Anyone ever tested their roaches for parasite?

[gothra]

My dubia colony has pinworms. I have started over 3 times since 2 years ago, everytime when the number starts to build up, I find traces of parasite in their "excretion" (squeeze the roach to obtain a bit of wet poop, then check under microscope). The colony itself seems very healthy, breeding and eating very well, I hardly have any deaths or dropped egg case. Its only when you look at the poop with a microscope, then you'll notice the presence of parasite(s). I wonder how common this is, I have obtained roaches from 2 different sources, and both ended up the same after a year.

I have talked to my vet about this, she said pinworms are species specific, so my geckos won't get infected from eating the roaches.

I am not going to discard my colony and start all over again this time. I'm going to mix a bit of panacur in their water once a week for 6 weeks and see if that'll help. I'll post the outcome later if anyone is interested to know.

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

That's so cool! I was going to get a microscope and do this because I believed my geckos were getting worms from thier crickets. I asked my vet if there was a way to test the feeder insects and he said no.....looks like he was wrong. I would love to see if panacur in the water would work, the thought crossed my mind when thinking of ways to treat what I believed was the source of thier worms. This post has made me decide to get my own microscope for sure. Did you teach yourself what to look for? Good experiment!

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

I also wanted a micrscope to test incoming ordered insects, hoping the outcome would be an increase in quality control of feeder insects.

 

[gothra]

If you want to test your feeders for parasite, you can use something (I use tweezers) to squeeze its belly until some of the wet intestine content come out; then you can do a smear to see if you can spot the traces of parasite. I use 100x magnification only and I can see several pinworm eggs in there. I just try to match what I found with the pics in Klingenberg's book.

Initially I thought my geckos have pinworms, because their fecals keep on coming back positive; but no matter how MANY doses of panacur we gave them, pinworm oocyst still show up in feces. My vet was at a lost too as several doses of panacur should've fixed the problem. That's why I decided to check the feeders myself. I was relieved that my geckos were merely eating the roach pins and pooped them out undigested.

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

Have you seen any results from treating the roaches with panacur? :book:

 

[Select Gex]

Very interesting!

 

[Tsks7205]

Yes this is very interesting. Please keep us updated.

 

[gothra]

The deworming was unsuccessful. :main_no: I checked 4 samples last night, still see traces of oocysts in the roach poop. So, I'm just going to leave it as it is.

 

[robin]

well i know crickets can get pin worms very easily and that they can be transmitted to the geckos. i have seen pin worms eggs in gecko poo before. i would just imagine its the environment that both crickets and roaches need to be kept in, that they obtain it.

i know you talked to your vet BUT how would a gecko get pins? it would have to be through the food source.

 

[gothra]

I don't know, but I don't recycle food and I tong feed my geckos, so the roaches couldn't have come into contact with any sort of infected reptile poop. Originally I thought my geckos are infected, so I took them to get treated at the vet. However, after many doses of panacur, their fecals still come back positive, that's why we turn to look at the feeder roaches instead. When I stopped giving them roaches for a couple weeks, all their fecals became clean. Therefore, we realised the geckos are merely pooping out the undigested oocysts.

 

[robin]

hmm interesting

 

[Gregg M]

In my honest opinion, everyone make a big deal about parasites... Every reptile collection will have a parasite load to some extent... It is as unavoidable as it is natural... Pin worms and other superficial parasites will never give your reptiles a problem unless there are other issues like poor husbandry...

Most, if not all reptile sicknesses can be traced back to poor husbandry...

I have had imported snakes with huge parasite loads brought in... As soon as their husbandry was addressed and they acclimated, the parasite loads went down to almost untraceable levels without any de-worming treatments...

As long as your animals are kept properly, minor parasite loads will not get out of control...

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

I think it is possible for a leopard gecko to have higher levels of parasites even with proper husbandry because they eat their shed skin. I don't think snakes eat their shed so that could be a reason why you are able to lower the parasitic loads with just proper husbandry. In most cases I would have to agree that the parasite levels get out of control when conditions are suboptimal, but it can also be due to the stress of breeding, ovulation etc...

 

[robin]

yes but the parasites are generally internal and come out in the poo not in the shed skin

 

[gothra]

I understand, my geckos aren't even infected at all. Just that it made me feel uncomfortable knowing that my roaches harbour some sort of parasites...I really wish I hadn't looked in the first place!

Anyway, I'll still use those roaches; but I'll include more silkies in their diet from now on.

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

I was thinking more along the lines of the oocytes getting onto the body of the gecko from the enclosure/poo and eventually ingested along with the shed skin. I know that in humans pinworm oocytes can go airborne when shaking out sheets/ kicking up dust I wonder if it is the same for species of pinworm that infect leopard geckos?

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

Anyway, I'll still use those roaches; but I'll include more silkies in their diet from now on.

I love feeding silkworms! Sometimes ill dangle them by the silk to lure the geckos out of their hides..:main_laugh:Like the old dollar on the fish line trick!:main_laugh:

 

[JordanAng420]

I know that in humans pinworm oocytes can go airborne when shaking out sheets/ kicking up dust I wonder if it is the same for species of pinworm that infect leopard geckos?

It's not the same species. Pinworms in reptiles are transmitted through fecal-oral contamination and are not transmitted through feeders. This is because pins are species specific and feeder insects carry a separate species of pinworm. There has been no reported cross contamination between different species. This parasite usually is asymptomatic & nonpathogenic.

 

[robin]

I was thinking more along the lines of the oocytes getting onto the body of the gecko from the enclosure/poo and eventually ingested along with the shed skin. I know that in humans pinworm oocytes can go airborne when shaking out sheets/ kicking up dust I wonder if it is the same for species of pinworm that infect leopard geckos?

all i know is a friend of mine in school got an itchy butt and pin worms from walking around bare footed or playing in the dirt :main_thumbsup:

 

[JordanAng420]

well i know crickets can get pin worms very easily and that they can be transmitted to the geckos.

Nope.

Initially I thought my geckos have pinworms, because their fecals keep on coming back positive; but no matter how MANY doses of panacur we gave them, pinworm oocyst still show up in feces. .

That's because pinworms are generally treated with ivermectin, not panacur. They are nearly impossible to get rid of, and pointless to treat IMO.