parasites?

[MHoardGecks]

So I just got a new gecko almost two weeks ago. I saw him pooping but I didnt really sit and look at it too well since I didnt want to disturb him before his two weeks are up. He pooped at the front of his enclosure earlier and I noticed there was some white tiny little strand in his poop. My first thought was worms since we used to foster kittens and deworming was always just great fun I noticed two of them in that poop and one in another poop that I found. The others were too dried up and I couldnt see anything. I tried staring at them for the longest time and it didnt seem like they were moving, but they are so tiny that im not sure.

He has been eating like a pig since he got here, and his poops are solid. Hes nice and active. But im just not sure what that stuff is. The only other possible thing I can think of is that the paper towel I use normally ran out and I got a different brand thats harder paper and maybe he got strands of that loose since hes got some nice picky nails.

His next poop will be going straight to the vet for testing (since I stupidly really squished the one I just looked at) but i'd like to know if anyone has something to chime in with in the meantime.

[Jubilos]

Hard to tell without pictures, but fecal results are usually pretty quick. It could be something relatively harmless like pinworms. My gecko's fecal came back positive for giardia a while ago, even though her poops were mostly fine and she was gaining weight quickly, but it's good to catch these things before they get bad, you know?

Good luck! (Also, they can do fecals on squished poops just fine. Unless you meant that you squished it in to the paper towel and can't get it off or something, haha.)

[TAD]

Their poop sometimes has urates in it, which is just white urine. That's probably what it is. He sounds very healthy.

[MHoardGecks]

What I saw looked different than the urates. I'd be very surprised if that was urates. It didnt look like the other urates ive seen.

I squished it into paper towel as I kinda pulled it apart to see what I could find in it. He goes to the vet friday morning (it gonna be a long day.. its a 45min drive and at 815 am when I have to work till close that night..sooo tired) I'm hoping he gives me a nice poop that I can run to the vet sometime before then. Hes still an eating machine so he should give me some.

[MHoardGecks]

Well I decided to post an update... a very tired update as I was up at 6am to get ready for his 8:15 appointment and then wasnt able to get a nap in before work and now its almost 10pm.

He was a very well behaved boy, active and crawling all over the vet when she took him out (much better than the last gecko I took in since she continually tried to bite the vet). He even took a nice big poo while we were at the vet so the sample was as fresh as it could be.

The vet said he has capillaria. She was kind of surprised and said it wasn't common. I had a good laugh cause all the vet techs and such all went to the back to have a look since none of them had seen it before and they were all trying to figure out what it was before the vet told them. The vet said she saw lots of eggs in the float sample of poo and a few in the smear.

So the vet gave him his first dose of meds and he gets another dose next friday and then another the friday after. Then he will hopefully be all clear after another poop test. But in the meantime its gonna be lots of deep disinfecting cleaning for me. I was gonna go with the water/vinegar mix like I used to do with fish tanks. Is that the best method for gecko tanks too?

[Jubilos]

I don’t know anything about capillaria specifically but vinegar is not a good disinfectant. Good for getting water stains off glass but that’s about it.

10% bleach will kill most things but needs to be rinsed very well and aired out really well before putting your gecko back in so it’s kind of a pain.

I bought a reptile disinfectant that I read about on the forums here called F10 veterinary disinfectant. Apparently it’s very safe for reptiles and doesn’t even need to be rinsed. It’s sold here at Pangea or I needed it sooner so I ordered it from anothe retailer (that has free two day shipping, ahem). I cleaned my gecko's enclosure everyday without 1:250 F10 while she was being treated for giardia and it seems to have worked well.

[TAD]

I just bought some F10 also, and will be using that from now on. Have read good reviews, and a little goes a long way.

http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/f...infectant.html

[MHoardGecks]

Yeah I wouldn't want to use bleach. Bleach and I dont get along from back when I was keeping fish. I had already ordered the disinfectant but it isnt going to be here till sometime this week, probably wednesday. (I wasn't able to get it from anywhere sooner) I didn't want to miss a cleaning since the vet said 24 hours after the first dose, so I did use vinegar/water mix last night. May not have done much but better than nothing. I'll do another deep cleaning when the disinfectant comes. And probably at least a quick cleaning with it every night when I dont work closing at work.

I did cringe throwing out the stuff I knew wouldn't soak well (tossing the cork bark stuff was hard). He's gettin paper towel and toilet paper rolls for hides for a while. I probably still would have tossed it even if I had that disinfectant just cause im paranoid.

So when it comes do you recommend the 1:250 dilution rate?

[MHoardGecks]

Well it was a lot easier to use the F10 disinfectant than I thought it would be. I gave everything a thorough soak though I still made sure to rinse it after. I can still smell it a bit in his enclosure but I dont think the scent it too strong.

I dont know how comfortable i'd be to wipe it down and not rinse it afterwords.. but im tempted to try just cause I dont want to have to do another round of treatment it this doesnt work.

[Jubilos]

Sorry I just saw your last post. I use the 1:250 dilution rate for when there’s something I know I want cleaned (someone is sick or for quarantine tanks) and 1:500 for normal cleaning.

Apparently vets will even spray F10 into the air at clinics, it’s that safe! Or spray with your reptile still inside the cage I don’t do that, but just so you know.

Also, it sounds like it’s too late now, but most things can be killed off wood by baking at low heat in the oven. I think I baked my (expensive) mopani at 250 for a few hours. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn and I let it cool for another few hours to be sure it wasn’t hot anymore.

Good luck! It sounds like you’re doing a great job