Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just i am just curious as to what kind of effects worms can have on a tortoise. can a tort live with worms, or are they usually deadly? what do the worms actually do internally to a tortoise? Are they many different types of worms, and if so do they all have the same effects? also, what can be done to prevent getting them?
thanks
Ben

A perfect parasite will NOT kill it's host. In most cases that spells the end of their lives too.
For example -- a tapeworm does not want to end up starving it's host to death because it can not crawl out of the hosts body and find a new host. It wants to rob the host of just enough nutrition to feed and reproduce itself without killing off it's food source. Most all wild tortoises do have various parasites and live with them. They do compromise the animals and I sure ultimately shorten their life expectancy.
The problem is that when these animals who are already compromised are captured and shipped all over the place they do run the risk of dying if not treated promptly because they are already in a weakened condition and the stress of capture etc. is too much for them. Heavy parasite load on top of capture and/or shipping stress can definitely do them in.

You can find good articles on the kinds of parasites, that tortoises can carry, and how to treat them, in the 'Article' section of the Tortoisetrust website (www.tortoisetrust.org).
Good luck, Gaby