FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - grapefruit seed extract , wormwood , parazap ?
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Old 10-27-2004, 02:37 AM   #25
Xelda
Dan, I'm willing to speculate that your vet is just a cat-dog vet. With cats and dogs, usually medication alone is enough. But reptiles are confined in a limited environment and basically have to walk over their poop all the time. Cat-dog vets don't take this into account because they're not aware of how easy it is for reptiles to reinfect themselves.

For the record though, antibacterial soap can't kill coccidian oocysts, but it CAN remove them. Soap works to break up the intermolecular forces that keep pathogens attached to objects, so you're essentially washing them off even if you're not killing them. You don't see vets washing their hands with ammonia in between visits, do you? No, they just use ordinary soap.

I dealt with coccidia in two of my geckos. I was able to obtain negative results on follow-up fecal tests without ever having to use ammonia. I just made sure to replace the substrate everyday, especially the humid hide substrate, wash everything down with soap and rinse well, and feed them from a bowl so I knew they were eating off a clean surface. Crickets could run around, step on the poop or eat it, and then perpuate the infection, so I just stuck with mealworms.