Good worms or bad worms?(Help please)

[Tech13]

My little Greek tort peed today when i picked him up and it landed on one of his rocks. I saw super thin tiny little threadlike whipping worms swirling in his urine! How serious is this? Is a trip to the vet in order? Please advise.

 

[parrotlady]

Sounds like round worms, time to visit the vet for accurate worming treatment.

 

[Tom]

Pin worms.

If they are bad enough that you are seeing them, you might need to treat for them. Find a good tortoise vet and take in a stool sample. The vet will verify exactly what worms you have, how bad the infestation is, and how best to treat it.

Just for my own curiosity, what do you typically feed your tortoise? Does it live inside or out? Where are you?

 

[deadheadvet]

Sorry Tom, don't agree with you. Definitely get a fresh fecal sample analyzed but if only pinworms, don't worry about it. If feeding too much greens, add more fiber to the diet (more grass,hay, grassland diet mixed into normal food) pinworms aide in digestion and deworming doesn't really help much.

 

[AnnV]

Wow, really?!
How do you know if they carry an excessive amount.
I guess, Dr D, you do not believe in yearly deworming as my exotics vet suggested to me (if torts go outside at all)?

 

[Tech13]

Thank you to all! I will visit the nearest tortoise vet and I pray he will be ok! He burrowed to go to sleep early today so I hope he's not feeling too bad. I'll update as soon as I can. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

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Pin worms.

If they are bad enough that you are seeing them, you might need to treat for them. Find a good tortoise vet and take in a stool sample. The vet will verify exactly what worms you have, how bad the infestation is, and how best to treat it.

Just for my own curiosity, what do you typically feed your tortoise? Does it live inside or out? Where are you?

I live in South Central Pennsylvania and right now I feed my little tort green leaf, romaine, spring mix and he nibbles at the Easter cactus in his indoor enclosure. I just put a small hollyhock plant in there 2 days ago that I had outside all summer started from seed in organic soil which he nibbled at also. Also, I just started giving him water soaked Mazuri in his greens. He had it 3 times in 2 weeks. He has an outdoor enclosure to spend 70+ degrees F. days outside and I took him for nature walks in the yard too. He would eat dandelion and white clover, zinnias and plantains when it was warmer in addition to supermarket greens listed above plus a few others. I read clover can be bad for them when there is a frost and I am afraid some other weeds may be the same so I haven't collected them for him in awhile. I wonder if the hollyhock plant or adding Mazuri upset his digestive "balance", maybe the soil from the hollyhock brought in the worms?

 

[Tech13]

I had my Greek to the tort vet yesterday and the fecal had no signs of worms. I told him the worms were in the urine. My tort did urinate and urate a little in the bin I brought him in, but the vet did not test this since he said it would be in the feces too. I just got a nice fresh poo from my tort's enclosure now and wonder if I should try again another $21.50 to check this one? The vet said he looks healthy though. Does anyone know if they can have worms in the renal system but not the intestinal?

 

[deadheadvet]

Still sounds like pinworms and could be intermittently shedding them and that's why they didn't show up on the fecal sample. Your diet has not enough fiber in it, mostly greens. Add some hay or but the Zoomed forest or grassland diet to start mixing in to get more fiber into the diet.
You have to remember that tortoises have a common gutter and urine , feces, all come down the same tract and everything mixes together. So what may be swimming in urine may not necessarily coming purely from the urinary tract.
You can either monitor the tortoise and see how it goes, or go with an empirical dewormer like Panacur that will get nematodes. We still have no definitive proof what these were since it hasn't been repeatable.