WORMS!!!

[Bigsqueeze]

Well, my yellow-head took a very messy poo the other night whilst i was asleep, and upon awakening i was horrified to see a bunch of what looked to me to be little earth worms crawling all over it. I have a vet appointment tomorrow night(bringing her and her new found pals) I know its some sort of parasite that my vet says he can cure with a dose of panacure. Has anyone else had this?(your snakes that is) I have had her for over two years and my others for even longer and this is the first time ive had this. :smt017

[Andy]

Where did you get it. I defanately have seen it before. No sign of anything then boom a runny diarhia poop and worms. Not sure panacur will do the trick. Cant think of the stuff right now. Kevin knows the name. It starts with a d :smt012

[KLG]

They'll dose it with panacur or ivermectin - those are roundworms/nematodes. They occasionally come from feeder rodents.

K~

[snakeman55]

It starts with a d

Is it drontal or droncit?

[Bigsqueeze]

He all thanks for the replys. Andy, i got her at NERD over 2 years ago, i dont think thats an issue, but i do get all my feeders from a rabbit breeder here in NH. I purchase them all live then euthanize(sp)them myself and freeze them right away. None of my other pythons seem to have this problem..yet. Could this have been an isolated rabbit, or should i just get all their stools sampled? Thanks again for all you help.

[Sherry Howell]

If it was me, I would have them all checked. We took a burm to the vet one time that was sick when it came to us. We put a lot of $$ in to the snake with antibiotics and such but the snake just wouldn't come out of it. We got a new vet in town and she did a fecal to find he was very infested. We only fed that snake frozen/thawed rabbits but she told me that the freezing process doesn't always kill off the parasite, which was gerrardia (I just know I spelled that word wrong :smt013 ).

[Bigsqueeze]

Well the vet said it is nematodes, he also said it is common, gave her an injection of ivermectin and gave me another to give her in 14 days. Now all i have to do is wait for my others to do their business and have them checked out as well. Oh well better to be safe than sorry. It may have come from one of my feeders.

[NeoScales]

Is it drontal or droncit?

That drug is used in Tapeworm infections.


We put a lot of $$ in to the snake with antibiotics and such but the snake just wouldn't come out of it. We got a new vet in town and she did a fecal to find he was very infested. We only fed that snake frozen/thawed rabbits but she told me that the freezing process doesn't always kill off the parasite, which was gerrardia

Giardia lamblia is most commonly an asymptomatic parasite. When symptoms do occur, it’s usually diarrhea and eventually weight loss. It’s very rare for it to be a problem in normal healthy animals. It’s safe to assume the Burm you got was left to re-infect itself over and over again because of filthy cage conditions.

Since your first vet was giving you “antibiotics”, the treatment plan certain should have included Flagyl for the possibility of a protozoan infection. I have no idea why that wouldn’t a first stage treatment option (since he/she obviously didn;’t have a solid diagnosis).

Lastly, the reason freeze/thawing doesn’t kill this (and other) parasites in because they have a very resistant cystic stage that is the infective form.

Here’s a cousin to Giardia lamblia that I recovered - Trichomonas spp.

http://www.neoscales.com/Pics/CGNecro3.jpg

[NeoScales]

Finger happy...

[Robilyn]

Giardia, huh? I know humans and other animals can contract it from stream water, I didn't realize it also affected snakes. Was that Trichomonas in a snake? I thought it was soley a human parasite. I know the two are closley related--in separate Phyla, but both animal-like flagellated protists. (Yeah invertebrate zoology! sorry, i just learned all this stuff in class and it's exciting to see it has real-world applications! :smt005 )

[NeoScales]

I didn't realize it also affected snakes. Was that Trichomonas in a snake?I thought it was soley a human parasite

Since we don't have the photomicrographs we'll have to rely on the vet report. Just to be clear, Giardia does infect reptiles (and amphibians, birds, dogs, cats, and more). You can do a search and find published papers containing this information.


in separate Phyla

Unless something has changed, I'm pretty certain they are both from the phylum Zoomastigophora Zooflagellates.


but both animal-like flagellated protists

Yes they are both unicellular organisms that multiply by binary fission.

[Robilyn]

Well, I think things have been shuffled around a lot lately since it turns out protists are related to each other differently than people thought. According to my invert lab, they were both in the former Class Zoomastigophora, but have now been informally grouped as animal-like flagellates, with Giardia in Phylum Diplomonadida, and Trichomonas in Phylum Parabasilida. This is just what I was told *shrug*. who knows--those protists are a tricky bunch :smt017