Parasite Identification - microscope photo

[Dez]

I just purchased a microscope for doing our own fecal floats.

I have "Identifiying Reptile Parasites" second edition and followed the directions outlines in the book using Fecalsol.

These images where taken at 40X and I THINK they are pinworms egg.. and/or maybe hookworms. I wanted to get other opinions.

I have began treatment of Panacur on the 2 year old Panther chameleon and have cleaned his cage. Will continue the treatment for 5 days as suggested by the book.

(the date is obviously wrong..Im still learning how to use the features of the microscope)

 

[toddmkeller]

I just purchased a microscope for doing our own fecal floats.

I have "Identifiying Reptile Parasites" second edition and followed the directions outlines in the book using Fecalsol.

These images where taken at 40X and I THINK they are pinworms egg.. and/or maybe hookworms. I wanted to get other opinions.

I have began treatment of Panacur on the 2 year old Panther chameleon and have cleaned his cage. Will continue the treatment for 5 days as suggested by the book.

(the date is obviously wrong..Im still learning how to use the features of the microscope)

The first one and last one are Coccidia, I also see some coccidia in the others. I am not quite sure what the others are, I would have to break out the book and I have it in a box somewhere. Maybe Dave will chime in.

See ya,

Todd

 

[Monkeykungphu]

I just purchased a microscope for doing our own fecal floats.

I have "Identifiying Reptile Parasites" second edition and followed the directions outlines in the book using Fecalsol.

These images where taken at 40X and I THINK they are pinworms egg.. and/or maybe hookworms. I wanted to get other opinions.

I have began treatment of Panacur on the 2 year old Panther chameleon and have cleaned his cage. Will continue the treatment for 5 days as suggested by the book.

(the date is obviously wrong..Im still learning how to use the features of the microscope)

Wish I could identify these for you... was wondering, what type of microscope did you get?

 

[Dez]

Wish I could identify these for you... was wondering, what type of microscope did you get?

Its a Celestron.. Cost $159 at amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014YNGCK/ref=oss_product

Awesome microscope that takes pictures and video.

 

[Warrix642]

Sorry I cant answer your questions I am leaning towards buying my own microscope just like yours. Just out of curiosity is your male CB? DO you know how he got infected?

Dustin

 

[Dez]

Sorry I cant answer your questions I am leaning towards buying my own microscope just like yours. Just out of curiosity is your male CB? DO you know how he got infected?

Dustin

Yes he is Captive bred and I have had him for about 2 years with no trouble.

I'm not sure how he got infected but I know Parasites can be passed to chameleons via many routes such as feeder insects, exposure to the parasite from being outdoors and being exposed to anoles and other reptiles, and even manual transmission between reptiles . We keep a bottle of hand sanitizer on the table to frequently wash our hands with..

Even chameleons that are never fed wild bugs can get parasites. Its the reason I wanted to get the microscope in the first place.

This chameleon shows no symptoms EXCEPT but the last stool (that I tested) was runny. It was the first stool that I had noticed was runny. Weight, appetite and activity level are good.

I will be consulting my vet... and testing the other chameleons.

I highly recommend this microscope.. its very affordable and comes with a nice case

 

[Dez]

The others have been identifiiied as a Strongyle that the Pancur will take care of. However it will not treat the coccidia. Should I switch to Reptide or another course of action?

 

[beeze]

Coccidia is highly contagious. You will need Ponazuril for the treatment. The clean up can be very tricky too from what I've read on here.
Here's an excellent thread on the Ponazuril
https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleons-coccidia-ponazuril-offers-new-hope-16409/

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

The others have been identifiiied as a Strongyle that the Pancur will take care of. However it will not treat the coccidia. Should I switch to Reptide or another course of action?

Panacur is not very affective against Strongyles. You would be better off treating with Flagyl to knock those out. Ponazuril is your best bet to get rid of the coccidia.

I would still give a course of panacur along with the flaygyl. You can treat for the coccidia at the same time. You may want to make a slide and count all the coccidia you see just to get an idea how infected the panther is. As you treat you can watch the count drop.

or you could attemp Reptaid. I have had some mixed results.

 

[chamelisa]

The first one and last one are Coccidia, I also see some coccidia in the others. I am not quite sure what the others are, I would have to break out the book and I have it in a box somewhere. Maybe Dave will chime in.

Dave may take a day or two to respond. He's out of town right now.

 

[Dez]

Breeze- hanks for the thread! Very helpful! Ryan thanks for the suggestions. I saw about 6 coccidia in the float..but I will take another and count again.

 

[FroggtheCham]

Just a side note. I use acidophilus when treating with anitbiotics/antiparasitics. The meds wipe out existing normal flora as well as what you are treating, and will inadvertently allow coccidia and other opportunistics to over grow. Acidophilus helps re-regulate normal flora and ease tummies too!! I crush and dust bugs, also have the liquid form, if you can get it in!! It doesn't do all that reptaid does, but if you have concerns with it, acidophilus can help.

 

[Dez]

Panacur is not very affective against Strongyles. You would be better off treating with Flagyl to knock those out. Ponazuril is your best bet to get rid of the coccidia.

I would still give a course of panacur along with the flaygyl. You can treat for the coccidia at the same time. You may want to make a slide and count all the coccidia you see just to get an idea how infected the panther is. As you treat you can watch the count drop.

or you could attemp Reptaid. I have had some mixed results.

I did another float today. I only saw 12 coccidia on the slide... widely spread across the slide.
There where a lot more of the larger eggs, the strongyles - 20 and some of them looked more worm like inside. (I did take more microscope photos)

I am on the 3rd day of panacur. I asked about Reptaid because some of its claims said it is effective combating coccidia... but it seems to be sold as a 'cure all magic elixir' which would be great but I am skeptical...(as in its too good to be true.) I do have some already so I could very well try it...

So far I have not found any other infected chameleons but I have yet to go through all of them. I am waiting for fresh fecals and hope to get some by this weekend.

I have quarantined the infected cham (He is not happy about it because the cage is smaller and bare.. but easier to keep clean.) and he still seems to have good appetite and weight. So hopefully I have caught this in time.

Everything I have read on Ponazuril seems good. as well as Metronidazole (flaygyl) I assume these are only available through the vet?

 

[chamelisa]

It's good to be skeptical. I certainly was doubtful about the effectiveness of the product. I started using Reptaid for some of the rescues that come in. In many cases, I believe it is the reason for the speedy recovery of some.

 

[elrojo]

What I would give for a microscope that took photos! I paid over five times that for one that goes to magnifications I will never utilize! Outside of coccidia, comparing with photos have never identified a thing with 100% certainty. Thanks for that recommendation.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Dave may take a day or two to respond. He's out of town right now.

Howdy Dez,

With all the good info here, it looks like you are on the right track . Treating with Panacur and Flagyl should knock-out all of the typical "usual suspects" and Ponazuril has shown to be very safe to use and very effective against Coccidia especially compared to the alternatives. After those courses of treatment, I'd expect that you'll see things clean-up nicely but if you still see Coccidia, keep treating with Ponazuril until you see clean floats. Ponazuril seems to nail it on the first or second round but, if not, a third or fourth round isn't likely to bring-up any really bad side effects. Hang-in there and check the Coccidia counts as often as you care to .

 

[kinyonga]

One thing I don't think was mentioned...if you test the chameleon and its fecal shows clean, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have parasites...you need to test several times a few days apart because some parasites shed on time and won't show up the next.

If there are hookworms there be careful...the larva can survive in the cage and feces for a while and enter another host.

This might help too...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/unhooking-hookworm-movie-made-1920-a-39347/

 

[xanthoman]

having looked at your photos, i think it is unlikely that they were taken at 40x. 40x would not reveal that kind of detail. i am guessing your scope is a celestron 44340 (the pics have that 44340 look to them), and i am guessing that by 40x you are referring to the 40x on the lower (objective) lens. in a traditional microsope the value of the lower lens would be multiplied by whatever the the value of the upper lens would be (ie 40x objective x 10x eyepiece would yield 400x) in a celestron 44340 which has no traditional eyepiece, the lower objective lens is optically magnified 10x before being read by the lcd screen, so if you are using the 40x objective lens (the lower lens) your optical magnification is actually 400x, that is assuming your digital zoom is set at 1x (the 44340 also has a digital (electronic, not optical) zoom value of 1x-4x). great call on getting a microscope i think they should be a default piece of equipment for all serious cham keepers.

 

[Dez]

yes..Im sorry I not sure how to translate the magnifacation. There are 3 diff powers...4x 10x and 40x on the lower 3 scopes. I was refrerring to the highest one the 40x.

 

[xanthoman]

yeah, if your scope is a celestron 44340, then just multiply the value of the lower (objective) lens by 10, to get the actual optical magnification level (ie 40X x 10X = 400X), so your 4x lens will actually give you an optical 40x picture, your 10x lens actually gives you a optical 100x picture, and your 40x lens will give you a optical 400x picture. once the image reaches the screen, then you can magnify it digitally 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x, digital magnification will make the image appear larger and closer, but it will not show increased detail like optical magnification will. personally, i found the features of the scope to be much easier to deal with, at the optical 100x level. after a half dozen uses, you"ll have it all figured out. i would have been glad to chime in on the meds, but it looks like its already covered. jmo