Re: Worms in feces

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Posted by oldherper on March 27, 2003 at 09:07:54:

In Reply to: Worms in feces posted by pulatus on March 24, 2003 at 21:59:25:

:I've had this female black-tail since last August. She was wild caught and has been treated for parasites by a good herp vet. Eats and looks fine but started producing bloody feces this week. I noticed a couple worms in the stools which are very watery and have visible (undigested) hair in them. There was also mucosy blood. The worms were yello/gold, about 2 inches long, larger at the head end and tapering toward the "tail". There also were what appeared to be flat, oval or tear-drop shaped flukes (?) These were white/gray and didn't appear to be alive. The gold worms were still moving.

:Can anyone let me know what these are, and a recommended treatment? I'll get both to the vet soon, but leaving for vacation tomorrow for 5-6 days.

:Joe

Like Terry said, don't freeze it. This can cause eggs to rupture making them impossible to find and identify. It would also be just about impossible for anyone on here to identify the worms by the descriptions without seeing them. The long slender ones can be one of several species. The flat, white, teardrop or oval shaped ones may be tapeworms, if they have a segmented appearance...once again, impossible to say for sure. Save the worms in alcohol too, if you can. If it's tapeworms, the eggs can be hard to find, especially in a float. Usually a direct smear is needed to find tapeworm eggs. If you have the worms, the vet can identify those. Usually it's a simple matter to treat for intestinal parasites, but if left too long they can have deadly effects on your animals. Sometimes they are transmitted to your snakes by food items. Laboratory mice are usually not too bad for this if they were raised in good conditions, but there are a lot of people raising and selling feeder mice now under questionable conditions. It's a good idea to routinely send a stool sample to your vet (spot checking your animals if you have a lot of them) for parasite screening every six months or so. The vet (around here, anyway) usually only charges $20.00 or so for this service.

It's best to get the sample to your vet as fresh as possible, within a few hours if possible, but if you can't, then preserving in alcohol of refrigerating for a day or so is OK, too.

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