Crested gecko disease

[Marla]

Randy May of NeoScales has tentatively identified a disease-causing organism found among captive crested geckos. This is particularly bad news because so far these little geckos had seemed fairly resistant and didn't generally have the high parasite load of some captive species, such as leopard geckos. He's posted about it on Kingsnake, but I wanted to quote the most significant portion of his post to get the word out here, so here it is:

Signs & Symptoms
• Rapid weight loss
• Lethargy
• Swollen Vent (late stage)
• This is contagious though contact with the feces of ailing geckos

Treatment
• Highly susceptible to Flagyl (Metronidazole)
• 250mg/kg for 3 treatments is probably enough
• You must keep the cage clean and bleached during treatment to prevent re-infection.
• You should also treat all other geckos that have had any contact with the affected one. Treating the entire colony (could easily done by medicating their food) may be needed as a precaution if food/water dishes and cages are moved from cage to cage.

Take home message: If noticed early on, this is an easy and highly treatable disease!!!

There are other causes of weight loss (like intestinal blockage), but amebiasis should be part of the treatment plan straight away - if you want the best chance to save your ailing gecko.

Feel free to comment and thanks for the long read (JFYI - I'm a reasearch scientist by profession),
-----
-Randy May
www.neoscales.com

[kavmon]

wow i'll definately keep a look out for any signs of that.

thanks marla!


vaughn

[SatanicIntention]

If Flagyl kills it, then wouldn't they just be killing giardia? It's a protozoa that lives in stagnant water. Gets me wondering where that might have come from...

[Marla]

You're welcome, Vaughn. This reinforces to me the need for a proper quarantine period with these guys, for sure.

Becky, you'd be in a better position than I would to answer that question. Maybe you could talk to one of your teachers about this?

[SatanicIntention]

I probably need to. Protozoas can cause weight loss, diarrhea, they are nasty little buggers. But wouldn't it just be the best thing to deworm anything that's new, and/or living in a colony with other animals? I haven't checked Amani for parasites, but she came from a good breeder, so there shouldn't be too much of a worry. I checked my boyfriend's roomate's snake, Snake(original, huh?), and he was clean. I've done a fecal on any new animal that I have bought and made sure they were clean before introducing them into the colony(the rats) or putting them in the same room with the other animals. Rather be safe than sorry, and have all of the animals in my house get parasites.

[Jeanne]

Bad stuff man, I would not want any of my geckos getting that crud. How do they get it to begin with?

[Adam_Wysocki]

I've done a fecal on any new animal that I have bought and made sure they were clean ...

I don't own any type of lizards (so feel free to tell me to go away ), but I also do fecal floats on my new ball pythons while they're in quarantine. During the sixty days I actually try and do 3, just to be sure. If one animal comes up dirty, everyone in quarantine gets treated just to be safe.

I also randomly do fecal flotations on my main collection throughout the year just to be safe.

With not a whole lot of money and a good reference, it's pretty easy to at least do your own fecal smears at home. It might be a good idea for someone that has a lot of new animals coming into their collection on a regular basis.

-adam

[SatanicIntention]

I sure wish I could do that sort of stuff at home, but who has the money for a good enough microscope to see smaller parasites, like protozoa and bacteria? Definately not me... I love parasitology, it was such a fun class, although my parents looked at me weird when I had poo in the fridge..

So Adam, do you have a good micriscope to see the tiny parasites, or just the bigger ones like ascarids, nematodes and trematodes? Coccidia and giardia are pretty common, and giardia can only be found on a fresh fecal smear, and not usually on a flotation. Those are both so nasty. I remember when we got one of our rats, who is now pregnant and about ready to pop, she had tapeworms and coccidia, and I treated her twice a day every day for a month. There were so many tapeworm eggs and coccidia on the slide, I could barely see the glass underneath. Bleh... I'm sorry to have hijacked the thread, but parasitology is so much fun

[Adam_Wysocki]

I have a good enough scope now that I use for flotations (even bought a centrifuge), but when I started out only doing smears, I had a el-cheapo off of e-bay that worked great.

-adam

[Schlyne]