Parasites: Pinworms

If you have a reptile, chances are you've heard of pinworms or even have experience with them. It's something that is near impossible to avoid unless you simply do not offer your reptiles bugs or prey items that are free of pinworms. I remember seeing pinworms in my first pet Crested Gecko when I was young and I freaked out. Pinworms are often visible in pets stool as thin little worms that are usually moving but best way to confirm is a fecal performed by someone who has experience identifying parasites (like a vet). This book is fantastic for explaining reptile parasites, how to identify them and how to treat them.

Pinworms are a discussion worthwhile having as I personally consider it a normal part of reptile keeping and is something that you will almost definitely face at some point if feeding bugs so it's important to know how to treat them as left untreated they can grow in numbers and cause problems for your pet. Also, they're zoonotic and can spread to people so I personally like to get rid of them as soon as I see one for my own sake as well.

Where do they come from?

Store bought crickets are notorious for introducing pinworms to geckos in my experience. Pinworms are not something to freak out about, unless you have a heavy burden of them in your pet then its trickier and demands prompt attention and extra care. Pinworms eggs can be introduced to your pet by contaminated water, food bowls, food sources like bugs and other contact with infected animals or people.

How do you treat them?

Pinworms are fairly easy to treat with a liquid fenbendazole dewormer (also called Safeguard or Panacur). Dosing the medication is crucial as to not overdose your pet so unless you know exactly how much your pet weighs and how to measure and dilute the medication, it's best to leave that to your vet techs to determine the appropriate dose for your pet. Administering the dewormer after disinfecting the pets enclosure is most important as to not reintroduce the parasites eggs back into your pet again. It is important to understand the life cycle of pinworms as their eggs are not susceptible to the dewormer medication and only adult worms will be killed by the medication. Pinworms eggs usually take a week or so to hatch so dewormer is usually given again in a weeks time to catch any eggs that have now hatched that were missed by the first round of dewormer. Another deep cleaning of the enclosure should be performed again at this time to rid of any lingering eggs that could re-infect your pet.

Tips for administering the oral medication:

A lot of vets do not have frequent experience with exotic pets like geckos so they often advise pet parents to force open their geckos mouth to administer the oral medication. This commonly damages the geckos teeth and sometimes even jaw (although I would seriously be questioning the vet practice if they caused harm to your geckos jaw while opening its mouth but like I said, not a lot of vets have experience with exotics and while some are fantastic with them, others will not always admit to their lack of experience and can administer the wrong treatment or exam method...Trust me, I've unfortunately witnessed this countless times while working at a vet and receiving vet care as a patient from different vets. Not all vets understand the impact stress can have on reptiles and push for less stressful methods). The safest way to administer an oral medication is when your gecko opens it mouth naturally on its own. This can be accomplished in a few ways.

1) your gecko licks its eyes every so often so you can sit and wait until it licks its eyes and slowly get a few drops of medication in at a time or

2) offer your gecko a treat like a MRP diet and while its licking up food wait for it to lick its eyes or while licking its lips you can slowly administer the liquid medication through the syringe by having your gecko lick it up without having to pry its mouth open and stress the animal out.

Be warned geckos hate the taste of the meds so best to do little at a time so they do not spit out an entire dose and therefor not receive their medication. It's a balancing act but when done right, it is the least stressful and most effective way of medication your gecko!

Video to come.