I always support extra hydration therapy anytime you give drugs.
That is always a good idea. It is imperative with certain antibiotics, or you can very easily cause renal or liver damage, and in some cases other side effects, such as skin and eye injuries or joint tissue damage.

This is a course I have seriously studied since I started an animal rescue and began veterinary treatments for most things in-house, because most vets just don't know all they should about herps. I have actually become so specialized and familiar with some treatments, that I have had a few veterinarians consult with me about another person's ill reptile. I have saved quite a few from bad advice from a vet too. For example, if Randy had listened to his vet about force feeding whole prey to a sick 2g juvenile instead of listening to my recommendations to use liquid formula and Bene-Bac, his little "Jon" MSHL would be dead now. I consulted as a second opinion for a school teacher here earlier in the year, on the school's 4ft. Iguana who had a toe issue. The vet charged hundreds, and wanted hundreds more to do cancer biopsies! I cleaned and examined it and concluded it was simply an abscessed wound from getting his toe injured in his terrarium climbing about the bamboo, and I recommended an antibiotic and wound treatments. He was fine in a month. "Cancer" mysteriously in remission!

With my pre-hibernation protocol, in my HL manual, I have already been recommending Panacur treatment at least 2 months before expected hibernation. And with the additional hydration therapy that I recommend in the month preceding hibernation, this gives plenty of opportunity to flush the system. I already warn people of the dangers of not fasting the HLs and flushing the bowels, as any undigested material can cause a septic condition and illness while they are down. I have been talking about that for some time here and other places if you recall.

On the post...ok, "indoor". I usually don't expect "indoor" and "enclosure" to be used together, and I was expecting you to be discussing the conditions of your outdoor "enclosure". My bad.

But, my statement still stands that decreasing space and limiting movements is going to increase chances of illness and parasites. You can help weigh against that with an indoor tank by frequent substrate changing and disinfecting the tank and decor, but they are still going to be much more closely living around their fecal waste and the bacteria and parasites that this brings. And unless you are jumping right on those cleanings every time there is waste, then the chances for re-infection or cross contamination go up in such confined spaces.

>>It is pure conjecture on our part (at least on my part) that HLs might become reinfected by sniffing (licking) at their feces. It seems reasonable, but I know of no studies.

Actually, it is pretty well accepted in veterinary science, that oral-fecal route is one of the number one pathways of parasite infection. Parasite eggs are also shed in the feces, and this is what is looked for in fecal flotations. An animal licking the feces or substrate upon which feces has rested, runs the risk of ingesting parasite eggs.
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Harvester Ants

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