Treating pinworms, help please

[KrissyLeigh]

My beardie, Skittles, has tested positive for pinworms.His panacur is coming in the mail, but I have some questions. Hopefully some of y'all have had experience with treatment.

I plan to thoroughly sanitize his tank - should I do that at the end of the treatment, or daily during treatment?

Should I strip his tank during treatment so I can more easily sanitize? I don't want to stress him out on top of antibiotics.

What is the most effective and safe disinfectant? I usually use zoomed wipeout, but I want to make sure I destroy these parasites!!!

Is there anything I need to watch out for, healthwise, while I'm treating him?

ps - other than loose and stinky stool he seems fine. Good appetite, poops every other day, 7 months old, 15 inches long, 325 grams. I just want to be prepared for when the panacur comes in. Skittles is my heart, I hate seeing him upset. The picture attached is just so y'all can admire him! Thanks for any advice, I will really appreciate it.

 

[PatsyB]

We had pinworms. I was very careful with things between lizards, washed my hands, didn't share food or tools. As far as her tank went I steam cleaned it once a week and everything in it got washed weekly. Daily I wiped things down with an ammonia based cleaner from bearded dragon.co

Panacur is ROUGH and my girl was a great eater before it and after, not so much. I would get a probiotic and give it to him daily throughout the treatment.

 

[KrissyLeigh]

We had pinworms. I was very careful with things between lizards, washed my hands, didn't share food or tools. As far as her tank went I steam cleaned it once a week and everything in it got washed weekly. Daily I wiped things down with an ammonia based cleaner from bearded dragon.co

Panacur is ROUGH and my girl was a great eater before it and after, not so much. I would get a probiotic and give it to him daily throughout the treatment.

Oh no... ok. Skittles has always been an eating machine, I hope he is ok. I did find probiotics online, they are on their way - and they weren't easy to find either! My normal husbandry is to spot clean the tank with wipeout (ammonia based cleaner) every day, and do a thorough deep clean of the entire tank every week. I was just wondering if I needed to do more hardcore cleaning.

I am super worried about treating him, because he does not drink water or take anything from a syringe. I've tried dripping it on his nose as suggested and spraying the tip of his nose and he does NOT tolerate it! So I guess I'm going to have to force feed him? Which freaks me out because I don't want to hurt him. Depending on what dose he needs I was thinking about squishing the water out of some hornworms and injecting the hornworms with panacur and see if he will still eat them.... or is that a totally ridiculous idea?

How did you get yours to ingest the panacur? Can I force feed him the panacur and probiotics at the same time, or do they need to be separate? Agh, the meds and probiotics haven't even gotten here and I'm already freaking out!!!

 

[PatsyB]

What I do sometimes with one of my girls, is I inject a soft bodied worm with the medicine and she willingly eats the worm. It's tricky but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do! I dusted her bugs with the probiotic and then later in the day gave her the Panacur.

When I gave it to Dolly she was at a point where she was eating everything and anything. I just put the syringe in front of her and she took it. Now I can't get her mouth open for anything!

 

[KrissyLeigh]

What I do sometimes with one of my girls, is I inject a soft bodied worm with the medicine and she willingly eats the worm. It's tricky but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do! I dusted her bugs with the probiotic and then later in the day gave her the Panacur.

When I gave it to Dolly she was at a point where she was eating everything and anything. I just put the syringe in front of her and she took it. Now I can't get her mouth open for anything!

Hey Patsy, I have a question about the pinworm treatment - hopefully you can answer or point me in the right direction. On the packaging is says give 2 doses, a week apart. And it has the option for high dose or low dose. It has been exactly a week since I gave Skittles the high dose (though he didn't take all of it, so it was more like a medium dose). He has been eating slightly less, but still eating ~25 BSFL, ~35 dubias and salad every day. the past two days he has been a little lethargic, but from what you said that sounds normal. He is also going through a major shed, which always puts him in a funk.

He was positive for a moderate amount of pinworms. Do I need to give him the second dose? If so, should it be the low or high dose? What do you think? I will also contact the person who tested him (dr. dragon, I think) and see if they are able to advise me. Thanks so much!!!

 

[PatsyB]

You have to do the two doses. The first does kills the worms that are there already and the second dose kills what may have hatched since the first dose. I believe you want to give whatever you gave the first time. Check with Dr. Dragons though, they will advise you.

The meds and the shed could be putting him in a slump. He's still eating something so that's a good thing.

 

[BrookeE]

I think ill go ahead and roll into this post since I'm seeing some really great information. What is the difference between low and high dose? I assume its just the amount of Panacur given? But when would you give a low dose as opposed to a high dose? Will they both get rid of pin worms? I would think the low dose wouldnt bring them down as much hence being the better option?

Also that is one of the best colored dragons I have ever seen! I see why its called skittles!

 

[KrissyLeigh]

Thanks so much Brooke! He knows he's good lookin' too, hahaha.

Yes, the low vs. high dose is just the amount given. They (certain websites) recommend deworming your dragon twice yearly, or before \ after brumation (I don't remember which, possibly both) so I *think* that's what the low dose is for that and the high dosage is for an actual infestation.

I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone and it is day 7. If I don't hear back from anyone by tomorrow morning I'm just going to give him the same dosage, since he hasn't had any ill effects other than some lethargy... which could be from his massive shed he's working on. Wish us luck!

 

[KrissyLeigh]

or maybe the low dose.. I don't want to poison him. Research is ongoing.

 

[BrookeE]

Its absolutely amazing to me that after 5 years of owning a dragon and many many hours of research, blog posts, books, etc. I am still learning so much. Until recently, I heard never heard or read that its a good idea to deworm your beardie yearly. According to what I read, its especially a good idea if crickets are your staple bug because they tend to carry pinworms. And thats my situation, unfortunately crickets are nearly my only bug option. I have never dewormed my girl, but she's been really happy and healthy up until recently.

The symptoms she's showing of being unwell are as follows:
-She is gaping constantly, every now and then she'll gape so wide that it looks like she's sort of gagging, but has never thrown up. Thats usually after she's eaten a big meal.
-Her stool has been liquidy and super smelly. As in it clears out the room.
-Dehydrated I think because of the liquidy stool.
-Her appetite is through the roof. Attacks anything that I give her as if she's never eaten before

Other than that, she's acting normal. Lots of energy. Very attentive and watches everything I do. Basking normally. Has a bowel movement at least every other day but sometimes every day.
She eats salad every single day. Right now its bok choy and bell peppers. I change it up every week. She gets 10 large crickets twice a week (Is this enough? Does she need more?). I gut load them and dust them. Her temps are right. I use the tube UVB light. She loves to run around the house.

So I really think she's got pin worms. I haven't gotten her tested but since she's never been dewormed, I have no doubt that she's got them. I have probiotics and Panacur on the way. My plan is to go ahead and start giving her probiotics maybe for the next week, and then do a low dose treatment with the panacur.

For the experts, does it sound like I'm on the right track and does that treatment plan sound okay? Will a low dose treatment approach knock out pin worms if she has an infestation? Anything I should know or any advice? Im open to any and all comments, advice, criticism. Dont hold back, I want her to be healthy.

Thanks y'all.

 

[KrissyLeigh]

I would go ahead and send a stool sample off, if you haven't yet, to make sure that is the only parasite she has. Except for the gaping, those are Skittles' symptoms exactly.

I'm hoping after treatment he eats less - right now he eats ~30 large worms, 45 medium dubia (which I read have 6x the nutrition of crickets), salad, and extra treat insects EVERY DAY! And that is me 'dieting' him - he wants even more. He is eating me out of house and home!!!! He will eat more than 100 large crickets a day if I let him - that's about where I cut it off because I'm afraid he will hurt himself eating too much. I have only had an adult beardie before, so I thought he ate so much since he is still growing (he is almost 8 months), but other people's young beardies don't eat nearly ad much, so I'm thinking it might be the worms.

 

[BrookeE]

Yeah my girl will absolutely eat as much as I give her no questions asked. When she was little she ate herself sick and threw up so I know I have to limit her because she won't stop herself. Im too afraid of impaction to let her eat such a high amount of bugs per day. I gave her 20 large crickets the other day and she was doing a lot of that gagging thing and i really thought she was going to throw up but she didnt. so it seemed like that was too much at once for her. Really trying to figure out what is a normal healthy amount.

Is there somewhere you can send a stool sample, or just your local vet?

Also this may be the dumbest question I've asked all week, but, would Panacur not knock out various sorts of parasites? Isn't it pretty much poison that would kill everything?

 

[KrissyLeigh]

I sent mine to DrDragons for $12 and they were very prompt in identifying and getting back to me. Here is the link:

https://reptdelicious.com/collections/rereptile-fecal-test

I don't know if panacur treats everything, but I noticed when buying it that there were other types of antibiotics you can get, so I'm assuming some are better for different things.

I still haven't figured out what's "normal" eating for his age, but he has a bowel movement every other day like clockwork, so I haven't been worried about feeding him too many insects as of right now

 

[KrissyLeigh]

I know I need to start weaning him off because adults don't eat nearly as much, both from reading and personal experience. But I've been increasing his salad instead of decreasing his worms, so the ratio of insects to veggies is different. And he always eats all of his salad in addition to insects, so I'm going to keep doing that... I also don't want to drastically change his diet while I'm treating him. After treatment, when I get a good idea of his diet when he is parasite free, I'll make adjustments

 

[BrookeE]

Okay great thanks for the link! I will definitely do that. Any idea how long it normally takes them to contact you with the results?

 

[KrissyLeigh]

Okay great thanks for the link! I will definitely do that. Any idea how long it normally takes them to contact you with the results?

I sent it normal mail, and they responded the day after they received it - so, like 3 days if you don't mail over the weekend?