Rodentpro

Reading this: glad all my stuff is in house; done professionally with zero excuses; by a real person who cares!! I never have to hope, wish, or pray for the best.. I just go and get it from my very own rodent room; kept super tight; and my animals actually throw smiles at me!! El o el..
Notta smear campaign; just a word to the wise; make it so there is no hoping, wishing prayin!!!
I think it's time to look heavily at your quarantine skills and you husbandry in general here? Just sayin'...

(r).... I think I left something out there towards the end... The end...

Originally Posted by rcpreis3

I caught up on three pages and dont wanna multi quote everyone so if I miss ur question just PM me and Ill quote and post back on here. Sorry I havent been on much but I work wed-sat all day, and dont get much computer time in the summer when the rest of the family is off of school/work

Correct, my vet told me that it was extremely likely it was from my feeders. I didnt even think of it until she said it. Which is why I threw it up here so fast, im just trying to look out. Ill get the fecals done on the rats as soon as I have my animals medicated, and can get back up to a vet. Anywhere from Monday- next Monday. Ill have them do a necropsy on a rat or two if they think it will help, and if it aint gonna break my wallet.

Yes I religiously wash my hands between all and do have my hands peel from it. Btw my collection is 18. 2 boas and 16 balls.

They didnt do fecals on the snakes because they were able to look at living worms under a microscope. Yes they looked like brown rice and yes most of them floated.

At first it was just a few snakes, so I talked to a local guy who fixed them few up. But they continued to get worms and I noticed them spreading over the weeks. My first boa Ive had for fours years has never shown any signs of worms, health issues or what-not. She is in a seperate room from my breeders cuz shes my pet. None of her supplies come in contact with any of my other reptiles or their supplies but she still got them. The only common factor is the rats.

I honestly wanna be proven wrong and dont want to find any worms in the rats. I got a few hundred dollars worth of rats in my freezer and would hate to go through the trouble of replacing them. I buy in bulk so Ive only had like 3-4 orders to them over the year. I will post all test results when I have them. I entirely understand why u think I jumped the gun but a few people are starting to understand why I did it. If ur still upset about it, Im sorry but nuthin I say will make u happy.

I would not trash your rodents if they come back positive for pins. I wouldn't even waste the money testing them. They probably have pins, most do, including yours Tom unless you have treated the entire colony for worms and never introduced any others.

I have had small "rice looking" critters in my water bowls. They were not worms but very small insects that lived in the bedding. If you are using any type of natural wood bedding, get rid of it and go with newspaper. You should be doing this anyway if you think your snakes have parasites, and to rule out they came from the bedding. I do not think worms would be floating on the water surface. So you are saying the vet examined a live one under a microscope and determined it to be a worm? If that is the case, then they probably are worms (hard to mistake under magnification) but that, nor does testing the rodents, help to determine their cause.

If you are using anything but newspaper for substrate, get rid of it, then get the snakes tested. Testing the rodents is probably going to be a waste of time and money.

I will re-iterate what Tom said about quarantine being so important. It is a shame that when it is mentioned people blow it off and label people "the quarantine police" for even bringing it up.

Originally Posted by Shiari

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BVAT0FI3vW...dGraphic-1.jpg


Is this what the worms looked like?

Nope

Actually I cant find a pic that looks anywhere close to them, and I typed in tapeworm, hookworm, roundworm, pinworms, reptile parasites under microscope, and cant seem to find one pic.

So heres my best description, their body is cone shaped and segemented, with the head wider than the tail, their mouth has 3 or 4 giant sharp looking teeth, and this disgusting looking tounge. And thats about all their is to them.

And substrate was mentioned, I just recently switched to aspen and had them on newspaper beforehand, and they were showing up long before the aspen.

Im not being sarcastic but is this technically starting to get off topic? Would posting a pic of the worms on here be allowed or should I start another thread?

They absolutely do not Bart.. Not probably, my man.. Thanks.. I don't ever see what y'all are talking about; and you never should.. When kept properly, you won't; I bet these/my rats would come up cleaner than you, and I in fecal exam; this is a super tight 10 yr old colony! I am glad you got the promotion of newspaper in this quote; let's me know that......... Ahhhh; have a nice one......

Originally Posted by bsharrah

I would not trash your rodents if they come back positive for pins. I wouldn't even waste the money testing them. They probably have pins, most do, including yours Tom unless you have treated the entire colony for worms and never introduced any others.

I have had small "rice looking" critters in my water bowls. They were not worms but very small insects that lived in the bedding. If you are using any type of natural wood bedding, get rid of it and go with newspaper. You should be doing this anyway if you think your snakes have parasites, and to rule out they came from the bedding. I do not think worms would be floating on the water surface. So you are saying the vet examined a live one under a microscope and determined it to be a worm? If that is the case, then they probably are worms (hard to mistake under magnification) but that, nor does testing the rodents, help to determine their cause.

If you are using anything but newspaper for substrate, get rid of it, then get the snakes tested. Testing the rodents is probably going to be a waste of time and money.

I will re-iterate what Tom said about quarantine being so important. It is a shame that when it is mentioned people blow it off and label people "the quarantine police" for even bringing it up.

Originally Posted by rcpreis3

Nope



So heres my best description, their body is cone shaped and segemented, with the head wider than the tail, their mouth has 3 or 4 giant sharp looking teeth, and this disgusting looking tounge. And thats about all their is to them.

Well, that picture is the type of pinworm that likes to infect reptiles and amphibians. Pinworms are NOT segmented. In fact, the only "segmented" parasitic worm is the tapeworm. The rest look like smooth noodles.

Look up hookworms. They have the teeth, but are long and non-segmented. Look up whipworms. Non-segmented.
Look up roundworms.
Look up trichinella.
If it has "teeth", it's also not a tapeworm unless your reptiles are for some reason shedding intact taenia sp.


I can't believe your vet diagnosed a segmented toothed worm as a pinworm.

Maybe you have a novel parasite that now combines features of the platyhelminthes and nemotodes. Cone shaped sounds like a fluke, but they aren't segmented with scary pointy teeth either. That description is classic hookworm, but they aren't segmented and they aren't cone shaped. The segments sound like tapes, but there is a single taenia species that is only 3 to 5 segments long behind the head, which made me wonder, but those aren't typically shed whole. And if your vet can't tell the difference between a pinworm and a taenia, it's DEFINITELY time to get a new vet.

Gah, early morning syndrome! Echinococcus is the tiny, few-segmented one, not taenia. And with the echinos, you have a choice between a dog worm, and a fox-sometimes-hamsters worm.

Nope none of the examples above are even close. :/

But someone sparked my curiosity with fly larvae and I have to say a certain pic of some fruit fly larvae looked about as close as it could get.

I really hope my vet didnt get me worked up over freakin maggots. I would be quite embarrassed.

This is the closest representation I can find to what im trying to describe, just cut off the lil eyeballs and attenae and there ya go

http://www.killi.co.uk/drosophila1.php

Aha! finnaly got my computer to cooperate and got pics of the actual worms I found in the water dish. I did adjust the brightness and contrast to get a better view of them and not the back ground. Any opinions are appreciated.