Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, this has probably been answered already, but I fed my kiddies today and when I got real close to the glass to say Hi, i noticed little 1/16 long or so lines all over the place. Well at first I thought it was growth of some kind from plants or muck that gathers in between rocks...

But then!

I noticed the little wormie things were moving along... crawling like a slug or so. Now someone out there has to have seen this before...
Are they bad? Because I really think they can't be good.
Can I get rid of them easily? I don't mind putting a little extra work into cleanings.
Are they harmful to my boys? Sherman and Abrahms are tough..but the sheer number of these lil things is frightening...

Lemme know...

I think they might be worms.I guess other people bring there turts to the vets to get it taken care of.I havent had this problem-YET.I hope I dont but It is bound to happen sometime.Contact a local vet and ask for a reptile specialists # closest to you.I heard the bills from the vet can be up to $300.

I took to doing a 100% cleaning and disinfecting of the tank and the kids.... Bleach soakings on the tank and pebbles. A little betadine in the holding tank for 3 minutes for the kids. Then as I put Abrahms in the clean water...he pooped. Not bad...except it was a 3 ft worm (no exaggeration). I looked closely at it and its segmented the whole way down. Strangely he looked relieved afterwards. I'm making a vet appt tomorrow.
Any natural ways or things to put into their tank to help out?

Well, I seperated the two last nite into two rubbermaid bins, with filters and a little hide area... This morning, Abrahms was all clear, but Sherman had worm floating everywhere. I mean at least 6 feet worth in his tank!...I'm gettin worried now. Hes real lethargic for once.... He's usually the fast one... Vet here i come

Good thing you're going to the vet. Segments usually mean tapeworms. Both turtles probaby have them. A good disinfection of their tanks and filter, etc. will be needed when their treatment is done. I'd place the turtles in a tubs and change their water daily during treatment phase until they can go back into their disinfected tank.

Try to get some pancur to inject orally into the snappers mouths as that will help rid the worms...I know tetra also makes a good de-wormer called "rid-worm" I believe. A vet would be best though. As far as the tanks go if they are cheap just toss them...otherwise with my tanks I like to use 3% hydrogen peroxide all the way up to 15% depending on what was in there and whipe that all over the place to kill any organic stuff. You can use bleach and anything like that, but don't mix ammonia with it, as chlorine gas (basically mustard gas will kill!)....make sure you clean the tank super well of chemicals before putting the turtle back in there! I also give turtles a salt bath a few times a year where they get to swim in a tank with a few inches of brackish water with aquarium salt in it...they turtles don't seem to mind, but it kills some bacteria and fungus. Good luck with them!
Feel free to email me if you think I can help!

-Steve
TurtsAndTorts

It's my understanding that Panacur doesn't kill Tapeworms and I think these worms are segmented so are probably tapes. Squirting liquids into a turtles mouth isn't the best because they can aspirate the liquid into their lungs or just spit it back out. Getting the turtle to the vet is the best thing. Tubing liquids down the throat is much safer and should be done by a vet or experienced handler. For tapeworms I actually believe their is an injectable drug that is safe for turtles. Ask the vet, I think it's Droncid or Drontil. An injection would be the best especially for a snapper.

I shocked the crap outta the tanks with everything from betadine to bleach to hydrogen peroxide. The kids are both looking better and theres no evidence of any more worms like before. The vet visit is monday, and I'm calling another vet who treats turtles and he has all ranges of medicines. He told me he just treated a huge matamata for worms with an injection.

I'll update soon....

Well, at least you have the tank issue under control! Be sure to keep them seperated! As far as shooting liquid in the mouths, there can be some problems with it, but tubing also has its downfalls as a snapper can EASILY bite right through most any cheap plastic tube. I personally treat all my agressive animals in a manner that is not vet approved, or even well known. I like to take the prey, be it an earthworm, or a mouse, whatever...as long as it is prekilled I take a syringe and a little needle and I liquify the proper dose of medication into the syringe...purge the needle, and get ready to shoot the little critter up. Then I just inject the food, and feed it like normal. I actually use this method a lot with all sorts of animals! It works with tortoises too, and is good for injecting tomatoes with a bunch of vitimans and such. Just a nice little trick to have up your sleeves

-Steve
TurtsAndTorts Captive Bred Reptiles

I've used the method of injecting a fish for giving medicine to herons I've rehabbed and it works good. With the water turtles, do you think the medicine is staying in the food until the turtle eats it all? I thought about trying that but I figured the medicine might leak out in the water before the turtle eats it. And then sometimes the food doesn't get eaten in one bite. It gets tore up. You have much problem with that? I feed more whole fish than worms or pinky mice. Maybe those little bodies are more apt to get eaten in one bite? Just wondering.

Well, the Vet called me today and told me that he had to reschedule my appt to Wednesday, because he has two surgery appts that had to be moved forward. Two monkeys owned by one person got into a fight with a pit bull next door....and won, hehe...
Well, he told me to stop by today and get a syringe with Panacur in it for free, and I dropped off a fecal and a piece of the tape worm, and he confirmed they are tapes... So on Wednesday they get a Droncit (Droncin...) shot. I told him I would force the Panacur into a Rosy red and feed it to them, and he actually never thought of feeding a snapper like that even though he does that to ALL of his other rehab animals...

Plus since he rescheduled my appointment, hes not charging me full price...

Sounds like it's working out for the best since you won't be charged full price. Keep us posted.