African Fat-Tail Parasite ID

Discussion in 'General Geckos' started by geckolover22, Dec 3, 2014.

  1. geckolover22

    geckolover22 Well-Known Member

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    Hello everyone,I recently picked up a sick AFT and need help identifying some parasite ova/oocysts. I came across her on craigslist being sold as a mack snow leopard gecko, she was skinny and beat up by her leopard gecko tank mate. I decided to take her in and set her up in a quarantine tank on paper towels, precautionary dewormer with panacur for three days and hand/syringe fed food. She had some runny feces for awhile that went away with time. She then gained 5 grams but then the runny feces came back and she's lost weight since it began again. Noticing the change I did a direct smear on her and found a few parasitic eggs I need help to ID. I believe one is a pinworm egg and read that's part of normal gut flora and shouldn't be of too huge of a concern. Didn't find more than two pinworm looking eggs (under 40X) and one round unknown egg 40X). The last slide I was looking under Oil Immersion 100X I found ghostly looking oocysts... professor said Crypto. I'm fearing the worst and getting her tested asap but I would like opinions on my findings please..
    Pinworm.jpg
    Unknown.jpg
    Unknownqer.jpg
     
  2. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  3. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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    Gosh, I'm really not sure. I think your pinworm egg identification is probably correct given the size at the magnification stated. Believe it or not, I've had a vet mis-identify pinworm eggs as coccidea oocysts... [Safe to say I never went back to her again].

    A shame that I didn't retain more from Parasitology a few years ago... My best guess would be coccidea or crypto oocysts, but I would highly recommend another opinion. A (decent) vet should be able to give you the rundown with a fecal sample and appropriate treatment.
     
    geckolover22 likes this.
  4. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  5. geckolover22

    geckolover22 Well-Known Member

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    Hey Jeffreh, long time, no see :) I will be bringing her to the vet along with a sample and these pics in hopes of identification. I took a really short (10 day class) of parasitology so I'm still a bit of a noob on the subject but isn't coccidia only seen under 100x Oil Immersion? Haha. Anyways, I sent out a sample to Avian Biotech this last Monday and just received the results today. PCR test negative for crypto. So, now I'm fighting some unknown pathogen with crypto-like symptoms or the PCR test was a false negative...
     
  6. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  7. geckolover22

    geckolover22 Well-Known Member

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    Well sadly she passed away... I don't have the money for a necropsy so I'm a bit worried. Jeffreh, do you know how long it takes between exposure to clinical signs for crypto? I'm putting a hold on breeding, buying and selling for at least two months or is that too little?
     

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