Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well i had a little with my substitute vet(my vet just had a baby). i took in a fecal and got a call back and they said it had pinworms. asked if they were rodent pinworms or reptile pinworms, they told me they didn't know there was any way to tell the diff. but my regular vet has called me many times with fecal results just to tell me they were rodent pinworms. so is there a way to tell, or has my regular vet been making an educated guess? if there is a diff. a site with pics would be great, to show the sub vet

There are pinworms in rodents that do not cause problems in reptiles. There are about 150 species that can infect snakes and other reptiles but about 3 or 4 are common. They have a direct life cycle (do not need an intermediate host) so they can re-infect the animal if feces is allowed to remain in the cage. Your vet will need to make an identification before he or she treats the animal. If you try to treat for mouse pinworms, you can treat until the cows come home and you are never going to stop seeing the eggs as long as you keep feeding mice from that particular source. If your mice are chronically infected with pinworms, you may want to consider switching sources. Although the pinworms from mice don't affect reptiles, it's likely those mice are infected with other things as well, and there are some things that the mice CAN give to your snake.

it didn't show if you did, and there is a camera next to your reply. i've got every herp health book i can find, but none show a compairison between herp pinworms and rodent pinworms. honestly i would bet a million bucks that they are from the mice, but can't prove it too him right this sec, god i want my vet back, she rules. i'll do some looking around and if you know of any pics please let me know.. and old herper you rule too. thanks for all the help

No, I don't have any pictures of mouse pinworm eggs. I should take some pics next time I find some mouse pinworm eggs in a float. Sorry. You might try doing an internet search on Oxyurids in rodents" or "Pinworms in mice" or something along those lines. If I get a few minutes in the morning, I'll see what I can find for you.

This site has a picture of the eggs but unfortunately does not indicate the size. It's important that your vet have a scale on the microscope that they use. Size can be a critical factor in identification.

T.B
Mouse pinworm (threadworm) eggs

The previous link didn't seem to work...

http://www.vetonline.cu.edu.eg/nematoda3.htm

T.B

Yep..that's them.

The size is about the same as snake pinworm eggs (about 50 to 100 um). ID is made by appearance.