Not for the weak of stomach!

[CleanLineChameleons]

Just wanted to post this pic I took today. These guys are from an Ambanja that seemed to be fairly clean, at least they didn't show up until after his first worm treatment. I guess the first treatment flushed them out of him.



-chris

 

[Chase]

Holy Sh**!!! At least you know its working though!

 

[summoner12]

WOW! Hope hes doing better!

 

[RhettusMaximus]

cheese and rice!

I am scarred after having seen that.

 

[Trace]

You know it's time for a good deworming when the poo's slither away! I bet he feels a whole lot better now.

Cheers,
t

 

[rcmike]

I once had a blue regal tang in my reef aquarium that I got for free from the fish store because someone brought him back. He looked pitiful and was very skinny. He would eat like crazy but never gain weight. I dewormed him and the next day I saw a wad that looked about like that come out. He started gaining weight immediately after that.

BTW, what were you using to deworm them?

 

[Fidel]

mmmmm.....Looks like its dinner time in Charlotte Chris.

 

[Cainschams]

MMMMMM that would go great with my pepperoni roll right now hahaha. Hope all goes well.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

I got soem WC female deremensis in a few years back. Healthy as can be. They ate like hogs - 8-12 adult cricket sized insects a day - but never gained an ounce. I suspected they might be gravid, so I held off worming them for a few months. Then I found a worm on the floor of the cage - that was it. fenbendazol for the lot of them. Within a month, they had fattened up considerably - on 1-2 crickets a day.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Thank you so much for sharing that photo, and for Eric and rcmike's additional comments. Definitely food for thought, oops, sorry. But, seriously, I'm definitely showing this thread to my husband, and we will keep this in mind when we have critters whose fecals look good but who are not thriving. We recently bought an adult female Meller's, in excellent condition, from a dealer who treats every animal that comes through his place. It really pays off, and is a great practice. Doesn't cost much, and is very low risk for the animal as well.

 

[dodolah]

Yikes!!!
that's why i recommend doing routine fecal check.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

Haha...yea he weighed a little less after today. I work with a few WC so I just go right ahead and go through worm and parasite treatments without a fecal. To be honest there is a large number that have some sort of worms so it does not hurt to go through the treatments without a fecal. But once I go through their treatments there is no way they can develope worms unless they come into contact with other WC chameleons, so once they are clean there really is no need to do a fecal unless you have bought another chameleon which may have worms or parasites. That is my thoughts...

-chris

 

[dodolah]

hey Chris,
Since obviously you have more experience in this more than i do, do you think Panacur is safe to be administered to a chameleon that turned out to be healthy?
that's the worry I feel that come from not doing test.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

From my experience panacur is a fairly safe drug. To be honest I have give more than the recommend amount and the chameleon had no ill effects. I have also given some of my cbb chams panacur because I do feel it is safe to give even if there is no signs of worms, but I also introduced wc in the same room and I just wanted to be sure. Another drug that I administer on wc is flagyl...now this I would not give to a cbb because it is much stronger and requires much more caution.

-chris

 

[kinyonga]

chriscarter said...."I just go right ahead and go through worm and parasite treatments without a fecal"...without a fecal how do you know what parasites your chameleon has?

You said..."once I go through their treatments there is no way they can develope worms unless they come into contact with other WC chameleons"...they might not get back the ones that flagyl or panacur killed, but what about the species that they don't kill. Its also possible for any chameleon to pick up a parasite from an insect that is fed to it.

Without a fecal you won't know if you killed all the types of parasites the chameleon had...and even one fecal won't be enough if the parasite isn't shedding at the time of the fecal.

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

Personally speaking I would go and bleach the cage and it's contents
then perform a fecal check on all the other animals that you have in a few months time.

without knowing the entire life cycle of this roundworm species (in the pict)
it's entirely possible that you've got some egg cysts in the cages
and transported them around on your hands when handling your WC.

While it's generally true that farm raised feeders
aren't going to be harboring any parasites
they can pick up the cysts left in a cage and harbor them
in a intermediate life stage that will then be passed back
into your cham.

Reports of caged animals picking up a "friend"
or two from wild feeders is basically "nil"
it's a possibility I prefer not to put to the test..

 

[Eric Adrignola]

I had a CB veiled pick up some worms a couple months ago. first for me. I ran out of crickets, couldnt' get them shipped in time, and the pet store was out. So I picked up some at a bait store wiht dubious sources...

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

I never said that I do not do fecal...I just said that I do not believe that routine fecal checks are effective. As stated...you have to do the fecal at the right time to even detect certain parasites. So I normally go through their 3 week treatments then do a fecal. Also if I have a cham that has a different looking feces then I get that floated as well. And yes I agree with using a diluted bleach solution to clean the cages.

-chris

 

[chamlover]

Gesang,

I also bought a mellers from a good reptile dealer who had treated her 2 times, i think with baytil and panacur. I decided to take her to the vets anyway and sure enough she had something else that neither of those meds take care of. Just to let you know. She is still alive and well living in the biggest part of the master bedroom.

Debby

 

[SoCaliSon]

First of All... My first Post Here! Long time Herper... Hello everyone... Looks like a great forum...


This is why I stay away from crickets as much as I can (I believe they are the filthiest feeder!! Hate Them!), and breed my own feeders like roaches and worms. I have heard so many horror stories about suposedly healthy animals getting horribling ill and fighting parasites like this... And if you have the opportunity to look at the cricket bins in most pet stores... It is not hard to determine the source. Not only that, they jump, they chirp, they stink like s***, and they are about half as nutritious as the other alternatives...(I think they are like 65% shell)!!! It can come from other sources... like in this case the parasites were probably brought in from the wild. But in CB Chammy's I almost always blame those dirty little jumping demons. All my Reptiles love the roaches (accept my snakes).