Urgent Care :: Worms

[Starchick]

I got up bright and early this morning to clean Moxie's tank, because her filter (a fluval 2 submersible) had clogged again. I completely drained the tank, scrubbed everything, disassembled the filter and got it running again, and put Moxie back. She did this weird little move that looked almost like she was clicking her heels together, or trying to push something out of her tail. A few minutes later, I noticed pink stringy things floating around the tank, about a half inch long. I looked closely, and they were moving. I scooped out as many as I could find, and put them in a jar with tank water. I went to the vet (who was awesome by the way) and they looked at them under a microscope, and he said they were a kind of nematode. He said he suspects she's had them all along but something caused them to get out of control now, and that it's probably why she's so small. He gave her an oral treatment, and scheduled a second treatment in three weeks.

Has anyone had experience with this sort of thing? I have to go out of town for the weekend, should I have Michael check in on her? She's been eating, swimming and basking normally. Can you think of anything else I should be doing? What about the tank environment? The vet said that the worms die once the turtle passes them and they shouldnt' be breeding in the tank, but do I need to do anything there? I have spare filter media if I need it. Your help is appreciated!

[steve]

Sorry to hear about this! I have no experience but it would be a good idea for Michael to check on her. Nematodes can be passed via feces, so it might be a good idea to continually be on top of that and check for other symptoms as well as any symptoms related to the meds.

Has Moxie had snails or fish recently? From what I've read, nematodes show up often in feces... so this might be something new. You might also want to contact the person you acquired her from... perhaps they've had to deal with it too.

[Starchick]

Oddly, Moxie is the one turtle of mine who I've never given any kind of feeder to. I don't think I ever even gave her anacharis. If she got them from food, it had to have come either from pellets, bagged salad, fresh washed vegetables, or canned tuna, as those are the only things I've ever fed her. Her previous owner fed her only reptomin. I will ask her if she's ever noticed it before.

She's definitely not passed anything like this since I've had her, unless maybe they she was passing less mature worms before. These were really obvious. Before I left town, I scooped out all of them that were on the bottom of the tank (another instance where a bare bottom is a good thing). Michael's going to check in today and I'll have him get whatever's in there today.

The vet said it would only be 20 dollars to do a stool check on the other turtles so I'll probably do that too just to be safe, especially Apollo because we know for sure he was wild caught.

I'm really glad I have all my turtles in their own tanks. Just last week I started letting Moxie and Napoleon out to play together because I figured since I'd had Moxie for almost 9 months it must be okay. So think twice about putting new turtles in together, and don't skip a quarantine period!

Also, someone on here has recommended having a turkey baster on hand to suck up stuff from the bottom....I was really wishing I had one of those yesterday. Add one to your arsenal!

[SpotsMama]

I think a stool check should be a standard part of a vet visit for turtles, or at least that it should be offered. These worms are so common and the price for the check is so low, I don't know why it isn't routinely done like it is for dogs and cats. None of the vets I've taken Spot to ever suggested it on their own initiative.

It will be interesting to see if Moxie has a growth spurt once she's cured.

[Starchick]

Yeah, the vet said that it's entirely possible that she'll grow a bit! Michael checked on her earlier today and said he didn't see any worms, so hopefully that's a good sign!