Parasites and my BP - Can he live with them?

[regiusloki]

First of all, I am a type-A vet tech caring for Loki, my 1 yr male ghost bp. I know I could try to ask my vet friends, but to be honest almost none of them have any exotic experience, let alone snake experience, and BP.net is such a friendly place I figured I'd ask the experts here.

Question: I analyzed my bp's fecal material because I can (remember, type-A). I think I came across a pinworm egg, which I know they can get from their prey items (he's on mice). Now, I also know he can be treated with an dewormer and be done with it. But the stress about it is, if he continues to eat mice who could be infected with whatever variety of parasite they have, do I have to continue to regularly check his samples (basically once a month, based on lifecycles of common rodent/snake parasites) and keep treating him, or can the the parasite infections be self limiting (meaning that the snake lives a perfectly healthy life)? He eats, poops, and sheds nicely and regularly. I know weight is sort of important, but he looks nice and fleshly like a BP should. I should mention he is eating live; he never took f/t from me, and he gobbles up live (of course)... So I realize that f/t would solve this problem, but until I attempt to switch him back over, any ideas and/or opinions? How do you live feeders deal with this potential problem?

Thank you!

[Inarikins]

If it's mice that are the problem, switch to rats...

[Meltdown Morphs]

It really doesn't sound like there is much you can do about this,either switch him to FT,or maybe to rats if you can.

I'm sure BP in the wild eat rodents with all kinds of parasites and live to be robust animals. I'll bet you'd know more of what a pinworm actually does than the rest of us here tho. Personally I don't think it would be healthy for him to keep being treated for the same parasite, having meds flushed thru his body only to be refed the same parasites over and over again every feeding.

You could deworm him now and then start trying to feed him something else, and simply not give him another live mouse again. Him not eating for a month or so shouldn't do him no harm.
You could try deworming a group of mice if possible and keep them on reserve in case he decides he's not going to eat anything at all until he gets a mouse that way he doesn't have to starve for an extended period of time.

I have a snake who who has been stuck on mice forever, and I'm not sure which of us is more stubborn about the matter,I offer him rats about the size of an adult mouse, if he doesn't take then he doesn't eat that week. Sometimes he caves and eats the rat, many times not. I've gotten him to eat live and frozen of mice and rats but he is definitely not steady.

[Capray]

I also don't really understand the parasite thing.
They live with parasites in the wild, say someone with no other snakes found an injured ratsnake, nursed it back to health, but decided to keep it as a pet because it was eating well and was tame. People say they shouldn't keep it because of parasites..well, if it was doing fine with those parasites in the wild, why couldn't it be fine with those parasites in captivity?
I understand the mixing parasites with different species worry, kind of, but is that the only reason?

[satomi325]

F/T won't help.
Freezing only kills adult parasites. Parasite eggs can go dormant and hatch out during more optimal conditions (body temp).

Pinworms are pretty common in BPs.
And it doesn't matter if it's mice or rats. Both can carry internal parasites. You won't be able to keep parasites out unless you get a clean source of feeders.

I personally breed my own rats and deworm them annually and all new rats introduced to the colony (not babies till they're old enough). I deworm them to avoid spreading parasites to my snakes and ferrets.

[Annarose15]

I also don't really understand the parasite thing.
They live with parasites in the wild, say someone with no other snakes found an injured ratsnake, nursed it back to health, but decided to keep it as a pet because it was eating well and was tame. People say they shouldn't keep it because of parasites..well, if it was doing fine with those parasites in the wild, why couldn't it be fine with those parasites in captivity?
I understand the mixing parasites with different species worry, kind of, but is that the only reason?

What's to say they do "fine" in the wild? How many wild BPs do you think make it to twenty or thirty years old, relative to how many hatch?

[regiusloki]

I figured the only definite way to avoid parasites in the prey items was to just start a parasite free colony of my own with dewormings and all. Unfortunately that isn't an option at this point.

Parasites are very common, and I imagine that most wild BPs do have some degree of infection. Rats and mice are notorious disease and parasite hosts. My guess is that the BP's (or any animal) immunity takes a hit due to something else, and as a secondary complication the "normal, self-limiting" parasites take advantage and now become a serious problem.

Thanks everyone for the responses, it's nice to hear from the veterans about this!

[hypersomniacjoo]

i wonder about this too, having a collection of give or take 30 ball pythons, if they are being potentially reinfected with parasites with every meal, i can't be going to the vet once a month and having them all dewormed. i wonder what is the consensus on parasites with big breeders? i understand deworming a WC animal when it is imported, but unless they are leaving visible parasites or losing too much weight, parasite control seems like a lost cause for those who don't breed their own rodents.

[bcr229]

i wonder about this too, having a collection of give or take 30 ball pythons, if they are being potentially reinfected with parasites with every meal, i can't be going to the vet once a month and having them all dewormed. i wonder what is the consensus on parasites with big breeders?

Take a page from the playbook from the folks who keep horses or other livestock, everything gets dewormed every 6-8 weeks. Usually they get rotated through different products (ivermectin, pyrantel pamoate, febendazole, moxidectin, etc) so that the parasites don't develop an immunity to any one chemical. I don't think that's a viable option with reptiles since many of those drugs will make a reptile very sick or kill it.