cocc treatment

[Chamaeleoeo]

alright..so i have been treating my veiled for a little over a month now for coccidia and pin worms. at first i started out with Albon(unfortunately) and panacur...after three days of treatment from albon i came to notice how bad it was and immediately ordered ponazuril, but the damage had been done and he had stopped eating, and still wont eat by himself willingly. two weeks ago the fecal showed up negative for pin worms, but still slight traces of cocc. so i am still administering ponazuril now. i have been force feeding with crushed up bugs(dubia, hornworms, crix, supers) and repta-aid for about two weeks now. i also have upped his misting and misting duration and he does drink and looks to be hydrated. ive noticed that he typically now will regurgitate a good ammount of what i give him. i am stressed and I KNOW he is stressed for sure. to say im frustrated would be an understatement. his weight has been fluctuating. hes comin on 7 months or so and when i first brought him in to the vet on Jan 31st, he was 83 grams, and now he is around 74-75. today i caught him with his eyes closed...this concerns me. if he knows im around he will have them open, and i havent seen him do this. so basically i was wondering if there is any tricks to keeping the food down?? should i maybe try the ad-cham bug juice recipe?? i also havent gotten any solid stool recently. my vet told me to wait till the ponaz treatment is through which will be on the 10th. any ideas why he would be closing his eyes?? otherwise he is alert and just recently had a good shed??? how long will we have to go through this horror!?!?

cage type: all screen, 4 ft high, 4 ft wide, 2 ft deep, about 7ft off ground
lighting: 5.0 reptisun, 100 watt basking(right around 90-92)
plant: now one schefflera, with top soil, peat moss mix, covered with stones
perfect gradients
perfect humidity(40-50%-spikes to 70%-85% when misted)

 

[Syn]

7 feet off the ground? Jeez how do you get up there? Lol! I'm not too good with parasites, but I heard reptaid works wonders. It's different for every cham I guess. Sounds bad with the regurgitation and I hope he gets better soon... You got a week before ponazuril treatment is over. What vet did you use?

 

[Chamaeleoeo]

very nice and knowledgable woman Dr. Asseo out of pleasant hill, i actually had to order the ponazuril out of arizona off carefree highway. placed named roadrunner pharmacy, prolly not to far from you!

 

[Syn]

I think it's about 40-50 miles away. Glad to know she knows what she's doing and she's not like the cat and dog vet I went to. Bleh! Best of luck Chamaeleoeo.

 

[dodolah]

ahhh here is the classic Albon dilemma.

I have experienced it with my chameleon.

I did the bug juice recipe and force feed mine with it.
Perhaps, you can put the ponazuril inside the juice.
Your chameleon is probably severely stressed due to the force feeding. and the eyes closing is the reaction to the stress.

luckily, Ponazuril only requires 2 treatment sessions (if i'm not mistaken 3 days in a row and wait for a week and do it again).

Increase opportunity for him to drink (if he still drinking).
I mixed pedialyte with water in the dripper and for some reason my chameleon reacted positively with the orange flavor.
Try to wean him from force feeding as soon as possible.
Have you tried live insects again? perhaps, horn worms?

I gotta warn you about Albon so you won't be surprised.
I believe LuckyKarma experienced this as well as me.
After the Albon stress, my chameleon now only eat 1 feeder and ever since refused everything.
He now only eat hornworms.

 

[Chamaeleoeo]

wow that must get expensive..do you breed them?? but yes, i have tried horn worms. dubia. nymph freshly shed, not freshly shed to mid sizes, super worms, crix and still no response. i need to try silk worms i suppose. but that orange pedialyte is a great idea, ill definitely try that. the vet told me to do it everyday at about .08ml, then said to put it up to .16ml. should i give a large dose and hold off??? what about probiotics? i purchased some NutriBAC and was also wondering on when to start introducing that...and if you/anyone had luck??

 

[dodolah]

wow that must get expensive..do you breed them?? but yes, i have tried horn worms. dubia. nymph freshly shed, not freshly shed to mid sizes, super worms, crix and still no response. i need to try silk worms i suppose. but that orange pedialyte is a great idea, ill definitely try that. the vet told me to do it everyday at about .08ml, then said to put it up to .16ml. should i give a large dose and hold off??? what about probiotics? i purchased some NutriBAC and was also wondering on when to start introducing that...and if you/anyone had luck??

i have probiotic but ended up never using that.
so, i don't know the usefulness of the product.
But, Dr. Greek told me that if I am to use that, to wait until the medicine sessions are over.
Ponazuril everyday? Did the vet told you how many days be4 you stop?

 

[luckykarma]

I don't want to contradict your vet. I've just never heard of that. Dave and I have worked a lot with Ponazuril. You can look for a paper I wrote up for this board.

While Dr. Stein used a slightly higher dose than Dr. Funk who gave the lecture. But its always 3 days on - wait a week - three days one, done.

Depending on the strength of the solution .08 for 83 grams seems like a lot. I just did the math for my solution and it came out to .04


Now recently I either had a re-infection or some coccidia was hiding and I had to go through 4 rounds (out of paranoia and the fact the medicine as far as we know is so easy on them). It finally cleared an the animal has been clear for two months.

Regarding the Albon non-eating issue. You will just have to be patient. I know a vet that refuses to acknowledge that Albon causes appetite loss but all of us in the club have seen it kill the appetite. It took one of my Chams 3 months before he would eat on his own.

IMHO, get him clear and clean first. Dodolah has given you good suggestions.