coccidiosis

[pet_snake_78]

I would not treat for coccidia "just in case". The most common drugs used to treat it are not harmless. In fact, my vet doesn't treat low instances of it. Low instances of coccidia species occur naturally in reptiles. The most important thing you can do is to immediately remove any feces. That protects your snake from a huge variety of parasites. The next thing you need to do is have a stool sample analyzed. There is very likely someone in your country who knows parasites. Look into your university or people who provide animal care services for farm animals. They won't be able to id the exact species but they will be able to give you an egg count and tell you what general family of parasites any belong to. furthermore, without stool samples you will have no idea if the treatment was effective or not. It's not something that goes away very easily and repeated treatments, extremely strict cage cleaning, and repeated fecal exams are needed to determine if the treatments worked or not. What country are you in, anyway? I would encourage you to practice very good cage hygiene, make sure to use proper hand washing, and if possible obtain disposable gloves and learn how to take them on and off (very important for them to be effective)
.

[kazz]

pet_snake_78,

The next thing you need to do is have a stool sample analyzed.

I have read so many texts about cooccidiosis rigt now so I can't remember where but I definitely have read that tests of feces can be negative just bc cocci didn't get huge numbers yet . Today I saw snake's feces and it was first solid and at the end quite fluid. And that's a bad sign bc one of symptoms is diarrhea. I have never saw that type of feces before.

looks like humans can's get cocci from chicken, but cats and dogs can. So it means can't get cocci from snakes too. I mean chickens' cooci.

[kazz]

One more text saying human can't get coocidia from reptiles

Diseases Passed From Reptiles To Humans BY MARGARET A. WISSMAN, DVM, DABVP

Q: My bearded dragons have coccidia. Can they infect humans with this? Also, do they have any other diseases they can pass to humans?

A: Coccidia is fairly species specific, so there is no chance that you can become ill from their coccidian; however, you should always practice excellent sanitation, making sure to wash your hands after handling them. Also, during treatment for coccidiosis, please make sure that you are diligent in picking up any fecal material in their habitat so they don't infect themselves from their droppings.

Diseases that can pass from animals to humans are called zoonotic diseases. A "biggie" is Salmonella sp., a bacterium that can infect any species of reptile-or other animal, for that matter. While some Salmonella bacteria are found commonly in certain species, they can pass to other types of animals. Not all infected animals shed the bacterium all the time, so it is possible to get false negative test results from bacterial cultures. The safest way to think about herps is to presume that they are all infected with Salmonella. That way, you will always take care to wash your hands after handling your reptiles and will be sure not to clean any of their equipment in your family's kitchen sink.

Margaret A. Wissman, DVM, DABVP has been an avian/exotic/herp animal veterinarian since 1981. She is a regular contributor to REPTILES magazine.

Need a Herp Vet?
If you are looking for a herp-knowledgeable veterinarian in your area, a good place to start is by checking the list of members on the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarian (ARAV) web site at www.arav.com. Look for DVMs who appear to maintain actual veterinary offices that you could contact.

[kazz]

Russians say there is no disinfection tool to kill oocysts, only hot water above 80%.
Maybe I can use chlorhexidine to wipe a snake ?

Распространенность кокцидиоза также объясняется тем, что споры возбудителей практически невозможно уничтожить: их берут только высокие температуры (от 80°С), а дезинфекция совершенно бессильна.

[kazz]

So I have ф bad new. I found study about freezing coccidia. My English is bad but looks like freezing to minus 80C it's not a problem for coccidia. Correct me if I wrong. I add study pdf file.

Summary
Oocysts, sporocysts released from oocysts,
and excysted sporozoites of Eimeria meleagrimttis
and E. tenella. were placed in media
containing 7% dimethyl sulfoxide, frozen to
-80 C at the rate of 1 degree/min, and stored
above liquid nitrogen for intervals up to 4
months.
Oocysts produced no infection when fed to
turkey poults or chicks. After 3 months, sporocysts
of both species produced infections, but
less than those produced by fresh oocysts.
However, inoculation of sporozoites that had
been stored for 4 months into the duodenum
or cecum of their natural host resulted in infections
comparable to those caused by fresh
oocysts.

So the only way to kill coccidia is heating snake's food above 80C. May be in a microwave oven 20-30 seconds probably.
Looks like buying frozen rodents or birds doesn't mean it can't infect reptile with coccidia.
There is one important question. Humans develop immunity to coccidia after first contact or illness. What's about snake ? Can they develop immunity as humans ?

[pet_snake_78]

Kazz, I think you are overly concerned about this coccidia thing. I feed baby chickens to snakes all the time and I've been using frozen chicks for years. The only animals in my collection that have ever tested positive for coccidia were wild caught ones that I purchased from importers. Whether the snakes just had it from days in the wild or whether they got it from tubs in the import facility Even in those cases and because I strictly kept their cages clean, not all fecals came back shedding eggs and those that did came back with low numbers. Like I said my vet did not think it was even required to treat but I only have it done it over cross contamination concerns. Now if you had a fecal come back with high numbers of eggs, you'd want to make sure the animal is not stressed by not having enough hides, not having clean water/cage at all times, or improper temperatures, and treat the parasite. If you have a wild caught snakes in particular it is a good idea to have a stool sample analyzed because it could have hook worms, nematodes, etc. Until you can find someone in animal care or university or vet to do that for you, I would just suggest checking daily for feces and thoroughly removing anything soiled by them.

[kazz]

pet_snake_78

I feed baby chickens to snakes all the time

I think you buy chickens grown up as snakes food. But I took chicken on a local market and I clearly saw symptoms of coccidiosis. I don't wanna wait until coccidia overflow my snake. I prefer cure in advance.
What about snakes immune system ? do snakes develop immunity to coccidia as cats and dogs do ?

[kazz]

BTW on farms there is coccidiosis vaccine for peroral using. Why ppl don't give it to their snakes ?

[kazz]

there is interesting Japan study about heat disinfection of coocidia.
At home we can do it with hot water: 70C + for 5 + seconds. Though,

salmonella is killed by heating it to 55C for one hour, 60C degrees for a half-hour, or heating it to 75C for 10 minutes. When it comes to killing microorganisms, both heat level and time affect the equation.