Parasites

[EasternGirl]

Hi guys...I know I haven't been on in a while and I definitely want to catch up with everyone...but right now I have a serious problem. I was looking in my babies water dish today and saw something odd I had never seen before..it looked like tiny dead worms. So I checked the other snakes' water dishes and I saw live ones in the water dishes of at least two tanks. I've lost quite a few snakes this year and now I think this must have been the cause. How do I treat them and can they be passed to my other pets or humans? I remember many of you talking about a parasite med on here...but how do I get it and how do I use it? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. My dog has been ill...could he have gotten the parasites somehow? And I'm worried about them being passed to my son or me. I do believe they are hookworms by the look of them. I have not seen them until recently, so I am not even sure how they got them. I just got done reading that they are similar to canine and feline parasites. I'm taking my dog to the vet on Monday...but I am not working right now and cannot pay to take my snakes to the vet. I read that panacur should work. But how do I get it and dose it properly? Ugh. This is a nightmare! Should I talk to my family doc to see if my son and I should be checked?

[d_virginiana]

Is there any way you could take a sample of the worms to the vet via a fecal or something? Getting something like that done usually isn't very expensive compared to an office visit, and if money is tight you don't want to waste any on a home treatment that might be useless against the parasites. I'm not really very familiar with the do-at-home parasite treatments, but I wouldn't imagine that it's a one size fits all sort of deal (medical treatments rarely are), so it'd be good to know if something like panacur would work before you put time and money into treating all your snakes with it.

Parasite transfer between reptiles and mammals is pretty rare. One of my snakes had a typically mammalian parasite a few years back, and the vet said we needed to take reasonable precautions, but that it wasn't likely to transfer to us or our dog and even less likely to transfer to my other reptiles due to it not being specifically adapted for reptilian systems. If it's spread through your snakes, that makes me think it's probably a typically reptilian parasite and that crossing over to a mammal would probably be unlikely. Still a good precaution not to let the dog anywhere near them and probably don't let your son handle the snakes or their equipment until this is cleared up if he's younger.

[EasternGirl]

Thanks Lora. I could probably call the exotic vet that saw a couple of my snakes in the past and ask him if he could look at a stool sample. Or perhaps the vet I take my dog to could look at a sample. They look like little tiny brown worms that hook around on the top...very very tiny..and the ones swimming in the water look white..almost clear...and swim kind of circled around. Not sure if anyone knows what I am describing. I could take a pic and post it on here. I could also find out from the exotic vet what kind of parasite my one snake he treated had and what he used to treat it. The snake passed away as the infection was too advanced.

[d_virginiana]

When the option is there it's always better to ask an exotics vet IMO. They'll probably charge in the same ballpark as the regular vet for testing a sample, but you'd get much more detailed feedback.

[Albert Clark]

Wow, this is terrible! Sorry for your losses. Hookworms, pinworms and nematodes are the more common parasites in reptiles. Most reptiles have some of them in a concentration that doesn't bother them until the concentration or "load" gets over abundant . That is when the animal needs treatments. If you are seeing them in the water it's probably bc garters are known to use their water dishes as toilets. I think you should get a sample of the water and a stool sample zip locked for the vet. The reason I say that is bc sometimes the worm can inhabit the area in the cloaca and will need the medication injected through a catheter directly into the cloaca. So, I agree with Lora on the vet if just to specifically identify which bug it is. Good luck and hope this helped.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Have you had any problems with gnats? Gnat larvae look like worms as well.
hi guys...i know i haven't been on in a while and i definitely want to catch up with everyone...but right now i have a serious problem. I was looking in my babies water dish today and saw something odd i had never seen before..it looked like tiny dead worms. So i checked the other snakes' water dishes and i saw live ones in the water dishes of at least two tanks. I've lost quite a few snakes this year and now i think this must have been the cause. How do i treat them and can they be passed to my other pets or humans? I remember many of you talking about a parasite med on here...but how do i get it and how do i use it? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. My dog has been ill...could he have gotten the parasites somehow? And i'm worried about them being passed to my son or me. I do believe they are hookworms by the look of them. I have not seen them until recently, so i am not even sure how they got them. I just got done reading that they are similar to canine and feline parasites. I'm taking my dog to the vet on monday...but i am not working right now and cannot pay to take my snakes to the vet. I read that panacur should work. But how do i get it and dose it properly? Ugh. This is a nightmare! Should i talk to my family doc to see if my son and i should be checked?

[d_virginiana]

Have you had any problems with gnats? Gnat larvae look like worms as well.

I didn't think of that, but I see that all the time. When my spiders hide pieces of uneaten cricket from me, gnats go into their enclosures after it and I end up with larvae in their water dishes. The larvae move like what you're describing too.

Since you've had a lot of deaths I think getting a fecal done would still be a good idea though.