Well I'm back again. I'm the one with the citcle back leo named ziggy that is only 6 grams and she was diagnoised with coccida . I have her on her medicine but when I have talked to other people they ALL have said that she will always have to be by herself and that in the long run she will die within months. Is this true and am I hurting her by keeping her alive? I dont want her to live misarable, but I love her to death too. She was my first leo. What should I do?
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Ziggy being sick!!
JAG
Jun 20, 2003 01:55 PM
Replies (3)
KelliH
Jun 20, 2003 03:14 PM
A diagnosis of coccidia does NOT = death. Coccidia can be treated with medication, the most common one at this time is caled Albon which you should be able to obtain from your vet. You will need to be VERY strict about cleaning also. Here is a copy/paste from a good website I found by doing a Google search. The link to the page is below.
***COCCIDIA
The fact that geckos thrive in small containers simply plays in to the overall parasitic scheme of the coccidia. Coccidia are tiny protozoan parasites that invade the intestinal lining in order to reproduce. The product of their reproduction is a tiny egg-like structure called an oocyst. The oocyst is the infective stage of the parasite and it is passed with the fecal matter into the environment in the hopes that another host will become exposed to it. The sad fact is that it is our gecko who is repeatedly acting as the host and the numbers of coccidia increase exponentially. When a parasite with a direct life cycle (no intermediate hosts required) builds up like this, it is referred to as a super- infection. The irritation to the gastrointestinal tract leads to dehydration, anorexia, and allows secondary bacteria to invade. Treatment consists of giving a sulfa based drug, the best being sulfadimethoxine (Albon-0) at 50 mg/kg orally every 24-48 hours until resolved. However, coccidia will not be resolved without fastidious cleaning. A useful technique is to set up an extra cage and switch the gecko back and forth between cages at least once and better, twice a day. Newspaper should be used as a substrate for easy cleaning and all elaborate cage furniture eliminated while being treated. Follow-up fecals are important to make sure the coccidia are eliminated. This is a very contagious parasite, passing easily from gecko to gecko, so all new additions to a colony should be strictly quarantined while evaluated for health matters in addition to parasites.***
Leopard Gecko Diseases
ZeR0
Jun 20, 2003 06:33 PM
They though you werent treating it, and this will lead to death, If you ARE treating it, then she wont die aslong as she gets the medications she needs. Definately dont give up, she should be better in no time, and nce she had a clean bill of health, she can be housed will other leos. Sorry about the mix up,
MaC
JAG
Jun 21, 2003 01:13 PM
No I'm on the 4th day of treating her. She is in her own cage and so forth. She is easily getting rid of the worms. I hear if it is so far along though that she will always have it, is this true?
