Joyce has pinworms

[wendysjungle]

Well, Joyce kindly left me a fresh fecal sample on her schefflera tree this morning, so I took it over to the vet to get checked, and they say she has pinworms. Poor girl, no wonder she is always hungry! Unfortunately, they called me back with the results after they had already closed, and the first available appointment with the reptile doc is Thursday morning, where she'll be examined and wormed. She is still looking and acting perfectly healthy, and eats like a horse, so they said it would be fine to wait until Thursday.

I've been looking back through the threads and searching the web to find info, but can't find what kind of sterilization procedures I will need to do once she starts treatment. Does anybody know, do I have to get rid of her plants, or can I just completely disinfect the leaves and repot them in new soil? And for her fake vines and her nest box, what is best? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Wendy,

If pinworms are your only parasite problem then you should take whatever you can outside and do a combination of washing down the enclosure and other non-live item's surfaces with soapy water and spray with 10:1 bleach. Try using a pump-up spray bottle with soapy water to spray the plant surfaces to help loosen anything that might be stuck on them. Rinse well and re-pot. You should be in pretty good shape after that. Pinworms and their eggs are fairly easy to deal with .

To be more efficient with the whole treatment/cleaning process, I suppose it would be reasonable to wait to clean the everything until a few days after the first treatment .

Here's a couple of photos that I took of microscopic pinworms eggs:

 

[wendysjungle]

Thanks Dave, you da man for parasites!!

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy Wendy,

I'm just full of 'em !

Old threads, that is .