Illness/Sickness: Intestinal Parasites in Tigers?

[fredman]

Hi all,
We have two very senior tiger salamanders and as I was emptying out the dirty water in their pool I noticed a whole bunch of very small egg/larva-type things in it. There was some feces in the water and I assume they came from there. They look like miniature pieces of long grain rice, rod shaped and whitish, maybe 2-3 mm long and less than 1mm wide. Any ideas on what this may be and/or course of action to take? Any info would be much appreciated!

 

[Bowl of seeds]

Hey there,

If you can post a picture we might be able to identify what you have and have a positive ID on what it is, And also what course of action to take.

-Frank

 

[fredman]

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the reply. Here's a pic of what they look like. Also I should mention that we feed these guys predominantly crickets. A couple of months ago, the pet store people were telling us that their cricket suppliers had a huge problem and some sort of illness or disease had temporarily wiped out their cricket population. Kind of made me worry about the crickets we had previously been feeding all of our amphibs and reps!

oh and the scale on that ruler is in cm if it helps

 

[Jennewt]

Is there any food you have fed them that might look like this after digestion? Or are the thingies moving?

They look a bit like planaria. What is your procedure for cleaning out the water dish? Do you just dump the water and refill, or do you wipe out the bowl? I'm thinking these could just be planaria that have migrated from the soil to the water, and may not be coming from the feces at all.

The way to know would be to keep the tigers on wet paper towels for a couple of days, until they poop, then look closely at the poop. If you can get a vet to examine it, that would be better, of course.

 

[Bowl of seeds]

Sure does look like some sort of parasites to me, But I can't get a positive I.D. on what they are.
Are crickets all your feeding your Tigers or do you feed them anything else?
Wait till someone else of better knowledge chimes in.
Sorry I couldn't help, But I hope the best for you and you Tiger.
Kind regards.
-Frank

EDIT: beat me to it,they do look more like planaria,sorry for the wrong info.

 

[fredman]

Thanks for the info guys. Sounds like planaria could be a pretty likely suspect. I found a fresh poop today and didn't find any of these things in it so that's promising. Though there are two salamanders, you'd think if one had a parasite it wouldn't be long before the other got it as well.
Either way I'm going to take the little wormy things to work and check them out under the microscope. Hopefully they still look like planaria then!

Thanks again!

 

[Jan]

I would lay odds that what you have found in the feces is cricket eggs. From the pix you posted...sure looks that way to me. If you feed mainly crickets you will see these from time to time. Doesn't look like planaria to me. If the objects do not move, wiggle, etc......you have found cricket eggs....which pass through the GI tract intact.