Rufi0
Established Member
I dropped off one of Nosy's poo for a 6 month routine fecal check and the vets have discovered the coccidia parasite in the sample.
I have an appointment with the Vets for a checkup and to see where we go from here.
From what i've read on the forums with my discussion with the Vet I will be pushing for Ponazuri over Albon. Please jump in if there are any other medications / options that I can talk over with the Vet.
I will need to thoroughly clean all of Nosy's enclosure and plants.
I have a few questions regarding the Coccidia parasite.
For Nosy's main source of food I have a colony of Dubia roaches. Do roaches carry Coccidia? It would be a shame to have to euthanise all these little guys that I have raised. Is there a way to test feeder foods for the parasite before I resort to putting them down?
I know this is a silly question but thought I'd check. Can the Coccidia strain found in chameleons pass to humans? My girlfriend is currently pregnant. With the standard advise given with cats and dogs, just to be safe i've told her not to touch any of his poo's, but thought i'd check.
On a different note, here is a little advice for new owners !
As a relatively new owner this is my first fecal check and it has come up positive. The recommendation found on care sheets and general information is to have fecal checks at least two times a year.
We got Nosy when he was 6 months old and didn't get his first fecal check done until 6 months later.
The problem with this now is we have a year time frame in which he could have picked up the parasite. For all we know he could have come to us with the parasite. He didn't really show any of the symptoms i have found online, apart from a dip in his food consumption but that also coincided with winter which also slows down their intake from what i've read.
We also don't have any behaviour to compare. If we knew a period of time he definitely didn't have the parasite perhaps we could have seen his behaviour change slightly and been able to better identify a source for the parasite and responded quicker.
The long and short of it is, get your fecal checks done shortly after first getting your chameleon. It doesn't cost a lot, and doesn't take long to get the results back. I got mine back on the same day. My Vet even mentioned I could have sent the sample in by post, so it wouldn't have been any effort on my part.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing... we live and learn.
I have an appointment with the Vets for a checkup and to see where we go from here.
From what i've read on the forums with my discussion with the Vet I will be pushing for Ponazuri over Albon. Please jump in if there are any other medications / options that I can talk over with the Vet.
I will need to thoroughly clean all of Nosy's enclosure and plants.
I have a few questions regarding the Coccidia parasite.
For Nosy's main source of food I have a colony of Dubia roaches. Do roaches carry Coccidia? It would be a shame to have to euthanise all these little guys that I have raised. Is there a way to test feeder foods for the parasite before I resort to putting them down?
I know this is a silly question but thought I'd check. Can the Coccidia strain found in chameleons pass to humans? My girlfriend is currently pregnant. With the standard advise given with cats and dogs, just to be safe i've told her not to touch any of his poo's, but thought i'd check.
On a different note, here is a little advice for new owners !
As a relatively new owner this is my first fecal check and it has come up positive. The recommendation found on care sheets and general information is to have fecal checks at least two times a year.
We got Nosy when he was 6 months old and didn't get his first fecal check done until 6 months later.
The problem with this now is we have a year time frame in which he could have picked up the parasite. For all we know he could have come to us with the parasite. He didn't really show any of the symptoms i have found online, apart from a dip in his food consumption but that also coincided with winter which also slows down their intake from what i've read.
We also don't have any behaviour to compare. If we knew a period of time he definitely didn't have the parasite perhaps we could have seen his behaviour change slightly and been able to better identify a source for the parasite and responded quicker.
The long and short of it is, get your fecal checks done shortly after first getting your chameleon. It doesn't cost a lot, and doesn't take long to get the results back. I got mine back on the same day. My Vet even mentioned I could have sent the sample in by post, so it wouldn't have been any effort on my part.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing... we live and learn.
