Can Parasites Be Passed to Eggs?

[jajeanpierre]

My wild caught T. q. gracilior laid eggs a couple of weeks ago. She is a recent import (first week in February) and was not wormed until after she laid the clutch.

Her fecal showed only hook worms and the vet looked really hard since another quad from the December shipment had whip worms, roundworms, flukes, flagellates, and giardia. Can they be passed on to the babies? I know in dogs, roundworms are passed on during pregnancy. I don't know about hookworms which are a kind of round worm.

 

[deerharvester]

As far as i know, live birth yes and eggs no. So for the eggs you should be alright.

Scott

 

[fluxlizard]

As far as i know, live birth yes and eggs no. So for the eggs you should be alright.

The babies should be alright, but eggs in and of themselves are no guarantee.

With poultry, things can get passed through the eggs from the mother at different stages. Many years ago my father was one of the pioneers who figured out how to solve that problem so the still young turkey industry could have the first "disease free birds". Some things were passed into the egg before the shell was formed, some were passed after, so it was a two part puzzle for veterinarians- my father worked for one of the largest producers and solved 1/2, someone he know solved the other 1/2 of the puzzle at a competitor, but because of business being business, neither knew about the other's work until later (after my father went on to other things in part because of extreme pressure to solve the other half of the puzzle and because he had lost so many eggs figuring out how to solve his half already- was under serious pressure to solve the other half fast before the competition without sacrificing so many eggs to do it so instead he walked away and returned to school for a PhD).

I'm sure the same problems probably exist in lizards but haven't been worked on yet.

That said, I think because our lizards are not so domesticated yet, they are probably more resistant to stuff. Not many cb are going to be lost to parasites- still, kind of makes you wonder if some of the "mystery deaths" that happen to wee little ones are because of this kind of thing.

 

[deerharvester]

Thanks Scott, that was very informative. Ive heard in the past the general rule was live birth yes and eggs no. But, that makes sense. The wc female's babies that ive had in the past were all parasite free, but that could just be a coincidence. Hows your wc ambilobe's doing? Mine all are parasite free and doing excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Scott

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thanks for everyone's replies. That's a relief. I have one more round of worming to do--five days in a row for two and once for the female that laid the eggs. The rest finished yesterday. Then rechecks.