PARASITE...Eimeria Coccidia..cleaning cage?

ok, so this is what jack has been diagnosed with, Eimeria Coccidia, parasite. so he's on treatment with Albon? i believe its called.... i'd have to check for sure, and is recieving injections of fluid to go along with it. my question is, how do i make this parasite go away.........what do i have to do to clean his cage? trees? branches? food dishes? water droppers?............also, i have another cham, he's just a baby panther, 2.5 months old Jude. How do i keep it from spreading to him? they are in different rooms, and use all their own equipment, so i suppose as long as im not handling them both without washing my hands? any experience with the parasite would be super helpful....please let me know what you think...........

I think coccidia are pretty tough to get rid of. Bleach won't kill them, but ammonia will. It's probably going to be difficult to kill all of them and all their eggs. You'd have to routinely clean everything in the cage, repot plants, etc.

Disclaimer: I've never actually dealt with it, but I'm pretty sure this is what people on this forum have said.

We have worked to successfully help cleanse chams of this parasite until their fecals were clean. We removed plants and vines from cage, washed washable items with bleach solution (10 parts water to 1 part bleach). Let them dry. And then followed with an ammonia wash. Outdoors. Do not breath it in. The items were then set aside for future use when cham was clean. Plants should be disposed of and replaced to really be safe.

We replaced plants and vines with plastic grids (from hobby/crafts store) and plastic or silk plants. All very washable. The chameleon lived in this environment, in his mesh cage, until we were able to get 3 clean fecals over a several week period. And even then I think we left him in the modified cage for a while before returning clean plants and climbing vines.

You can acutally use plastic twist ties to "tie" the ends of plastic plants to opposing cage walls to provide washable climbing and resting spots.

We did not successfully treat with Albon though. We used Reptaid. It is much safer.

This is just what we did. And it worked. But others handle the situation differently.

so pretty much, its safer just to get rid of the stuff he has now, and get new stuff, to be sure all the parasites are gone? i am going to re-screen his cage tonight, he has always had fake plants, as i have successfully killed all attempts at having real ones. i will get rid of the fake trees he has, and replace them with new ones. should i do this now? once he has his first dose of meds? what about the branches he climbs on.....they are those fake bendy ones, but they're rather pricey.....can i use amonia on those? will it sink in and hurt jack?

also, how do i keep it from spreading to my other cham?

Anything that's fake should be washable. I've heard bleach doesn't work on coccidia, but it works on almost everything else, so bleaching and then cleaning with ammonia (don't inhale the fumes! Bleach + ammonia combo can be fatal) should rid you of the parasites. Make sure you rinse everything very well and let it dry out completely before returning it to your cage.

Check out this link: https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleons-coccidia-ponazuril-offers-16409/

and this thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/vet-visit-today-coccidia-14838/

anything that is washable, simply soak for a few hours in a strong soloution of hydrogen peroxide - the stuff used to hair works well.

It will even destroy the coocidia oocysts (resiliant, spores they use to withstand hard conditions - that's why it's hard to kill wiht bleach).

Coccidia can be common in many species - it usually is only a problem in stresed animals.

I have no first hand experiance with it but i believe a steam machine works very well you can get fairly small steamers from places like walmart. That way you know you got every corner

Steam is unreliable in killing oocysts. It takes heat over time. It's nearly impossible to heat things hot enough, long enough, in every crack and crevice, without a really high end, really high heat steam.

Everything that can be soaked, soak in peroxide. For the cage itself, simply scrb it clean with a good soap, rinse and repeat. Washing will take care of almost all your problems. Smooth things, like metal, wash clean. It's the porus things and wood that are impossible to wash completely, and a soak in peroxide will eliminate the bad stuff, as it's effective even when there is some organic matter present.

Howdy,

Speaking of hydrogen peroxide hair products, I found a local wholesale source for this product. I didn't buy it here but this is what it looks like. http://www.beautyofnewyork.com/shopping/product_view.php?itemCode=IBZK010207KG1247&base. I think I recall paying $1.25 per 32oz bottle when I bought something like 8 bottles at a time. It's 4 times as strong as std drug store 3% hydrogen peroxide. Each 10 volume units of hydrogen peroxide is equal to 3%, so a 40 volume is 12%. That's pretty strong so be careful with it. I've been using it for a while as a general microbial/parasite killer. My choice to use it was based on this article: http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/68/5/2576. I sometimes question its ability to kill coccidia but I can say that the bottom line is that I treated a chameleon with drugs and kept the enclosure clean and he has been free of coccidia since July 2008. A nice by-product of H2O2 is that it breaks down into water and oxygen . Absolutley no posion gas issues.

What is coccidia? Sorry, i cant help.. just wanna learn now

alrite, so soaking stuff is an option i suppose, but our cage is made of wood, and most of his poops fall to the bottom and sit on the wood, so i am just going to get a new cage built/bough all together.......as for the vines n stuff, i suppose i can soak thos, considering they are $15/vine and he has about 5 of them.........new plants are easy too. my plan is to keep jack in a smaller cage with less stuff in it until he is parasite free........then return him to his bigger, new cage. any thoughts on this?

ps. jack has not eaten in 4 days......5 if he doesnt eat today. what should i do about this......

for NewOwner...
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_coccidia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidia

ok, so worse case scenero, after about 4 weeks, we think jack is better, and the parasite can come back? then what?.......... im almost afraid to hear the answer.......... jack wasnt eating prior to this medicine either, he had been put on baytril, because the vet thought there was another infection. as soon as he started taking that, he stopped eating. today i force fed him 5 crickets, once they were in his mouth, he chewed them up as usual. he is recieving fluid under his skin on the days he takes the albon. i have moved him to a small cage with one vine and not a lot of leaves, in an effort to contain the parasite when he poops. i figure less places to poop, less chance it can stick around. do you have any other tips for his husbandry while he is recovering??? thanks so much,
jackattack

ps i am in alberta canada

JackAttack said:

ok, so worse case scenero, after about 4 weeks, we think jack is better, and the parasite can come back? then what?.......... im almost afraid to hear the answer.......... jack wasnt eating prior to this medicine either, he had been put on baytril, because the vet thought there was another infection. as soon as he started taking that, he stopped eating. today i force fed him 5 crickets, once they were in his mouth, he chewed them up as usual. he is recieving fluid under his skin on the days he takes the albon. i have moved him to a small cage with one vine and not a lot of leaves, in an effort to contain the parasite when he poops. i figure less places to poop, less chance it can stick around. do you have any other tips for his husbandry while he is recovering??? thanks so much,
jackattack

ps i am in alberta canada

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Yes, with what he has been taking, and his loss of appetite, I would recommend a probiotic. We use a probiotic whenever one of our chams has been on Baytril or similar antibiotic. It restores good bacteria and helps the appetite return. We use nutribac. Basically you dust the feeders with it as you would any other supplement:

Dave Weldon said:

Howdy,

Speaking of hydrogen peroxide hair products, I found a local wholesale source for this product. I didn't buy it here but this is what it looks like. http://www.beautyofnewyork.com/shopping/product_view.php?itemCode=IBZK010207KG1247&base. I think I recall paying $1.25 per 32oz bottle when I bought something like 8 bottles at a time. It's 4 times as strong as std drug store 3% hydrogen peroxide. Each 10 volume units of hydrogen peroxide is equal to 3%, so a 40 volume is 12%. That's pretty strong so be careful with it. I've been using it for a while as a general microbial/parasite killer. My choice to use it was based on this article: http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/68/5/2576. I sometimes question its ability to kill coccidia but I can say that the bottom line is that I treated a chameleon with drugs and kept the enclosure clean and he has been free of coccidia since July 2008. A nice by-product of H2O2 is that it breaks down into water and oxygen . Absolutley no posion gas issues.

Click to expand...

after doing tests in my Che class hydrogen peroxide is 68% more effective in killing live bacteria on hard/porous surfaces than standard rubbing alcohol.

in order to treat the wood just soak it, and then rinse it throughly by spraying it with a solution, and scrubbing. Then rinsing the affected area with water, and blotting it up to help dry. hope this helps!