Tapeworm....

I have one of my snakes become constipated, after a bit of worry lots of soaking she is now fine again (I will never use wood chips again however...) The fecal exam came back showing that she has a tapeworm. :O The problem is how did she get it the breeder fed only F/T as do I. Can tapeworm eggs live after being frozen? She has never been fed live her fist meals were from a pinky pump as she was a twin and born tiny. I can't figure out how she could have been exposed to it. Any Ideas?

The vet does not want to blanket treat the whole collection but rather do exams for each animal and treat if any others have any. I have been only using 2 rodent suppliers but they have supplied the rodents to all of my snakes.

Any Ideas?

Tapeworm eggs are typically killed if frozen at at least -10° C for 48 hours or more.

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As most parasites are killed during the freezing process, chaces are your snakes first few meals after hatching were live, which is where it could have come from. My normal has been on f/t and had pinworms, which I was told probably came shortly after he hatched when he was eating live.

That might be it I have got some rats from a local person and they may not have been frozen very long only 10 or 12 hours maybe. It really is the only place. I wonder how many rats actually have tape worms? Maybe I sacrifice a few and do some dissections if I can find my kit... :weirdface

I think as long as you freeze them for a good amount of time, and treat your snake for whatever he has now, you should be safe. If not you can always have fecals done quarterly if it makes you feel better.

I just got a note back from the rat breeder one anyway she said that they are always at least 18 hours before delivery. The others were from Rodent Pro, they must have been frozen longer right? I really didn't expect tapeworm eggs to survive 18 hours in a freezer! :O:O:O:O

I really doubt it came from the frozen rodents, like I said more often than not their first few meals after hatching are live....Unless you hatched it and know you didn't feed live then that's what I would assume.

My first thought was that he probably had the tapeworm before you got him as well.

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I know the breeder quite well he said that as she was so small (one twin) and has a mis formed jaw she was fed with a pinky pump and frozen pinks not live. As far as he believes that she has never had live only frozen... That is why it is such a mystery. I check already!:confused::confused:

Well it's a mystery to me also, that is my only guess since I don't think any parasites survive the freezing of rodents...

It is possible that an insect crawled into her mouth. Fleas carry tapeworm in their gut. I would be shocked if a tapeworm larvae survived freezing.

Tapeworm comes mostly from rodents who are carrying fleas.

We have no furred pets and I have never seen a flee here. I may have the answer however. I checked a rat from the local supplier and did find a tape worm at least I think that is what it is... light yellow stringy thing in lower intestines no I did not photograph it the whole experience was unpleasant (digging though a rats bowels... :puke2: ) I then did a bit of research and found that it takes 24 hours to kill all cysts of a tapeworm in a freezer so that day I brought home the fresh frozen rats likely is the cause.

Lesion learned wait 24 hours before thawing rodents out, just to be sure. My vet said not to be bothered over half the fecals they have done on snakes showed tapeworms. It is very common apparently. Well I guess I'll have to start saving little bottles of poop... and be doing the 35$ shuffle to the vet.

Ohhh that sucks. Was constipation the only symptom? When I received a colony of leatherback beardys last year that was highly infected with coccidia I was doing that shuffle. I ended up working out a mailing shuffle with my vet and it worked quite well. I send all the samples through the mail they were in enclosed test tube thingys and he'd bill me. It worked great. Hes an hour away from me so getting up there even for an appt had to be carefully planned. Just a thought to help the situation.
Morgan