De-worming medicine

What have you been prescribed? I must admit we are going to try doing it ourselves. We've already been doing ivermectin on our dogs (the monthly heartworm prevention medication. Can be bought over the counter and diluted with propolene glycol and given in a snack, in the appropriate dose for the weight of the dog)
Anyway,I was thinking that panacuar or something else might work better, for tapeworms in snakes. I am new to this, and haven't dosed snakes before and am not going to try until i have researched. We do not have a reptile vet who is less than an hour away, and the one who is i haven't heard good things about...so i will have to look around for one in L.A...even further away.

But, i do have ivermectin. It will also be useful for me to know, as I have been doing reptile rescue, and obviously, this is cheaper if i do it myself. I just have no plan to try it until i know for sure. (I've rescued 3 BPs, one corn, one rose hair tarantual, and one annoying cockatiel so far *lol*)

Anyway, rescue is something i'm going to do. There are some husbandry and medical things i'm going to have to learn. Have any useful advice? :) Please, telling me to just go to a vet is not what i'm asking for :)

Thanks guys!

The only way to know if ur snake has parasites is to have ur vet do a fecal test.

I will tell you, giving any animal, not just snakes, unneeded medicine is not a good idea.

Before you go randomly treating snakes or anything else for internal parasites, make sure they have them. Most medicines like that can be very hard on kidneys and other organs, and giving an animal that has endured sub-standard care already medicine it doesn't need is going to do more harm than good.

I would check to see if there are options nearby or even online to have fecal checks done. Maybe a veterinary college would be willing to work with you. Once you get a rescued animal, have the test done. THEN if it needs medicine you can figure out what medicine and how much. But just giving medicine to an animal for no real reason is NOT a good idea, no matter what kind it is.

To my knowledge, parasites in snakes are not very common, and wasting time and money giving cheap medicine to animals that don't need it seems to be a worse idea than spending money to get expensive medicine for an animal who actually needs it.

Gale

I would avoid treating tape worms at least.. unless you physically SEE the segments in the feces. Tapeworms are generally transmitted through fleas for mammals, but I'm uncertain how in reptiles. Either way, you would see the small rice-like segments if tapeworms were present.

I would avoid using ivermectin unless necessary as well. Mammals and reptiles have very different systems. Dosage by weight may vary since they may metabolize differently.

I'm not sure if fecal floats (the typical dog+cat parasite test) can be done on snakes, but it could be possible to do at home. At least a direct smear under a microscope can be performed, and that can identify parasites.

If you are -very- interested in self-treating reptiles there are some books you could consider. Biomedical and Surgical Aspects of Captive Reptile Husbandry is a two-part massive text that can help you out. :] It's expensive, but used copies are available. Heads up though- it has tons of veeery detailed and gruesome images of reptiles in it. But there's good info if you are keen on skipping the vet, but being as knowledgeable as possible. It's helped me and the vet I work for treat one of my snakes. I only have Vol II with me at home, and Vol I has the parasitology section in it (of course, lol) otherwise I could try and find something concrete on whether or not it would be harmful to treat with ivermectin.

Vet collage is a great idea! Hadn't thought of it.

ANd the book is a great recommendation.

THanks guys!

And just to ease any worries, i haven't, and wasn't even close to trying to administering anything myself for the snakes. I'm toooottaly still looking things up.

Fecal test would be a smart thing to do. Honestly, it kind of went out of my mind since i've been looking at photos of snake poop with tape worms, and that's exactly what i've seen in my snakes. (The two i got from the pound...i suspect something with my adopted corn snake...but it's just a suspicion).

I did manage to find, today, actually, a vet that is close that does small animals herps. I was planning to give them a call tomorrow. Wish me luck! I hope they're not planning to gouge me through the eye with prices. That's what i'm really worried about. Sometimes some vets are willing to ask any price because they know you will either do anything for your pet, or in circumstances like mine, i just can't go anywhere else!

I really hope they'll work with me, and actually help me learn how to take care of the snakes and any future adoptees i have.