Identifying Faecal Parasites

[Smittiferous]

Hi all,

It appears my male tristis (and likely his cage-mate) has contracted some kind of intestinal parasite. I watched him do his business and in the wet pile, I could see a number of small, flat white/clear wiggly things moving about. Best described as flattened tubes, 1-2mm wide and between 5 to 10mm long.

Scraped some up in a container and put it in the fridge to be passed to the vet when he's back from his break.


One can be seen in the photo above, approximately centre, kind of like a grain of rice.

Both tristis seem quite normal, neither are skinny, both have their usual appetites.
This would have to be a relatively recent development as he's had a faecal slide done before and it came up clear (he crapped on the vet so we took the opportunity to take a look), so I'm not sure where they came from.
I'll be paying close attention to the rest of my collection but I don't think anyone else would be effected.

Anyone got a theory as to what these are? Haven't found anything that looks remotely similar online, but I lack the gear to have a good close look.

 

[Nero Egernia]

I remember when my little male had worms. It was very long, skinny, slightly compressed, and white in colour. Nothing like the worms in the feces of your tristis. There's many different types and they may look different depending on the stage of their life cycle. A vet should be able to identify them. What have you been feeding your tristis?

 

[Smittiferous]

Their diet has been frozen rats/mice and insects, occasional pet mince and nothing else, no stuff from outdoors either.

There'll be a vet visit asap, vet was closed yesterday.

 

[pythoninfinite]

Hard to see clearly, but very likely tapeworm segments - if you watch closely when they are just passed, you may see them moving (quite revolting really, and a bit like dog tapeworms, which are passed on by fleas - you may see them like a slowly squirming grain of rice around your dogs backside). If they are tapeworm segments, the adult worm is still alive and attached to the intestinal wall - they shed egg-laden segments in the faeces, and the eggs are consumed by another animal or the lizard itself. Some species of tapeworms have differing stages, and need to go through another animal (like the dog tapeworm) before establishing in the gut of a reptile. When I was reptile dealer in WA, every wild-caught Olive Python I dealt with was loaded with tapeworms, and when the were wormed, they would come out like fettucine - disgusting things.

Let us know the outcome Smitti, very curious to know. At least if it is tapeworm, it should be easy to treat - but you'll have to clinically clean the whole enclosure - the eggs are very hard to kill, and they can remain viable for years. probably came from feeder insects.

Jamie

 

[Smittiferous]

Thanks Jamie,

I looked at some YouTube videos and they do look similar, these wiggly things were more clear than what were on various videos, either way as soon as the vet is open I'll be taking him down with the sample.

By clinically cleaning the enclosure, would substrate disposal, thorough scrub of all surfaces with F10 and boiling/F10 scrub of all furnishings be sufficient? I've never had to deal with anything like this before. The enclosure is made of ply, which will have plenty of small crevices in the surface, which has me worried I might be better off trashing it.

 

[Smittiferous]

On the money @pythoninfinite, tapeworm. Shane felt that the parasite load wasn't very high due to the number of eggs present. Not looking forward to the first post-dose poop full of tapeworm noodles though. As for where it came from, that's anyone's guess. It's only recently that I've seen the segments though, and I've had him a good while now, and his cage-mate, although introduced a few months ago was quarantined a good long while, never saw anything amiss with her.

Here he is expressing his gratitude for my concern for his wellbeing: