Binti again

Question
QUESTION: Hi again. Me and Binti... again. (If you forgot about us, http://www.allexperts.com/user.cgi?m=6&catID=704&expID=91060&qID=4926197)

She still refuses to eat on her own and doesn't show any signs of caring for motion at all, leading me to believe even getting crickets wouldn't matter much. I was looking at older pics of her and her tail has gotten noticeably smaller. I have been keeping her on nothing but meat-flavoured baby foods (which I've been mixing with reptile powder and water) fed by syringe in an attempt to keep weight on her and food in her. About a little less than a month back, she shed again, kept it down for the night, then threw some of it back up in the morning.

I gave her one week of not being syringe-fed after a week of being fed, just to see how she'd react - like, if she'd get less stressed out and maybe wander around, do some hunting, that kind of thing. She certainly became more active and wandered and basked in the light (they do that?), but never bothered going hunting. Even now, as I've picked up syringe-feeding her again, she is more active at night, switching up her hides (this morning, I found her in her moist hide).

I'm just really not sure what to do at this point. My vet couldn't recommend any places to get probiotics for geckos and said I should order online, but living in Canada makes it notoriously difficult to ship in any medical supplies from the US. I looked high and low for non-dairy soy yogurt to no avail. I can't find any of the herbal ingredients for a gecko slurry around here either. I wouldn't be so worried if I hadn't noticed her tail having gotten so much smaller... by no means is she skin and bones, but compared to how chubby she used to be, it's just a little alarming and I have no idea how to reverse the trend. Is there something with a little more fat content in it that I could be giving her by syringe?

ANSWER: Hello Amber,

Oh I was wondering how Binti was doing lately.

Did we ever decide if it was parasites?  When was the last fecal that was done on her?
I would definitely keep her on the meat based baby foods right now.  
It really sounds like she has parasites, or some type of virus but it is so hard to determine I realize.  
Yes, they normally become more active at night.  Have you tried feeding him at night?  Sometimes they eat better at night.

Do you have a health food store around?  You should be able to find the powdered acidophiliz there that you could use.

I hope we can reverse this.  It is so difficult sometimes when they are ill, to get them back to healthy when you can't figure out what is going on.
You could try Critical Care formula for her.  

Talk to you soon.
Tracie


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again.

Binti's tail is pretty much fatless now. She's lost most of her weight. Now and again, she has made me happy by eating some butterworms on her own, but again, she no longer seems interested. She doesn't seem to want to spend any time on the warm side of her tank anymore, or move out except to poop in her pooping spot.

I took a fecal to the vet today and the gram stain showed parasites - something I think the vet called 'pentafilmids', but all I could find during online research was something called 'pentastomids'. The vet said it could be treated by a med called 'ivobac' or something, but again, some research showed a treatment called 'ivermectin' or 'ivomec'... so I think that may be what she meant. She said it was very difficult to dose a reptile with this med, but the reptile needed a rather high dosage to get rid of the parasite to begin with.

Is there an alternative to this med that I could maybe bring up with the vet? I already tried metronidazole when she first recommended it and it didn't help. I heard of some people using a med called 'panacur' for some infections, but I'm not sure if it's for this sort of parasite.

Answer
Hello Amber,

I would recommend trying to use the Panacur over the Ivermectin.  Really, the Ivomec, Ivermectin, ect is generally not used for reptiles because of its toxicity.  It can cross the blood brain barrier & reptiles' slow metabolism makes it hard for it to metabolize quickly.  The amount needed to even get rid of the parasite, etc, could be enough to kill a reptile.  
I would try Panacur first, it is much safer.  
Geez, I wish that she would have stayed interested in her food.  Have you tried bee pollen to see if that might help with appetite?  It is a good immune system booster, as well.  

I am sorry Binti is still not doing well!  

Tracie