# parasite case



## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Hey guys. Since parasites are a constant concern, I thought I post some pics for your entertainment. Before I go further, I stress that any medical treatment of frogs should be reserved for very experienced froggers, and under the advice/care of a veterinarian. I am a veterinarian, myself. Here's some background: These images are from from two frogs sharing a tank. Both frogs are apparently healthy, growing, and have great appetities. Performing a float on fresh feces revealed several parasite ova:









Egg on left, air bubble on right. Another pic of a similar egg









Interestingly, live larvae could be seen moving in the eggs. Very cool. An occassional live, hatched worm could be found. Hatchling with some eggs:









Based on appearance of ova, and adult, I concluded these worms were more likely to be a Strongyloides or Rhabdias species. Very hard to tell exact species (I leaned more toward Rhabdias). I treated each frog with 100 mg/kg fenbendazole (Panacur) three times, each treatment 10 days apart and putting them into a new, clean, minimal enclosure (plastic shoebox) after each threatment. No abnormal side effects were noted during treatment. Two consecutive fecal floats after treatment were negative for parasite ova. 

Before I finish, here's another pic from same frogs that I could not identify. Could be an immature Rhabdias egg, or possibly a mite egg. Any ideas? 









I hope you like this post. I welcome any comments.
Thanks.


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Sorry. The 2nd pic did not come out. Here's another try:


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

Very nice! I'd love to use some of your pictures on my website. One day, when I find some more time, I'd like to make a resource about parasites and about things that are commonly found in fecal floats.

M.

PS: Keep it up... We need a resident vet on the board 




vet_boy77 said:


> Hey guys. Since parasites are a constant concern, I thought I post some pics for your entertainment. Before I go further, I stress that any medical treatment of frogs should be reserved for very experienced froggers, and under the advice/care of a veterinarian. I am a veterinarian, myself. Here's some background: These images are from from two frogs sharing a tank. Both frogs are apparently healthy, growing, and have great appetities. Performing a float on fresh feces revealed several parasite ova:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## verbal (Sep 8, 2004)

Hey John,
I've seen the same in some of my frogs as well, all of which are eating and growing well. I think that the questionable egg is one which has not larvated yet. Some eggs start out with a loulated structure in the middle (like a morula), which then "differentiates" to for the worm-like larva in the environment. What do you think? Also, the egg in the upper right of your second pic looks a bit larger than the others. Could be a different parasite. What about _Ancylostma_ (hookworms), and how have you ruled these out?
Thanks,
Ryan
(Another veterinarian trying to figure this all out).


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Ryan,
I am open to the idea that these could be hookworms. I'm less familiar with hooks in frogs, so that it a possibility (if you have any pics, I'd love to see them). Anecdotally, rhabdias are often observed moving in their eggs, which is something I noticed. The body of the live adults I looked at (though quickly), also did not readily strike me as hookworms. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the adults.
John


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## verbal (Sep 8, 2004)

Hey John,

Just wondering how you dosed the Panacur. Did you use the liquid and pipette it into their mouths, or did you use the powdered form on flies. Thanks. (I'm moving my male patricia tinc who has what I think are Rhabdias into a new viv and I want to treat him before he gets there).

I recently picked up a copy of Kevin Wright's book hoping to find lots of info, but most is not species specific. I was hoping that I could justify topical ivermectin, but he does cite anecdotal reports of toxicity from even low doses of ivermectin in certain species (which are unnamed). Sure would be a lot easier to do topical application vs. PO.

Ryan


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Ryan,
I used the liquid dewormer administered through a 100 ul pipette (I avoid the powder since it is very difficult to be certain of the dose). The trick was serially diluting the panacur so that the 100 ul contained the appropiate dose, based on weight (that took some math). I feel that fenbendazole is relatively safe, so I was not too worried if I overdosed a little bit. After that, the hard part was getting it in the frogs. They're not too cooperative. But after some practice, I am able to get it in relatively quickly, and with minimal stress. 

Ivermectin has a great spectrum, and a little more ease of use, but I have also read that the risk of adverse effects is a little higher. Unfortunately, I have not used it in frogs just yet, so I cannot not relate any personal experience. 

John


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## Will (Feb 15, 2004)

Here are some more shots of parasites. These are from a farm raised pumilio.


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Will,
Neat worm. Any idea what it might be? Let me know if you know, otherwise, I'll try researching it some.
John


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## verbal (Sep 8, 2004)

Hey guys,
I just posted some accumulated fecal pics in my gallery. Here are some standouts:








Egg with enclosed larva under high magnification. From an azureus fecal.








A large nematode upper left and smaller one lower right. From imitator fecal.








Similar worms, again from an imitator.








Large nematode, high magnification, from an imitator.








Similar nematode, this from a leucomelas.








Two different eggs, from leucomelas.

In all cases, the frogs are healthy, eating great, and calling (where applicable).

Thanks for looking,
Ryan

PS: Any tips on deworming thumbnails?


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## ChrisMc (Mar 7, 2004)

I hope this isnt a dumb question, but how do you determine the difference between parasite nematodes found in the frog and nonparasitic ones found in the soil of our vivariums? It seems to me that the scavenging nematodes or various other microfauna in the tank would be attracted to the dendrodook and show up in fecal samles.


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## bgexotics (Feb 24, 2004)

The pictures of the worms look alot like the flukes we would see when doing skin scrapings of sick fish. I don't know if frogs can get flukes or not or even what the scientific name is for them. I had microbiology a few years ago and I'm thinking about taking a parasitology class next semester to refresh my memory. Most of my classes have focused on horse and livestock parasites.


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

ChrisMC,
Good question. Unfortunately it can be difficult to tell real parasites from narural commensal nematodes that drop by to eat. In addition to experience, the trick is to get fresh poop, and to look more than once. Ideally, when I parasite check a new frog, while it is under quarentine, I try to use poop that is very fresh (few hours old at the most), and I check at least three times before I'm convinced the frog is parasite negative. Old poop is not as good because any parasites that were there could have hatched and moved on or entered into a transitional/encysted stage that is hard to detect, or the poop will be filled with all types of critters that have invaded after it was dropped (though it is often entertaining to look at it for this reason).
Hope this helps.
John


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## rburnj (Aug 19, 2004)

Hey John,

What type of camera do you have attached to your microscope? There are a lot of pics I wouldnt mind taking but the only place I have ever used equipment like this was in my immunology and med bact laboratories. I tried having my doc purchase equipment but that didnt fly. I guess purchasing Frontline and Heartgard are more important than my play time with poop.

Ryan


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

*Necessity?*

John and Ryan, as well as others with input,
For some of the fecals you guys presented, the frogs did not present with any symptoms. You found the ova and/or larvae in stool samples of apparently healthy frogs. Do you believe that it is necessary to treat these frogs to remove the parasite? Also, have you done paired fecals before and after treatment to determine if treatment successfully reduced parasite load?
In small animal medicine it seems that many times, for roundworms specifically, one of the main reasons for treatment is to reduce the zoonotic risk (ocular larval migrans). In large animals, a given parasite load is often deemed acceptable, and only excess of this load should raise concern. 

Oz - Vet student


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## verbal (Sep 8, 2004)

Hey Oz,
Good question, and no one has an answer. I guess I'm only concerned with parasites with a direct life cycle (i.e. those that can directly re-infect the host). It's plausible to consider that kept in a confined area that a superinfection is possible. Since I can't tell the genus of the parasite in these photos, I assume the worst. I've heard from some of our pathologists in the hosptial that it is not uncommon for frogs to be heavily parasitized, with larval migrans to liver, lung, etc. (I haven't seen this myself).
Regarding pre and post treatment comparison, I'll let you know. I treated some of these frogs with Panacur (powdered form on flies) a few days ago. One thing I have noticed in running fecals today, however, is that I've found more larvae and less eggs so far. I've got more samples that I'll look at in the AM.

Hey Ryan,
I just take my digital camera and hold it up to the eyepiece of the microscope and shoot. I think the one thing that photos loose is the relative size of objects in different images.


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

Oz,
Great question. I cannot speak for Ryan, but here is my rationale:
For starters, the frogs I presented in the case were still in their quarantine period, and had not been introduced to the main collection, therefore, treatment was performed to prevent parasites spreading to the other animals.
While it is accepted that a frog/host can support a population of parasites with no ill effects, this can become a fine line when dealing with vivarium animals. With infected frogs constantly shedding into their vivarium enclosure, one can expect the parasite load to steadily increase as the environment becomes more contaminated with parasite that reinfect their host. Eventually, this load can become high enough to impact the frog's health. 
Additionally, even in a healthy frog with parasites, external factors (other disease, breeding stress, shipping, etc) can tip the balance to where the parasites gain the upper hand and frog gets sick. Given the fragile nature of a sick frog, I prefer to treat parasites before they become a serious problem. 
In the case of Rhabdias, where worms may be present in lung tissue, treatment can have some considerable side effents due to the death of worms in the lungs. As a result, healthy frogs are less likely to have these side effects. Treating infected frogs sooner rather than later will also reduce this effect, on account less worms will be in the lungs.
You brought up an excellent point comparing the goals of small vs large animal parasite treatment. Zoonosis is an important reason why we treat parasites in small animals, but we also treat to improve the health of the animal. Generally speaking, it is still largely accepted on the small animal side of vet medicine that parasites are a health risk, and need to be treated (and yes, this view can be debated). But there are numerous parasites that are not zoonotic, or cause an immediate health risk, but can lead to problems in the future, so we treat.
And finally, I do prefer to perform follow fecals to make sure we got everything. In the case I presented earlier, three follow-up fecals were all negative. 
I hope I wasn’t too longwinded, but you asked an excellent question, and I wanted to address all your points. I welcome any additional comments or anything I may have forgotten to mention. 
John


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Thanks for the replies guys. Just another quick question, sort of a tangent, but not entirely. Have you ever done a necropsy on a frog with _Rhabdias_. How prolific are the larva within the lung? If high enough parasite load, are you concerned about massive larval dieoff and the potential side effects that could accompany it?[/i]


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## verbal (Sep 8, 2004)

Personally I've not done any frog necropsies. Dr. Frye (who used to post here often) recommends treatment with powdered fenbendazole for that very reason - slow kill-off to prevent huge anaphylactic reactions in frogs with high worm burdens.
In my experience (n=4), no ill effects of treatment so far (follow-up of 3 days). :wink:


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## vet_boy77 (Feb 10, 2005)

I have not found any Rhabdias on the few full necropsies I have performed. Such a reaction- anaphylactic, or more likely (IMO), pneumonia/pneumonitis, was a concern, and the frogs were observed carefully after each treatment. I think I would be more careful in frogs that I suspected a high worm burden, or were showing clinical signs before treatment. The powder method, or even a lower dose of liquid, might be more appropiate in this case.
John


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