Whats this I am hearing?????

I heard something about a cure for crypto...... Can anyone shed some light on this subject????

Gregg, Cryptosporidium Serpentis strikes fear into the hearts of all reptile owners, but it affects snakes, turtles, and lizards differently and therefore the treatments that can "cure" a snake, do not necessarily do so for lizards.

There is ongoing research in treatments for Crypto, and halofuginone and spiramycin are the only drugs that have supposedly cured snakes, but it is still unknown whether these snakes are actually cured, or still 'carriers' for the disease.

To the best of my knowledge, there is still no 'cure' for Crypto in Leopard Geckos, and the only treatment I am aware of is a drug called Paromomycin which is an aminoglycoside antibiotic with anti-parasitic activity. They are using this treatment at UC Davis Veterinary Hospital, and I know a breeder who had several geckos become infected with Crypto that were treated with Paromomycin that have seemingly recovered and have been eating well, gaining weight, and symptom free for over a year... but the only way to tell if they are truly cured would be a full necropsy.

greg, i do not know but i would give Dr. Elliot Jacobsen a phone call or email him, since he is one of the experts on reptile medicine and diseases and whatnot or either whats his name dr. douglas madder? i think it is. ill try and get A and M's phone number and talk with someone there... i have no clue to talk to, ill have to do some research on that part or call some of my vet friends

Thanks for the replies ladies..... I did alittle diggin and here is what I came up with.....

The name of the drug is ALINIA (nitazoxanide) by Romark labs, and it is used to treat the crypto that affects humans (mostly people infected with HIV)....... The drug was released in 2003 and there have been a few studies done with reptiles...... So far a good % of reptiles treated have made great recoveries but it is not known if it cures crypto of just stops the symptoms...... Maybe I am wrong for doing this but I assume the reptile treated would be cured being it is a parasite and not a disaese......... Just do a google search on the drug name and you should get some info......

It is just something for people who are unfortunate enought to have reptile infected with crypto to look into......

Thanks for the info, Gregg! I knew they were using nitazoxanide to effectivley treat Cryptosporidium parvum (which is the only crypto that affects humans), but didn't realize they were trying it with C. sepentis, which is the strain that effects reptiles. Lets hope that it it becomes a successful treatment!

I am conducting research on C. serpentis at Texas A&M Vet School on 4 of my Crypto positive snakes. The plan was to try the Nitazoxaninde on the worst of the 4 which was my Suri boa. He and another 2 boas as well as 2 ball pythons of mine were diagnosed with Crypto by fecal exams in Jan '04. One of the boas died shortly after being diagnosed. We tracked oocysts frequency in the feces so we would be able to tell if the treatment was killing the parasite. However, we never got to try the drug. In May, I could no longer find oocysts in the feces. The boa had stopped regurgitating, is gaining weight, and is much more fiesty than he used to be. The ball pythons and other boa never showed any outward symptoms of the parasite infection. We only know they have Crypto from their gastric lavage and fecal samples. It seems my boa has "cured" himself, although I am sure the parasites are still there.

Kayla