consulted, and it didn't work for the bacterial infection some of my leos had.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

np
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Jeannie

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa (Bella)
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake (Bess)
1.1 Rubber Boas (Isaiah & Esther)
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise (Moxie)
1.0 Leopard Gecko (George)
2.0 adopted DSH Cats (Amos & Silas)
1.0 rescued English Springer Spaniel (Jimmy)
and...
2.0 Kids w/ 0.0.1 California King Snake (Rex), 0.1 Leopard Gecko (Geico), 1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa (Lucas)
1.0 Husband (no pets, just us, lol)