Possible parasites?

[bellaz]

Hi everyone,

I have a 1.5 year old male panther chameleon and all has been well with him. However, for the past two days, I found two worm/parasite looking things right outside of his enclosure on the stand that it is on. Is anyone familiar with this worm looking thing? I’m in Massachusetts on the south shore, and I called 5 different vets so far to do a fecal test but all of them would require me to actually bring him into the clinic and I’m trying to avoid that because he would be extremely stressed out. Does anyone have any advice? He seems to be acting fine. I’ll also post a picture of his 4ft enclosure too. All temps and uvb are fine. I have a live hibiscus in the enclosure and for the drainage of his cage, I use a wet-vac once a week to suck all of the water out from the bottom. Thank you to whoever answers. If it is parasites how do I treat it?

 

[Beman]

How large is this thing? Parasites in captive bred chams are not visible. You would need a microscope to see anything in the fecal.

 

[bellaz]

How large is this thing? Parasites in captive bred chams are not visible. You would need a microscope to see anything in the fecal.

It is definitely visible without any kind of magnification. I’d say about 1/2 inch long. looks like a worm of some sort. I’m praying it’s not from him, and it’s from his enclosure instead. It almost looks like a parasite of some sort though if you look at the picture, it’s not all one color throughout, it looks like there’s a gel coating on it if that makes sense lol

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. I’ve no idea what that worm is, but I’m going to venture a guess that it is likely from one of your plants. There’s all sorts of things that live in the soil. I am always very thorough and besides dunking the leaves in soapy water and then really getting in and agitating the crap out of the poor plant, I also take it down to bare root with the hose blasting to remove everything. Yet, they still will bring odd bugs in. I’ve found my hibiscus seems to be the biggest offender and has brought in an assortment of pests.

 

[Beman]

It is definitely visible without any kind of magnification. I’d say about 1/2 inch long. looks like a worm of some sort. I’m praying it’s not from him, and it’s from his enclosure instead. It almost looks like a parasite of some sort though if you look at the picture, it’s not all one color throughout, it looks like there’s a gel coating on it if that makes sense lol

So I am willing to bet this came from the plants in the cage. I would start wet vacuuming a few times a week. Leaving standing water in the bottom of the cage is going to create a place where bacteria and other things can flourish.