Deworming tortoise

[Roney loves food]

Hello guys I have a problem in my outside enclosure.
I live in Morocco, and there is no veterinarian for reptiles in this happy country, so I bought vermox that contains mebandazol . I'm wondering how much I should give in ml per weight, knowing that I have a female Greek tortoise that weighs 500g and a male that weighs 250g.

 

[wellington]

@Yvonne G may be able to help here.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Welcome to the forum!

Have you noticed any worrying symptoms that have made you want to deworm?🙂

 

[Tom]

Hello guys I have a problem in my outside enclosure.
I live in Morocco, and there is no veterinarian for reptiles in this happy country, so I bought vermox that contains mebandazol . I'm wondering how much I should give in ml per weight, knowing that I have a female Greek tortoise that weighs 500g and a male that weighs 250g.

Unless you have run a fecal and found an excess of a specific parasitic worm species, you should not be worming the tortoise. If you did find a parasitic worm species, you need to treat with the correct dosage of the correct medicine.

Wormer is a toxic poison. It works because we use enough of the right poison to kill the worms, but not enough to kill the host. Different worming medications work differently for different worm species.

If there are no vets near you that treat tortoises, perhaps you could do a telemedicine visit with a vet in another country that does? You need to figure something out other than guessing about which worms, what medicine and what dose to use. Maybe a local vet can consult with an out of town colleague that has experience with tortoise treatments?

 

[TammyJ]

Welcome to the forum. You're getting some good advice. Please don't go ahead and try to treat the tortoise yourself yet.

 

[Roney loves food]

Welcome to the forum!

Have you noticed any worrying symptoms that have made you want to deworm?🙂

By chance, I was playing with Veronica and she dropped a stool containing a very long pinworm.

 

[Roney loves food]

Unless you have run a fecal and found an excess of a specific parasitic worm species, you should not be worming the tortoise. If you did find a parasitic worm species, you need to treat with the correct dosage of the correct medicine.

Wormer is a toxic poison. It works because we use enough of the right poison to kill the worms, but not enough to kill the host. Different worming medications work differently for different worm species.

If there are no vets near you that treat tortoises, perhaps you could do a telemedicine visit with a vet in another country that does? You need to figure something out other than guessing about which worms, what medicine and what dose to use. Maybe a local vet can consult with an out of town colleague that has experience with tortoise treatmen

I found like this worm in her stool, and also have a great appetite for food.

 

[zovick]

I found like this worm in her stool, and also have a great appetite for food.

It looks like a roundworm rather than a pinworm to me. Most tortoises have pinworms and I would not recommend worming a tortoise because of seeing only one. If you found 15 or 20 at a time, that might be a different story.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

It looks like a roundworm rather than a pinworm to me. Most tortoises have pinworms and I would not recommend worming a tortoise because of seeing only one. If you found 15 or 20 at a time, that might be a different story.

I think that was probably an example and not the worm the tortoise passed as it looks like a stock pic to me but I’m not sure lol.

Either way I agree and don’t see the point in worming unless theres a concern that they are overrun by them, all tortoises carry them to some extent, if thinking about worming, I think a fecal sample should be ran first, if the tortoise has a healthy amount, worming could do more harm than good.

 

[Roney loves food]

It looks like a roundworm rather than a pinworm to me. Most tortoises have pinworms and I would not recommend worming a tortoise because of seeing only one. If you found 15 or 20 at a time, that might be a different story.

So there is no need to treat it if there is a single worm in the stool.