Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://www.jwildlifedis.org/content/27/4/710.abstract?sid=d0b68cd0-8c2f-400b-97ce-6c6819b5a881
Mike Bodner's Thayeri

Can you tell us what it says. I am to lazy to copy and paste.
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www.Bluerosy.com

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Monthly prevalences of Physaloptera retusa in naturally infected Yarrow's spiny lizard

The gastrointestinal tracts of 167 of 489 (34%) Yarrow's spiny lizards (Sceloporus jarrovii jarrovii) collected in Pima County, Arizona (USA) from October 1967 through January 1970 were infected with Physaloptera retusa. Of the infected lizards, 88 (18%) had only larvae, 45 (9%) had larvae and adults and 32 (7%) had only adult nematodes. The ratio of larval nematodes to adults was approximately 8:1. Monthly prevalences varied from 71% in April 1969 to 10% in July 1969; seasonal patterns of infection were not observed.

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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

www.jwildlifedis.org/content/27/4/710.full.pdf+html
Click on Full Text (PDF) to read the whole thing.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

In 1970-71, I raised a hatchling Blairs phase(arnold) from a fresh hatched individual to 54 inches,(in 18 months) by feeding it predominately Yarrows from that site. I did feed a few other lizards species as well. But mostly Yarrows. The reason was, they were very common and very easy to catch. And I was too poor to buy mice.

Anyway, that snake grew huge, beautiful, still one of the niciest blairs I have every seen, and healthy, on parasite ridden lizards.

I remember watching these parasites pop out of the butts as the snake consumed them and I wondered.

I never treated that snake for anything, there was no need to. I also never treated the lizards either.

It was sort of a joke, as that snake was so large and so strong, while attempting to copulate, he could at times wrap the water bowl and throw it in the air. Thanks

I thought nematodes were too small to be easily seen. Roundworms are pretty big, though. Your snake must have had some resistance to the parasites. How long did it live?
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Parasites are designed to not kill the host. Or the parasites would be extinct by now. Animals can live a relatively normal life with them inside. It gets to be a problem when stress, poor husbandry and other factors can weaken the animal and cause the number of parasites to explode and make the host very sick. Even though an infected animal may do well and thrive, the rest of your collection is being put at risk. Ova (Eggs) in the feces can be transmitted by a keepers hands or tools to other animals, infecting them,also possibly the keeper, depending what kind of parasite it is. Dust in the air can spread these microscopic ova. Other things like coccidia (which is a protozoan, and has much smaller oocysts) can actually be spread by those little carrion fly or fruit flies........Roundworms , Pinworms and Tapeworms are the only "common" internal parasites that can be seen by the naked eye...........Others, you will need a microscope (to see the eggs normally). I do fecals myself and treat most infected animals myself when they come in and in quarantine. I have also sent animals right back to people if they send me something with hard to treat parasites. I spent 250 on a binocular microscope from ebay and it does a very good job. Best money I have ever spent since I started breeding snakes. It is relatively easy and you will learn a ton. Get Klingenberg's "Understanding Reptile Parasites" to start out with. Liquid panacure can be found at Jeffers Livestock catalog. Under goat wormer. Panacure is relatively safe, so you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out dosage exactly. Do these thing and you will be off to a great start and have an interesting new hobbby and more importantly make your animals healthier and safe from sick new arrival. Ps. Take your animals to your reptile vet also. Veterinarian are invaluable. Mike Bodner
Mike Bodner's Thayeri

Thanks for this most useful information!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

That was the first good response on this topic I have seen. I work at a vet that sees reptiles as I posted down at zachs original post, and we regularly see problems with parasites.... Especially oxyurid (pinworms) in stressed animals and we do treat with the 100mg/ml panacur suspension.

It seems like a lot of people here are ignoring that fact that parasites can be a bad thing just bc they have animals that they fed lizards to that lived asymptomatic. The big picture is that parasites are real and while in the wild an animal may never have a chance to reingest parasite ova, in a cage they can and this can mean a pretty heavy burden on the animal.

What brand is your scope? I have a NIKON stereoscopic scope and a zeiss zoom scope that goes up to oil immersion.

Do you make your own fecasol? Float it or centrifuge it?

Thanks......My scope is a cheap one made by AMSCOPE. Like to get a better one one day. It was only $250 on ebay. Wish I had a Nikon. But mine seems to do the job. I do fecal floats. Next purchase, I would like to get a centrifuge. I just bought a gallon of Fecal Float - Sodium Nitrate Ready to use, on line. Mike Bodner

Mike Bodner's Thayeri

My scope has 40/100/400/1000 oil, has 10 power eyepiece and also 20 power eyepieces.............Question. Is a centrifuge worth getting? Can you separate that many more ova compared to a float?......Thanks in advance, Mike

I have not had any issues finding parasites without the centrifuge. I have used the float method at home and then gone in to work and double check myself by running centrifugation and not once found something additional. So no I would not buy a centrifuge for home. One thing that is nice to have is trichrome or other deep purple stain. When looking for live giardia or trichomocas and coccidial organisms, you can place a drop of saline on a slide and directly smear the fecal matter onto it, then place a cover slip on top. Take a dropper with your stain in it and a tissue or Kim wipe. Hold the Kim wipe in you left hand and dropper in you right. Slowly introduce a drop of stain onto the right hand side of the cover slip while using the Kim wipe to wick from the left side of the cover slip. This will drag the stain through and make all you protazoan swimmers show up nice and bright. Just do a search on Google or visit a vet and ask for info on the recommended stain for giardia and what not.
Grnpyro

do you guys worry about bedbugs as much?
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Thanks, I have some kind of blue stain already. Not sure what it is called. I'm going to try that method you just explained in the future. What power do you use for them? I know you can see coccidia at 400. Thanks again, Mike Bod

400 is great for most. Trichamonas is visible by the naked eye on a really infected sample. Giardia is the smallest and sometimes requires the next one up which is usally 600 or 800 depending on how many objectives your scope has.

I have Methylene Blue. Will that work? Thanks Again for the info. Mike

Thanks, Mike

Yes, it will work for a lot. Also its a aldehyde based stain so I would wear gloves. No problem. Lol i am in charge of osha as well at my work.

Ok, cool...Thanks Again, Mike Bodner