Deworming fatalities

Hi,

A very sad story. I decided to put this on the forum as a warning. Two weeks ago, I treated 25 freshly imported T. kweichowensis with fenbendazole (Panacur) at 50 mg/kg. The animals were apparently healthy. Skin sores had healed nicely after antibiotic treatment. From three days after panacur treatment, the animals started to die, one by one, until all the large females were dead (12 in total). Upon necropsy, the lungs were impacted with large numbers of dead nematodes. Interestingly, only the adult females were affected. I come up with the following explanation: females after or before oviposition (big energy investment), caught, stored and transported are probably under very heavy stress, enabling nematode infections to become very abundant. I think that the supplementary lung pathology of the mass die off of the nematodes was one drop to much. I am facing a big dilemma now: to treat or not to treat? I have treated large numbers of Tylototriton (shanjing, verrucosus, kweichowensis) over the last decade, without ever having experienced this kind of tragedy...Not treating is barely an option since clinical infections with nematodes in Tylototriton do occur rather frequently (a phenomenon that is rather rare in other urodelans). Treating, however, appears also not to be an option. At this moment, my best advise is to acclimate the animals first for a month or two before any treatments agains nematodes are started...

sorry to hear the sad news frank.
tony.

is there any means to find the presence of parasites that are not in the gi tract? i am guessing the presence of these nematodes could not have been detected through a fecal....

Actually they probably could be detected through a fecal but you may need to get them speciated (which if I remember correctly requires adults) to determine that it was a nematode that infected the lungs as opposed to the gi tract.
If I remember correctly the lung parasites lay eggs in the lungs. The eggs are transported in the mucous to the throat where they are swallowed and passed through the GI tract. Check out Rhabdias ranae on this site for an example http://www.ksu.edu/parasitology/classes/625nematode19.html

Ed

Hi Frank,
poor old fighter against windmills,.....
There's an interesting article about nematodes in wc verrucosus in a book i got, i can copy it for you, if you don't have it so far.
I treated an adult kweichowensis for more than seven months now, had to feed her by hand for some time, but didn't get her clean, though my vet friends and i used several medecin.....
It's still alive, and I lost motivation, cause she's eating well, so i go on feeding her parasites and offer her a nice tank.
I had to treat some skinks with mouth -rot too, and they did well with passive treatment, they're like "new" now,....
Reducing stress is quite helpful.You have to be dramatically hygienic interested, in the following times, but that works well, except the skin of your hands becomes very grandpa-like,...
So let's go on saving the trade-victims, others consumed, .....Maybe it makes sense for some,....
Herping becomes a disease in europe now, the states becomes a world of merchants,.....
Greets,

Frank, I offer you my heartfelt sympathy. As you may remember, I've had my own gruesome Tylototriton stories. I have given up on wildcaught animals - I can't stand losing them. You as a DVM are probably the best person I know to take on these wildcaught animals though and I wish you the best of luck with them.