Daesie11
Chameleon Enthusiast
I can get you that peroxide if you still want it. Let me know.
Coccidia... Help and cleaning advice. Please..
- Thread starter Beman
- Start date
I ordered a gallon of it. I am going to go over to CVS and see if any of the bleaching kits have it in it. At least then I can do Beman's drip pan since I used the wet vac on it. That is the only part of his cage I am worried about right now.
Then I will clean Bahari's entire cage breaking everything down on Wednesday when it comes in. Might be less stressful on him to wait until then too.
Thank you! I really don't feel strong right now. Just really scared and so stressed.
You will want him to be hungry on the days you medicate so I wouldn't feed much the day before a meds day. He may not have a great appetite not because the meds are a problem but because sometimes the pharmacy will dilute the meds with almond oil and that is a good bit of fat to digest along with the feeder insect.
Ok so his next dose is on Sunday then I wait two weeks. Should I offer each day after the Sunday dose the next 2 weeks until the day before his next round?
Thank you for being so awesome and helping me so much Jillian. <3
JoXie411
Chameleon Enthusiast
I’m sending all my positive vibes your way, I haven’t stopped think about you two since the news, I’m here for you!!
Matt Vanilla Gorilla
Chameleon Enthusiast
Poor Bahari, sweet, beautiful boy! Hope you feel better soon! You have our prayers and positive vibes!
We see these threads and we empathize with the OP. However for those of you who do not understand the extreme chaos and emotional torment something like Coccidia brings with it...Well I wanted to enlighten you because I too had no idea prior to this experience.
I have slept very little in the last 3 nights. I woke up this morning feeling extremely depressed. I start crying just thinking about it. How to fight it? What to do next? What if Beman gets it? What if Bahari doesn't make it?
How do you fight something invisible and highly contagious? I keep going over every detail in my mind of the last 18 days since I got him. What all do I need to throw away? What all was exposed? What needs to be cleaned?
Going over it in my head.... What was he out on? When I was cleaning his cage what touched what? Where did I go with it on my hands? I was not crazy washing my hands and sanitizing them like I have been since I found out this past Wednesday. So I may have gotten it on my Nikon, $400 camera due to touching them and moving them on the free range then taking pics. Bahari passed a urate on the free range when I was taking pics. I was not careful I washed my hands but I was not careful enough. How do I clean a $400 camera without ruining it? Over and over and over in my head trying to piece everything together.
I have not taken him out at all the past week except to go to the Vet Wednesday. He just did not feel well enough. So I am searching my brain for the first 11 days. I could not get a stool to take in until the 11th day. I searched his cage like crazy but never found one. Although when I cut the pothos plant out of his cage on Thursday I found stool and urate deep in the plant. So he was going I just was missing it. What if I had caught it sooner? Would Beman be safer, less exposed? Would Bahari have a better chance at recovery? 11 days not knowing while I just spread this parasite all over my home. Exposing Beman. Putting what I love at risk and all the while the Coccidia blowing up and reproducing like crazy in Bahari's stressed little body.
Then there is the financial aspect.... Not counting all the stuff that I will need to throw away and replace. I spent $100 at the vet and $87 on the medication. I have to get another fecal on Bahari in 4 weeks then in 6 weeks to make sure it comes back totally clean. That is $120. I have to get a fecal on Beman in 2 weeks, which is $60. If he is showing that I contaminated him and he now has it then well you get the picture... I will have much more Vet expense to get Beman through it. If he does not then she said she wants me to bring in another fecal for Beman at the 4 week mark when I bring in Bahari's 4 week fecal.
Now lets talk about the hell of actually cleaning... I have to take apart Bahari's cage every 7 days and clean it by scrubbing the heck out of it and then cleaning with the peroxide. While trying to be careful that I do not expose Beman more or anything else. I have to clean all surfaces daily to ensure that the water from his drip tray is not on anything. Coccidia love the water. I have to pull Beman's drip pan as well once I get the peroxide Wednesday to clean it. I have to lift his huge dragon strand up off it to get it outside to scrub. Beman has a 30X24X48 clearside dragon strand cage.... If Beman now has it I have to go through these steps with an expensive dragon strand clearside enclosure…
I am extremely stressed, I am not sleeping, I am hardly eating, and I am very depressed. The emotional impact on the keeper is horrific. While I can try to control the chaos the emotional impact this is having on me is hard. I am struggling to make sense of everything and to pull myself into a centered state of mind. This is not just cleaning or spending a ton of money to replace stuff and get vet care. This is an emotional battle one filled with regret and frustration.
I tell you all of this to show you that Coccidia is a real threat not only for your chameleons but for your mental well being.
I do not care where you get a chameleon. Petco, Petsmart, local petstore, or a breeder. Quarantine it in a temp cage away from all other chameleons. Do not use anything on the new cham that you then use on your other chams. Get a fecal immediately. Ensure that there is no issue. I know the cham looks healthy but Coccidia can exist in low numbers hiding and waiting to take over. A stressful event that drops the immune system gives the Coccidia the perfect opportunity to reproduce like crazy. Please just do not risk it. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
To take this one step further. Understand that with feeding crickets comes the risk of Coccidia. This is why I stopped feeding them and switched to Dubia months ago with Beman. I never wanted to risk dealing with this once I learned about it. So if you feed them there is the potential of bringing Coccidia into your home and your chams.
Thank you to everyone that has reached out to me both in this thread and privately. The only thing keeping my head above water is the support I am receiving here.
I have slept very little in the last 3 nights. I woke up this morning feeling extremely depressed. I start crying just thinking about it. How to fight it? What to do next? What if Beman gets it? What if Bahari doesn't make it?
How do you fight something invisible and highly contagious? I keep going over every detail in my mind of the last 18 days since I got him. What all do I need to throw away? What all was exposed? What needs to be cleaned?
Going over it in my head.... What was he out on? When I was cleaning his cage what touched what? Where did I go with it on my hands? I was not crazy washing my hands and sanitizing them like I have been since I found out this past Wednesday. So I may have gotten it on my Nikon, $400 camera due to touching them and moving them on the free range then taking pics. Bahari passed a urate on the free range when I was taking pics. I was not careful I washed my hands but I was not careful enough. How do I clean a $400 camera without ruining it? Over and over and over in my head trying to piece everything together.
I have not taken him out at all the past week except to go to the Vet Wednesday. He just did not feel well enough. So I am searching my brain for the first 11 days. I could not get a stool to take in until the 11th day. I searched his cage like crazy but never found one. Although when I cut the pothos plant out of his cage on Thursday I found stool and urate deep in the plant. So he was going I just was missing it. What if I had caught it sooner? Would Beman be safer, less exposed? Would Bahari have a better chance at recovery? 11 days not knowing while I just spread this parasite all over my home. Exposing Beman. Putting what I love at risk and all the while the Coccidia blowing up and reproducing like crazy in Bahari's stressed little body.
Then there is the financial aspect.... Not counting all the stuff that I will need to throw away and replace. I spent $100 at the vet and $87 on the medication. I have to get another fecal on Bahari in 4 weeks then in 6 weeks to make sure it comes back totally clean. That is $120. I have to get a fecal on Beman in 2 weeks, which is $60. If he is showing that I contaminated him and he now has it then well you get the picture... I will have much more Vet expense to get Beman through it. If he does not then she said she wants me to bring in another fecal for Beman at the 4 week mark when I bring in Bahari's 4 week fecal.
Now lets talk about the hell of actually cleaning... I have to take apart Bahari's cage every 7 days and clean it by scrubbing the heck out of it and then cleaning with the peroxide. While trying to be careful that I do not expose Beman more or anything else. I have to clean all surfaces daily to ensure that the water from his drip tray is not on anything. Coccidia love the water. I have to pull Beman's drip pan as well once I get the peroxide Wednesday to clean it. I have to lift his huge dragon strand up off it to get it outside to scrub. Beman has a 30X24X48 clearside dragon strand cage.... If Beman now has it I have to go through these steps with an expensive dragon strand clearside enclosure…
I am extremely stressed, I am not sleeping, I am hardly eating, and I am very depressed. The emotional impact on the keeper is horrific. While I can try to control the chaos the emotional impact this is having on me is hard. I am struggling to make sense of everything and to pull myself into a centered state of mind. This is not just cleaning or spending a ton of money to replace stuff and get vet care. This is an emotional battle one filled with regret and frustration.
I tell you all of this to show you that Coccidia is a real threat not only for your chameleons but for your mental well being.
I do not care where you get a chameleon. Petco, Petsmart, local petstore, or a breeder. Quarantine it in a temp cage away from all other chameleons. Do not use anything on the new cham that you then use on your other chams. Get a fecal immediately. Ensure that there is no issue. I know the cham looks healthy but Coccidia can exist in low numbers hiding and waiting to take over. A stressful event that drops the immune system gives the Coccidia the perfect opportunity to reproduce like crazy. Please just do not risk it. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
To take this one step further. Understand that with feeding crickets comes the risk of Coccidia. This is why I stopped feeding them and switched to Dubia months ago with Beman. I never wanted to risk dealing with this once I learned about it. So if you feed them there is the potential of bringing Coccidia into your home and your chams.
Thank you to everyone that has reached out to me both in this thread and privately. The only thing keeping my head above water is the support I am receiving here.
jannb
Chameleon Enthusiast
Do you have a Sally’s Beauty Supply? That where I get mine. Any beauty supply store should have it.
jannb
Chameleon Enthusiast
You and your boy will be fine. This is just part of chameleon keeping. I have had to go through all of this many times in my years of keeping but I admit my first time was the hardest. They didn’t even have ponazuril back then and the vet gave my guy Albon which cause him to stop eating. I have never had a problem with Ponazuril. You are a strong woman and you will both come through this with flying colors.
No, we don't. I tried to talk the pro store into letting me buy some. I am licensed in AZ but not in CA so they said no. I also tried 3 different salons and none would sell any to me.. They were too afraid it was a set up and they would lose their license. It is dumb. If I can buy it off Amazon then I should be able to buy it at the Pro store. So it will be here Wednesday. I paid for the fastest shipping they had.
I really appreciate it... I think I am just so shocked by it. I was not expecting this. It is so overwhelming and it has made me feel very lost. We don't see this pop up a lot in the forum. It was something I thought was really rare. This does not come up as a risk typically. I am an emotional person anyways and I get very personally attached so you take that and add something like this and it feels like I am being crushed. The ponazuril seems amazing. Everything I have read on it makes me very hopeful. While I do not feel strong now I do hope I feel strong when all this is over.
This is an excellent post on how to isolate a new chameleon. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/quarantine.36078/
As far as cleaning the things around your house like light switches and even your camera don't worry about it being difficult to kill. You don't need to kill them just remove them. Wipe every thing down with either warm soapy water or an alcohol on a disposable paper towel and throw it away after use and repeat a couple times. I'd love to kill this stuff but getting it out of your house is enough. Coccidia can live in soil a long time it's not going to do as well on a dry surface but don't underestimate it either.
Other people have dealt with it and eliminated it. It can be done.
Other people have dealt with it and eliminated it. It can be done.
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
You’ll be the link between all these things so feverishly washing your hands with soap before and after touching anything chameleon related will help long term.
The difference between disinfectant and soap is that disinfectant tries to kill the germs, whereas soap is removes them from the surface. So adding soap to the cleaning routine will also help, but it doesn’t kill germs.
The difference between disinfectant and soap is that disinfectant tries to kill the germs, whereas soap is removes them from the surface. So adding soap to the cleaning routine will also help, but it doesn’t kill germs.
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