Results of Vet Visit-Parasites!

[dragosmom]

Drago went to the vet for the 1st time this a.m.. I dropped off fecal samples for her and Avanyu yesterday (I couldn't get one from Tripod, but figured we would treat them all if one were infected anyway).
Results:heavily loaded with the equivalent of "hookworms". Treatment: Panacur
The vet gave the treatment to Drago, to show me how, and gave me the dosage for my other dragons-since I had Panacur at home.
I have a REALLY nice vet who was perfectly kewl with helping me treat the other 2 without dragging them in.
He also took a few minutes to show me how to get her mouth open if any of them were difficult.
With any luck, after the 3 are retreated in 14 days and the viv has been disinfected, Drago will begin eating more and grow! Deworming is also required before some females can successfully breed, so hopefully this will help with that also.
On another note: I got my silkworms on Friday and what a GREAT food source. Room temperature, no odor, no escapes, easy to feed and I can put them on a branch right in front of the dragon and they'll just WAIT there to get eaten. Now THEY are my idea of reptile food! I also got in more butter worms so when they have expelled all of their worms (yuck!) they can have a feast!

[MoMmYoF2DrAgOnS]

ok.. please tell me what a 'hookworm' is and what it looks like.
Thanks

[dragosmom]

The fresh fecal sample that I brought in allowed them to find "strongyloides" in the fecal floats done. Strongyloides are similar to hookworms except they manifest themselves primarily in the GI tract. They are a direct life cycle parasite, which means I had to remove the moss from my viv and spray down the whole thing with peroxide spray followed by vinegar spray to disinfect everything. I then emptied and bleached the pool, pump and put in new filters and fresh moss. The 3 dragons were in the tub while I did this. Took 2 1/2 hrs. I have to give more medicine next Sat. and pretty much do it all again. Then, same thing Sat. after next. But, if I do everything right, we should be rid of them! These are very tiny parasites and are not visible to the naked eye. A very fresh fecal sample will show the actual worms instead of just the eggs which allows them to be diagnosed as strongyloides. Panacur is available online without prescription, but I wanted to see the vet actually administer it before I attempted it myself. Panacur also has a large margin of error.

[MoMmYoF2DrAgOnS]

Thanks for all that great info! I will have to look into gettin some panacur for 'just in case'. Glad to hear you started treatment, yes it is alot of work cleaning out the viv like that... and that is once a week for the next 2 weeks, wowsa! Its all worth it tho, you will have nice healthy, parasite free babies!

[Pooka]

So Dragosmom did the panacur effect any of the appetites yet? For better or worse? I just wonder because the flagyll seemed to make Pooka not very hungry for about a week. She would pcik butr not really dig in like she does now.

[dragosmom]

Neither Tripod or Drago have much of an appetite right now. Avanyu, however, ate 6 or 7 supers this morning and seems unphased by the whole ordeal. They were all pretty P'd off about having to spend 2 1/2 hrs. in the bathtub while I sanitized the viv. I'll be doing it again next weekend also after their next dose. I was surprised that they didn't need flagy, also. That may mean that they're not WC. They WC speciments almost always have protozoans, flagellates and/or amoebic infestations. It's in the water in their native habitat.