Deworming?

Mallykc

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I went to repticon a couple weeks ago and while I was there I was talking to one of the guys running an exhibit about my tort and he said I should get him dewormed.
What's the story with deworming. I don't know much about it.
I have a salcata that was hatched in Oct 09. I bought him from a pet store in New Orleans and he's always been healthy. He's only been to the vet once and that was for a respiratory infection.
Do all torts need to get dewormed? How can you tell if they need it?

Thanks in advance!
 

wellington

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My leopard will be three in March and has never been dewormer or too a vet. You can always feed some pumpkin, if you can find any at this time. Feeding all parts of it, even the seeds, acts as a natural dewormer. If you happen to notice funny looking poops, or worms in the poops, then take a stool sample into the vet that you have already seen.
 

Mallykc

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Ok thanks for the reply! I pick up his poop almost daily and I've never noticed anything.
I think the guy suggested it when I told him the size of my tort (he's small in my opinion but then again he's been raised mainly indoors).
 

Brad

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Pumpkin is not a dewormer. It will help flush it's system but NOT deworm them. You need to take it to the vet because some worms you can not see with the naked eye. I just took my 2 Russians to the vet to find out that they are both heavily infected. He gave me panacur to deworm them. They vet will tell you the exact amount to give them based on their weight. Trust me, ask any vet or herpetologist, pumpkins do not actually kill the worms.
 

ascott

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Brad is correct, pumpkin is not a dewormer...it does offer a boost of speed with which the bowels are emptied---hence offering up less time for food to sour in the gut and do ugly things...especially for captive torts that do not get the same exercise as their counter parts in the wild would....But you can get this same flushing affect with wet watery items, cucumber, squash, zucchini and such...(but as treats, not regular offerings--these are like crack in the tortoise world)...

I would be careful in randomly deworming a tort "just because". They carry a variety of gut critters that are beneficial and those are adversely affected whenever a dewormer is used...so unless your tort is ill and sucked up, I would not be the cheerleader for random deworming "just because"...again, my take and not in any way telling you what to do :D
 
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