Interesting! I have never seen a reptile with whipworms. I have only seen
them in dogs and hogs. I have seen Capillaria in birds and there have been
reports or Capillaria infections in lizards, snakes, and crocodilians.
Capillaria looks very similar to whips, so maybe this is what your
veterinarian saw. Are these Leopards captive bred?
I would treat them for this parasite, keep the cage really clean and
retreat in 2 weeks. You then will want to do another fecal in 2 weeks.
Mader's book said little is known about their life cycle, but since the
eggs are shed in the stool, I would make sure you clean up all waste
matter, just in case it has a direct life cycle (no intermediate host).
Catriona
At 01:14 PM 11/26/2001 EST, you wrote:
>Hi All!
>One of my leopard geckos lost a significant amount of weight in a very
short period of time recently, however her female cagemate is plump and
healthy. I took them both to the vet along with stool samples, and he
treated them both for "whip worm", which he said is fairly uncommon. The
skinny one also got a shot of antibiotics and is now being fed beef &
vegetable babyfood via a syringe daily. These two leopards had previously
been treated for parasites at the vet after I got them from the pet store.
Any ideas on how they could have contracted this "whip worm"? They have
never been around any other geckos since the initial treatment when I
bought them. How long can I expect it to take before I see improvement in
the skinny one's weight from the hand feeding? She seems alert and healthy
otherwise.
>Tobey
>
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