That is the question that I asked after finding out that my dragon’s fecal came back positive for Coccidia. I had only had my beardie for two weeks and noticed that his eating was rapidly slowing down, he was way undersize and weight for his age, and he just seemed more lethargic. So, I decided to take a fecal sample in to get tested. The next thing I knew I was asking the vet, “What is Coccidia?” Coccidia is a parasite that lives in the intestinal lining of Bearded Dragons. There is debate on weather Bearded Dragons naturally have this organism in their intestines at very low levels. These low levels would increase once something allowed the dragon’s immune system to weaken, such as a dragon being stressed. If these low levels are naturally present, this could possibly explain why so many newly acquired dragons have positive fecal checks for Coccidia. The stress on the dragon from being moved into their new environment would lower their immune system enough to allow the levels of Coccidia to rise. Coccidia is a direct life cycle parasite. What does that mean? It means that your dragon will repeatedly re-infect him/herself with Coccidia. The life cycle of the Coccidian parasite works as follows: 1. The dragon ingests the oocysts (Coccidia eggs). 2. The oocysts infect the cells lining the intestinal wall. 3. The oocysts become the Coccida parasite that then begin to reproduce asexually (remember from biology class, that means that each individual parasite can reproduce all by itself). 4. More oocysts are produced 5. The new oocyst are expelled in the feces 6. Back to step 1 That is what a direct life cycle is. This entire cycle takes place in a matter of 7-10 days. You can also see how this whole situation can go from bad to worse rather quickly, if not treated. So now that you know what Coccidia is, how do you know if your dragon has it? The only way to tell if your dragon has Coccidia is by having a fecal check done. This is highly recommended anyway if you have a new dragon, just to find out the overall health of your lizard. However, there are some warning signs that you should look for. These include the following: 1. Consistent loose, runny, very foul smelling feces 2. Loss of apatite 3. Loss of weight or stunted weight gain 4. Lethargy 5. Blood in feces or urates Keep in mind that these are just symptoms and not to be used alone to “diagnose” weather or not your dragon has Coccidia. If your dragon has these symptoms it means that you need to get a fecal check done. So, you take your fecal sample in and it comes back positive for Coccidia. Now what? Your vet will prescribe one of the “sulfa” drugs, Sulfamethoxine or Trimethoprim-sulfa. The most common drug prescribed is the Sulfamethoxine (Albon). There are different theories on how the drug should be administered. Usually the most common dosages are: 1) a double dose on the first day and then half of that each day for the next six days 2) equal doses for five days straight and then treat every other day until a clean fecal comes back 3) the three day on/three day off method Sometimes the Coccidia parasite can build an immunity to the drugs and become even harder to wipe out. The three day on/three day off method has seemed to work well in these cases. The thing to keep in mind with Albon is that it wipes out any and all bacteria in the dragon, not only the bad but the good also. What is “good bacteria”? Well, it is the bacteria that your dragon needs to properly digest any food that it eats. This is often why dragons that are receiving treatment for Coccidia will completely loose their apatite. There are products that replace this “good bacteria” called probiotics. It is strongly recommended that if you are using sulfa drugs on your dragon you should also be using probiotics to replace the good gut flora. This is how I administered the drugs and probiotics. I would feed the dragon an hour after his lights went on, which gave him time to warm up. I would wait about two to three hours after feeding him and give him the Albon. After another hour, this gives the Albon time to move through the dragons system, I would give him the probiotics. After that I would continue feeding him on his normal schedule. This worked well and he had no problems with digesting any of his food. By using this dosing schedule, he always had good gut flora in him when he was digesting food. Albon is very brutal on a Bearded Dragon's system. Along with wiping out any and all bacteria that is in the dragons system, it will wipe out any hydration that your dragon has. Dehydration is a very serious issue when using Albon. You have to make sure that your dragon is very well hydrated. So, how do you do that? There are several options that will work well, offering water by dropping drips of water on the dragons nose (they will lick it off), or by misting the dragon. The single most effective way to hydrate your dragon is to bathe at least once a day while your dragon is on Albon. Some dragons will actually drink the water while they are bathing and others just will not. But, by simply soaking your dragon for 15 to 20 minutes will hydrate your beardie. Bearded Dragons absorb water through their vent. My dragon would not drink a drop of water, no matter what I did. But he was so hydrated from me soaking him everyday for 20 minutes that he was actually passing water with his feces and urates. So now you know that you will have to give the dragon meds, probiotics, and a soak everyday. So that should take care of it right? Well, not quite. Remember the whole direct life cycle thing? You have to stop that cycle otherwise your dragon will just keep infecting itself over and over again. So, how do you do that? In order to stop the direct life cycle dead in its tracks you have to stop the spread of the oocysts. In order to stop the oocyst, you must keep the environment that your dragon lives in immaculate. By keeping the enclosure clean you will eliminate the oocyst from the life cycle, which in turn will eliminate the Coccidia. First, start by removing all of the furniture, substrate, and feeding/water dishes, and thermometers from your enclosure. Clean your tank, thermometers, and feeding/water dishes with a good disinfectant/sanitizer. Bleach and water at 30:1 will work as long as you let the solution soak for 30 minutes. Here is the problem with using bleach though; you have to make sure you rinse the tank very, very well. The fumes from bleach will kill your dragon. Another alternative is to use Chlorhexdine solution (Nolvasan). This is what some veterinarians use to sanitize stuff. There is a big benefit to using Nolvasan, there are little to no fumes. What little fumes that there may be from the Chlorhexdine solution are harmless to your dragon. Nolvasan is fairly pricey; however it will last a long time. You only need to mix 2 teaspoons to a gallon of water for a strong enough solution for sanitizing. If you mix it with tap water the solution will last 6 days, however if you mix it with distilled water it will last for six weeks! If you choose to use the Nolvasan, keep in mind that you should also let it sit on the surfaces of the enclosure for a minimum of 30 minutes to sanitize the tank. You will be completely cleaning your enclosure EVERYDAY, so it is best to go with the most simplistic setup possible. For substrate you want to use something that will be quick and easy to change out, since you will need to change it at least twice a day and when your dragon poops. Some choices are paper towel, newspaper, or non-adhesive shelf liner. I started with newspapers, which worked well until I got sick of having to cut the paper to fit my tank. Not to mention that when I fed crickets, most of them would find their way under the paper. I highly recommend using the non-adhesive shelf liner. You can cut two pieces to fit your enclosure, and then you will always have a clean, sanitized piece to replace the dirty one. As far as furniture, the only piece that you will need is a basking area. Stay away from wood and other porous materials as you will have to sanitize, dry, and bake these daily to kill off the oocysts. The best route to go is using shoe boxes or small plastic Tupperware that is turned upside down. The cardboard shoe boxes you can remove, throw away, and replace with a new box. The Tupperware you can sanitize with the tank and then use it a gain. And of course, once they are sanitized, use your thermometers This sure seems like a lot of work, huh? Well, it is. The only way to stop Coccidia is to stop the life cycle. This means that you will have to completely clean the dragon’s enclosure DAILY. This method of daily cleaning has been proven, along with medication, to help eliminate Coccida. One thing to keep in mind, keep up with the daily cleaning until you get a fecal test back that is negative for Coccidia. Even if you are done giving meds to your dragon, keep up the daily cleaning until you get that clean fecal back, otherwise you risk re-infecting your dragon and you will be back at square one! I hope that this will help you understand what Coccida is, what it does to your dragon, and how to stop it. This is the knowledge that I have gained from my experience with it and hopefully it will arm you with the tools to combat the parasite successfully.
wow, excellent info there :lol: thanks for posting that, that will come in very usefull to everyone EDIT --> what is considered a safe amount of coccidia present in a beardies stool sample?
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mthorpe- Like I posted, it is believed that coccidia is present in naturaly. I know that my dragon's fecal came back with a "elevated level of Coccidia" and was treated for it. Sometimes new dragon owners will take a fecal in and it will come back positive for Coccidia, but at low levels. At lower levels it is possible that just the change in their enviroment caused stress, which in turn lowered their immune system allowing the Coccidia levels to rise. In these cases it is possilble to simply go through the cleaning regiment and wait a week or two and the dragon's immune system will recover and wipe out the Coccidia on its own. Baxter- You can get Nolvasan online or you can try looking at a local feed store (it is used for cleaning horse stables and the like). I found it at a Tractor Supply Company (TSC).
Thanks so much for posting that I'm going through this now and all your info helped me a lot. I now know what to do and how to handle things. I also know now how this vicious circle started it's because we moved him in to a bigger tank. I thought it was becasue I was doing something wrong. So thanks a lot again. Momo
I wouldn't just rely on Nolvasan to get rid of coccidia. It is good as a bacteriacide, but is not proven to kill all parasites. I know it doesn't kill mites. Beardiedragon contacted the manufacturer about this issue and they did not confirm that nolvasan kills coccidia. I'm thinking that the manufacturer didn't do an actual test with nolvasan and coccidia so there is a possibility that it does work against it without knowing, but I've yet to see any documentation saying that it does kill coccidia. My vet prefers bleach solution with a HUGE INSISTENCE in thorough rinsing. If anyone here has found documentation that nolvasan is indeed effective against coccidia, I'd LOVE IT as I wld prefer to use it over bleach because of the safety issue.
I remember the posts on the issue with weather Nolvasan kills Coccida. And I agree that it is not documented to kill the Coccidia parasite. However, Nolvasan is the ONLY disinfectant/sanitizer that I used during my dragons treatment. My dragon is now Coccidia free. Draw your own conclusions. I agree with Spot and would also like to see if there is any documentation showing that it kills Coccidia.
okay thanks. so its okay to have small levels of coccidia present in feaces? im not really sure on coccidia or paricites or things like that because every fecal that derek has had done (there was one done every 6 months at school and im going to continue this, last fecal was at xmas) has come back clean, so im not really sure on how to battle things like this, but if i ever do have to do something like this, then i will come back to this thread . once again thecrewdawg, thanks for posting this info :lol: Mark.
Sorry this is a little late I guess Wanted to compliment you bud, excellent info there! Lots of good info =)
Yes Thanx, I just got my fecals done today and both have coccidia soo i have double the work woooohooo (sacastic ) But I am very happy to do it to make sure it doesnt happen again..and get them happy and healthy. Also I work at a resteraunt and we have a food safe sanitizer which kills 85-95% of all bacteria (not sure if that is correct specs but its high up there) But anyways I used to Clean The tank From Day one I mainly use to clean the shelf liner and the glass and the rocks let it sit it for bout 10 mins then i rinse it and dry then put it right back in it works well to keep it clean I asked. the dr. today if it would good to keep useing it or go to another kind She said it would be Ok to stay with it..
Does anyone know anything about Trifectant as a disinfectant? It supposedly kills 99.9% of pathogens in 10 minutes or less. Click on "View manufacturer and/or label information" for more info! http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/ (search for "Trifectant") Note the above website is the cheapest online store I've been able to find for this product; most other sites sell it for $100+ per 10 lbs box.
Here is some info on it: But what has me worried is the risk to the human user: With Nolvasan, it is a liquid and you don't have to worry about powder "dust" getting inhaled or in you eyes. I know that Nolvasan is safe for my dragon and myself. I am sticking with the Nolvasan.
A quote from http://home.comcast.net/%7Eholachapulin/Disinfectants.html I found after reading the above website that Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide is a much better disinfectant that any of the Chlorhexidines. Although Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide is quite expensive at about $42 for a 16 ounce bottle which makes 16 gallons of disinfectant. It can be found here >>> http://www.oxyfreshww.com/pet/dentagene.asp (click "Dent-A-Gene Fact Sheet" at right for more info) Quote from Beautiful Dragons:
Albon - where would my vet find it in Canada? I live in the Yukon, Canada, have a bearded dragon w. coccidia and my vet is looking for a place in Canada where he can order the Albon for us. Does anyone know where he could find this? I'm also searching as I'd like to get this working fast so my guy isn't feeling bad for much longer. Am also looking how to find some acidophilus in Canada for the good bacteria. Will any type do? I could get it in the health food store if that works. Thanks much, and appreciate an answer ASAP! I hate seeing my guy feeling so bad.
Sorry for bringing up old threads, I just wanted to say this was very helpful and it should be a sticky and available for everyone to use! Do local petstores sell Nolvasan or is it vet prescribed only? I'm kinda of worried to use bleach but I am only a teen and I don't have a creditcard to order anything online. M yVet did not say anything about it.
