Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so last september hugo had worms, pinworms, i think. i treated him and helga, cleaned their cage at the start of the treatment, after giving them medicine for a week and then after giving them the medicine two weeks later and when i say cleaned, i am talking about scrubbing everything to get the bugs out.

i thought everything was fine because they don't live on sand and half the time smear their poo, but i guess it wasn't but once i moved and moved all the lizards across the country, hugo got really bad again and you could tell he had lost weight. and he took a poo that was extremely runny and smelled to high heaven.

so i take him to the vet and get meds for him and helga. he was living in the temporary tub because he and helga came with me when i visited my sister. i cleaned their tub, gave them the meds, cleaned it again, but this vet only gave me a one time treatment that lasted three days, there was no treatment two weeks later.

anyway, we get back to where i am temporarily living in west virginia, i cleaned their big tank. but their poop still is not barrel shaped. half of it is, half of it isn't. it's doesn't stink, like i can't smell it from afar like when hugo pooped at my sister's house and i haven't gotten close to it to take a whiff (i thought that might make me weird)

anyway, i guess i should take them back again to the vet. but i mean something is not right here and it has to be on my end.

i scrub the poop off everything with really hot water and even things without poop, they all get washed in really hot water, but everything that was in their cage got thrown away when i moved. i scrub their tank with really hot water.

anyway, i guess i was thinking that the worms were living in the poop, which i guess is wrong, can they live in plastic or whatever? does really hot water not kill them

am i reinfecting my lizards over and over

things i have looked up on the net about pinworms either don't tell me much about their outside of uro body living experience or i find articles in biology language that i don't really understand.

the lizards are eating and being active, just odd poop
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vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

In my experience with many types of lizards, The stinky poop thing has GENERALLY been caused by either, protozoans or kidney failure. Also I have a theory that when you medicate a hind gut fermenter (uros), you kill all their useful bacteria living in the digestive tract, and the poop won't be right til that tract builds its ecology back up. These kinds of problems are a real pain in the *&#. Things like yogurt and acidopholus, work wonders for mammals but a herp system is a different story. I spoke with Lindsay Pike about this, neither of us had a definitive answer. Good Luck pulling for ya.

our mali, batista, has had some off and on issues with worms. one side thaught, some people believe that a small population of cretain types of worms actually help a uro digest their food. yet, even these "safe" worms can become overly populated, and cause problems. we're not sure how much we believe that worms are good, but it does make sense that they could help. anyway, we use panacur paste, which we baught online from a horse breeder web site. the panacur paste has the same concentration that the liquid panacur the vet gave us, plus it only costs seven bucks. for our eighty gram batista, we give him .03 ml's once a week for three weeks. since most worms have a three week or so life cycle, this insures that you kill the adults, babies, and eggs that hatch in the weeks after the frist dose.
so, i would definately suggest taking the worm population into your own hands. panacur paste is the best, and most widely used, de-wormer that i have found, and there are many web sites that give you conversion advice, like
http://www.leaplizard.com/articles/dosage.html

our vet also suggested that if you are still worried after the three week treatment, wait for three weeks, then do it again, to make tripple sure.

good luck!

ok well i guess i could try the different dosage, i thought it was weird this last time that this lady only gave me a one time treatment, as my other vets have always given me one set of doses and another set to do again two weeks later

my mother said something about these parasites maybe lying dormant in egg form until something comes around to live in again. (she wasn't really sure about that) is that true? i will admit that when i cleaned the uros' big cage once i got back to west virgina, that i did not clean it as well as i normally do after a parasite invasion because i figured everything would have been dead since they were not in the cage for like 3 weeks.

i am in the process of trying to find a vet up here. i am sure i will have to drive pretty far since every town around here is tiny. going from san diego to west virgina is complete culture shock!
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vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

>>ok well i guess i could try the different dosage, i thought it
>>was weird this last time that this lady only gave me a one
>>time treatment, as my other vets have always given me one set
>>of doses and another set to do again two weeks later

If it's the med I'm thinking of then normal treatment is three doses separated by two weeks. Intervals have to do with life cycle of the bad guys.

For cleaning cages I've been using "Healthy Habitat"... can't tell you if it does anything useful at all (it says it does) but it does have this nice orange color and a pleasant scent. To be thorough you might consider bleaching the plastic surfaces and letting it vent out. For wood and stone or tile cage furniture I've been baking everything in my oven at 325-250F for upwards of an hour (higher temps will smoke out your house... don't ask).
pests livign in things is exactly why I sealed the interior of my Condo cages with epoxy resin as opposed to permitting open joints on a porous board like melamine.

As a side point I'm completely avoiding stacks of anything stone or tile as this seems to be where pests like to live. Also, I've seen mites come into clean cages with the introduction of "guaranteed clean/sterile" driftwood so that kind of thing is getting the pre-bake treatment from now on.

>>i am in the process of trying to find a vet up here. i am
>>sure i will have to drive pretty far since every town around
>>here is tiny. going from san diego to west virgina is
>>complete culture shock!

"Where you goin city folk?"
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uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian), hardwickii (Indian),
macfadyeni (Somalian), ocellata (Sudanese), ornata (Ornate), benti pseudophilbyi

well i just emailed you about most of this. and the questions i asked you were answered in this post. i should have checked both places before emailing you back or you could have told me to read the reply on kingsnake too.
did you set your house on fire trying to bake some rocks? you must be taking cooking lessons from me! have any idiots make a salad for you lately
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vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

>> did you set your house on fire trying to bake some rocks?

I said don't ask

>>you must be taking cooking lessons from me! have any idiots
>>make a salad for you lately

No. I don't allow idiots access to the expensive cutlery.
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uromastyx geyri (Saharan/Nigerian), hardwickii (Indian),
macfadyeni (Somalian), ocellata (Sudanese), ornata (Ornate), benti pseudophilbyi

is that dubbed the vonnie rule?
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vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

You might want to try using a chemical called "chlorhexidine" to help disinfect your enclosure, decoration, food dishes, etc.

I recently purchased a 1L bottle from a local medical supply shop (you can probably find it at a good pharmacy...). It's a batericide and virucide.

The chemical is very safe and inexpensive. Vets use it for a variety of purposes including cleaning wounds and even as a mouth wash.

Not sure whether it would be effective against pinworms.

It's also known as Virosan or Nolvasan. I just ordered a fresh gallon the other day.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.2 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)