Worms

Cleaning cages Friday night after work, had the nice aroma coming from my males cage. Starting cleaning up his poo and noticed that it had what appeared to be worms. Looked like little moving rice kernels. The poo was solid and he has never had diarrhea, has been eating great. He does has an appointment Friday morning with the vet.

I have treated dogs for worms and treated cats for worms and not sure what to expect from this.

Has anyone had to treat their snake?

How hard is it to actually get the dewormer in their mouth?

I currently feed pre-kill, has anyone ever had a snake get worms from frozen?

Thanks!


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If you're "currently" feeding pre-killed, that means he's had worms for a long time...he had to get them from LIVE food. Poor snake! Worms rob the snake's body
of much-needed nutrients.

I have treated wild-caught snakes for worms before...not that hard, meds are pretty safe AND effective. Your vet can dose or show you how it's done- I've used
oral meds for this- not sure if there's any sort of injectable treatment now or not for snakes- as long as your vet has experience with snakes? -I hope!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

If you're "currently" feeding pre-killed, that means he's had worms for a long time...he had to get them from LIVE food. Poor snake! Worms rob the snake's body
of much-needed nutrients.

I have treated wild-caught snakes for worms before...not that hard, meds are pretty safe AND effective. Your vet can dose or show you how it's done- I've used
oral meds for this- not sure if there's any sort of injectable treatment now or not for snakes- as long as your vet has experience with snakes? -I hope!

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He has ate pre killed for the last year, I buy live rats and gas them before feeding. They have been expired maybe 3-4 minutes before I feed. He was eating frozen then went off food for about a month and I finally got him to eat a pre kill and he hasn’t missed a meal since. I have not notice anything any he’s poo until this last clean up.

I only have 1 vet in my area that deals with snakes, I hope that he does right and fixes my boy up.

After This past Saturday I am not feeding anymore pre kill anymore. when I picked up rats, I was a little upset in the conditions of their rat racks. I know they are “food” for other animals but the rats deserve to have a good quality of life up until the time they are fed off.


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If you dont freeze them first he can get the worms from PreKilled.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mb80

He has ate pre killed for the last year, I buy live rats and gas them before feeding. They have been expired maybe 3-4 minutes before I feed. He was eating frozen then went off food for about a month and I finally got him to eat a pre kill and he hasn’t missed a meal since. I have not notice anything any he’s poo until this last clean up.

I only have 1 vet in my area that deals with snakes, I hope that he does right and fixes my boy up.

After This past Saturday I am not feeding anymore pre kill anymore. when I picked up rats, I was a little upset in the conditions of their rat racks. I know they are “food” for other animals but the rats deserve to have a good quality of life up until the time they are fed off.


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Ugh, I know what you mean about how some places raise & keep their rats. It sounds to me like the 3-4 minutes required for the rats to expire was NOT long enough for
their "internal guests" to do the same, & that's how your snake got worms. :O Poor snake...(not to mention their other customers!)

When you say you will no longer be feeding pre-killed any longer, I HOPE you don't mean you're switching to live? I HOPE you mean you'll be using frozen-thawed???
And with f/t, no parasites can survive, so it's much safer, though your snake may balk at the difference in taste & texture...I hope he'll accept them again.

I had pet rats long before I ever got into snakes...but sadly, not every source raises rats (& other rodents) to the same standard of health & cleanliness. I know that from
dealing with pet stores in the past when I supplied them with rodents & what they told me about their previous suppliers :(...the quality difference can usually be seen in
the rodents too, if you know what to look for. And as far as our snakes go, it's "garbage in, garbage out"...even if you don't breed, you want healthy food for your pet.

Aww, poor little guy had unwanted guests eating all his nutrients, good luck with the de-worming, hope all goes well for your little guy.

You can send poo off to be tested for what type of what is in the snake. For treating worms it is easy. You load the F/T rodent with the correct meds for what ever type of parasites it has. Now, without having the poo tested your just guessing. Unless the poo was fresh. As the "worms" you saw "could" be larva from the cage, house or something else.

Google for a Vet or lab to send the sample to. Heck, a dog an cat Vet can test it also.

Good luck!

Maybe a bit of a stupid question, is it possible to inject the Deworming Meds into the F/T Prey item, for example, after having defrosted and just before feeding, injecting the dosage into the prey items belly area, would it work, in that the snake has ingested the Meds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reptilius

Maybe a bit of a stupid question, is it possible to inject the Deworming Meds into the F/T Prey item, for example, after having defrosted and just before feeding, injecting the dosage into the prey items belly area, would it work, in that the snake has ingested the Meds.

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Yup, that's how I do it. ;) Easy, the snake doesn't have to know, lol...& you can use the oral cavity if there's room enough...that way you don't have to
inject & have body fluids leaking that may or may not dissuade the snake from eating. It's even easier! Use a tool (like a screwdriver or something to pry
open the rodent's mouth...best not to use fingers, to avoid getting "bit" from a dead rodent, lol.)

Just throwing it out there that it might not actually be worms but could be larvae from flies (maggots) eating the poo. You mentioned they look like little pieces of rice.