Worm prevention

[Ragami]

Good afternoon everyone. I have a question concerning parasitic worms. We lost our juvenile Jackson female this morning way too soon. Is there a "Best method" to greatly reduce the chances of parasitic worms at such a young age? Female Jackson, roughly four months old. 5uvb and 100w bulb, mist king, enclosure stayed between 70-80 degrees and 60% and greater humidity, small crickets dusted every other day. She started shedding for the first time three weeks ago and the eating slowed to a halt shortly after. She was very active and rarely showed stress patterns over the last few days. Only lasted an hour from the vets office. Thanks for any answers, we reacted too late.


R

 

[nightanole]

How did you know it had worms?
The best worm prevention is a poop sample sent to the vet when you first get the cham.
Most feeders never come with worms. Ive never grown my own lizard food, and have never got a parasite from a store or mail order feeder. 25 years experience.

 

[Andee]

4 months is a rather dangerous age to get a jackson in my opinion. Especially if they are wild caught. From what I understand a lot of breeders don't sell jacksons any younger than 5-6 months because of the issue of them being unstable even a month or so before those ages. But I also don't know if that has changed at all, there has been more success from what I understand lately in the last two years with raising hatchlings that are jacksons.

 

[Ragami]

How did you know it had worms?
The best worm prevention is a poop sample sent to the vet when you first get the cham.
Most feeders never come with worms. Ive never grown my own lizard food, and have never got a parasite from a store or mail order feeder. 25 years experience.

Noticed actual pinworm on floor of enclosure, and unfortunately pulled a half dead one out of her mouth this morning. Our crickets came from local Petco.

 

[Andee]

your crickets coming from petco could have been a huge issue. Petcos don't do the best cleaning. Plus relying on crickets on a main food source could be an issue too. Crickets even when well kept are one of the largest carriers of pinworms.

Edit: The only feeders I have ever had issues with giving worms to my chameleons were petco crickets. They ended up giving my panther chameleon pinworms, which he never had issues with until I switch to petco. Now that I feed only my own feeders I have never dealt with parasites from the feeders.

 

[Ragami]

4 months is a rather dangerous age to get a jackson in my opinion. Especially if they are wild caught. From what I understand a lot of breeders don't sell jacksons any younger than 5-6 months because of the issue of them being unstable even a month or so before those ages. But I also don't know if that has changed at all, there has been more success from what I understand lately in the last two years with raising hatchlings that are jacksons.

We bought her from Petco on Dec 27th. Based on conversations, it was estimated that she was only a few months old at time of purchase. Will definitely do more diligence and research prior to diving in again

 

[Ragami]

your crickets coming from petco could have been a huge issue. Petcos don't do the best cleaning. Plus relying on crickets on a main food source could be an issue too. Crickets even when well kept are one of the largest carriers of pinworms.

Edit: The only feeders I have ever had issues with giving worms to my chameleons were petco crickets. They ended up giving my panther chameleon pinworms, which he never had issues with until I switch to petco. Now that I feed only my own feeders I have never dealt with parasites from the feeders.

Thank you for that. What could be a cleaner alternative? We'd really like to try again in the future but with greater prep.

 

[Andee]

She was definitely wild caught then. She could have come with the parasites then and the stress etc, made it get out of control. The fact that she was excreting worms and vomiting then from the sounds of it, shows it was a really bad infestation.

A cleaner alternative for crickets, would be bulk buying online from a vendor like ghanns or someone else who has a good reputation, and taking care of them yourself once they get to you. There are also roaches, worms of various types, stick insects, all of these are less likely to carry any issues.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Good afternoon everyone. I have a question concerning parasitic worms. We lost our juvenile Jackson female this morning way too soon. Is there a "Best method" to greatly reduce the chances of parasitic worms at such a young age? Female Jackson, roughly four months old. 5uvb and 100w bulb, mist king, enclosure stayed between 70-80 degrees and 60% and greater humidity, small crickets dusted every other day. She started shedding for the first time three weeks ago and the eating slowed to a halt shortly after. She was very active and rarely showed stress patterns over the last few days. Only lasted an hour from the vets office. Thanks for any answers, we reacted too late.


R

Frst, let me say I am sorry you lost your little chameleon. I suspect she was sicker than you thought and the stress of the vet's visit was too much. I am very unclear about what happened to your chameleon.

In general, parasites do not kill chameleons. It takes more than just the parasites. She could have had parasites that you saw but they weren't the cause of her death.

There are many reasons why she might have died. You said she was at the vet's but you didn't say what the vet did. Sometimes the stress of a vet visit or their medicating the animal is too much and the animal dies. Maybe your chameleon's immune system was severely compromised because of stress from things like inappropriate caging/temperatures or even handling. This could have been in your care or even before you got her.

Parasites are a normal condition and should not be fatal. Just because you saw parasites does not mean they killed the animal. That said, they might very well have contributed to her death.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you the answer you wanted. It's very complex. There are too many questions and not enough answers.

Again, I am very very sorry for your loss.

 

[Andee]

Frst, let me say I am sorry you lost your little chameleon. I suspect she was sicker than you thought and the stress of the vet's visit was too much. I am very unclear about what happened to your chameleon.

In general, parasites do not kill chameleons. It takes more than just the parasites. She could have had parasites that you saw but they weren't the cause of her death.

There are many reasons why she might have died. You said she was at the vet's but you didn't say what the vet did. Sometimes the stress of a vet visit or their medicating the animal is too much and the animal dies. Maybe your chameleon's immune system was severely compromised because of stress from things like inappropriate caging/temperatures or even handling. This could have been in your care or even before you got her.

Parasites are a normal condition and should not be fatal. Just because you saw parasites does not mean they killed the animal. That said, they might very well have contributed to her death.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you the answer you wanted. It's very complex. There are too many questions and not enough answers.

Again, I am very very sorry for your loss.

That part that mentioned the vet I assumed meant she hadn't made it to the vet , maybe I read it/understood it wrong... idk, I've been a bit tired today so I may not have comprehended that right.... (I also totally thing that is the wrong past tense though google apparently likes it) need to eat XD