Worms in poo

[TortoiseLove]

Yesterday I was cleaning up my Russian's poop and saw dried up worms in/on it! I'm planning on taking him to the vet, if this clears up will i have to take him to the vet for his whole life or only when there is a problem? Also can the worms be contagious?

 

[ascott]

Well if you see worms then my question would be...is his appetite good? Also, if you have other tortoise sharing the same enclosure you may want to take a sample from them along to be tested....contagious to you? No as I imagine you wash your hands after poo patrol

 

[Tony the tank]

Round worms can infect humans...but doesnt really take hold... But as Ascott stated as long as you wash your hands you should be ok... You should also remove the feces as soon as you can to cut there life cycle down....

 

[Laura]

you need to figure out what kind of worms.. pin worms that came from the tort or maggots that did not, but a fly layed eggs in the poop and they hatched out....
take a fresh sample to the Vet and have them do a fecal float and see what they see.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi TortoiseLove:

I know you've been here for quite a while, but I don't think you've ever told us what to call you.

If you determine that the worms came from inside the tort and not outside, like Laura suggested, then the treatment clears them up quite well. You give him the de-worming medication, say today, then you give it to him again in about 10 days to get any that were in the egg stage for the first dosage.

Some people de-worm twice a year, spring and fall. Some people only de-worm if a stool sample to the vet shows parasites in it.

 

[TortoiseLove]

oh my name is emma! Im pretty sure they came from inside the tortoise, they looked dried up and sort of white clear. I called the vet and as soon as I get a fresh sample I will take him in!!

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and as for the diet, he just eats dandelion leaves and romaine lettuce, I don't know where he would have gotten worms..

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Also I talked to the vet and they said a consultation is 75$, fecal test is 57$ does this seem okay? What medicine is usually used to treat worms?

 

[Yvonne G]

That seems a bit high to me.

 

[Talka]

My vet charged $80 for a consultation and the fecal ($40 consultation $40 fecal) and $10 for each follow-up (3 of them) for more de-worming medicine. I hear that's relatively cheap. Reptile vets are rare, so they charge a lot more!

The medicine he gave me for Sheldon is: Metronidazole suspension, 0.3mL/day for 5 days, a 10 day gap in treatment, then 0.3mL/day for 5 more days. Once a week we went in to get 0.1mL of a cow dewormer. I didn't catch the name of that one.