To ease your mind a little bit, both Strongid and Panacur have little to no risk of toxicity to your gliders... Its made to be ingested orally by the host animal (glider) and not to be digested into the hosts system, while it is passing through the intestines of the host, the adult parasites "eat it" and it kills them, what is left passes "out the other side" of the animal. It does nothing to the eggs, they are tucked safely in their almost bombproof shell, that is why testing prior to 21 days from the end of treatment (or shortly after starting a round of treatment) will commonly give false negatives as a fecal float sees the eggs and not the adult parasites (in most cases but def in the case of hookworms) and most parasites have a 21 day life cycle.... Its aprox 21 days from the time of hatching before the parasite is mature enough to produce its own eggs... Low load counts and catching them inbetween cycles causes false negatives

I've heard of Strongid used in cats and dogs and I was just a bit worried when he gave it but, you guys say it is okay so it's okay. I liken it to the lifecycle of a flea or even lice. I understand how the medicine works. I just don't know what to do now seeing as one vet saw them and one did not. Dr. Manning (the first vet that tested them) will ask why we stopped. If I call Dr. Tristan and ask him how to restart, he'll probably tell me I don't need to. We are in a rock and a hard place and I appreciate any feedback I can get here. I'm starting them back on it next Friday which will be 7 days. Start sanitizing, all the good stuff and what at the end of 5 days retest? If all is good take them back 7 days later? Until we hit 21 days? Wish I had never stopped because we'll have so many lifecycles going at once it'll be hard to irradicate them. Thank you so much for your help. My babies will be healthy and happy.

Read the link that Val posted to you.... retesting to soon will give you false negatives... strongid is an over the counter medicine... If you are needing more you can always go to a vet supply store, farm store etc and get more to dose, although I would follow the treatment protocol that your first vet set up and do an entire round (the 5 days) when you restart..... then wait at least 21 days from the last day of that round and retest

will do. That was my plan.

So, they've all been back on the Strongid for 3 days. All was going well but earlier Kai had an abnormal poo. It looked mucousy and looked to have some blood in it. Can't be sure as they ate a lot of watermelon last night. Can these meds upset their tummies? He's acting fine and eating fine. Actually lately he's the first to the plate which is not normal for him but maybe he likes the HPW he wants to be there first or he's tired of being low man on the totem pole and eating leftovers. Any thoughts on the strange poo?

Here is an update that I hope you guys are happy with because I certainly am. After I finished my posting here, I went ahead and started them all back on the Strongid for three days and cleaned the cage like I was supposed to and everything else daily, including pouches. Result, I weighed them today and I have to say Omi and Kais weights have dramatically gone up. Just 3 weeks ago, Omi was 120g...he is now 130g and looks much better than before. Kai is up from 79-80g to 89g. Of course, Gypsy gained some weight but it wasn't much. She is a stocky 144g from 142g . They are all looking better and eat so much better as well. So, I was wrong about wanting to stop it all together. I guess now that we are really working on those nasty hookworms, they aren't able to leech off my boys anymore. So, next round starts back August 13. I'm ready.

That's great!!!

Awesome!!

My gliders have giardia. What now? This vet didn't say anything. He wants to consult another vet but I am afraid waiting on him will make it worse.

Lisa - giardia is a parasite. Just like the last parasite that we linked you the info for. The medication regime is a bit different, but the cleaning is the same. Your vet will prescribe an appropriate medication.

Val, he said it was a protozoa. He's prescribing Metro. I know I'll be cleaning with bleach again and have no problem with that.

Giardia is still a parasite, just not a worm parasite .... it depends on the strain (some are very hardy) but normally it takes a bit longer of a treatment regumine with stronger drugs, normally Metronidizole is the drug of choice but sometime its takes a combo to break the cycle, and make sure you follow the vets treatment guideline as Metronidizole does have a toxicity risk to the "host animal".... MAKE SURE TO WASH YOUR HANDS when dealing with the infected animal and its "stuff" as you really dont want Giardia yourself or to spread it around to others...... Again, read the thread about treatment/cleaning protocol as we touch upon Giardia within it......

I have been waiting to post this little update. I spoke with Dr. Spoillers yesterday on the phone and he said it could be tri-trich. He consulted with Dr. Tristan as well. I've heard tri-trich is treatable but not curable. Is the treatment for giardia and Tri-trich the same? He did comment that some strains of giardia are resistant. He also told me that none of them tested positive for giardia even though the papers with the results said giardia positive for all three. I'm a bit confused here. They have it, they don't. We're treating it but they could have Tri-trich instead. Are the two usually confused? He did perform the SNAP test for them. Don't know what that means. I was encouraged to send in a fecal to Zoologix once treatment is finished. Dr. Spillers wants to do another fecal when treatment is done Tuesday. Anyone have any advice for me?

Sounds like they identified swimmers on the float portion of the fecal<s> to me. Its very hard to differentiate Giardia and Trich unless you have high power magnification and most vets dont have high enough magnification on the microscopes "in house". They swim slightly differently as Giardia is more slow, in a straight line and Trich swims faster and more "spermy" or erractic fashion. Probiotics are ESSENTIAL to add into the treatment and in one case where there were positives for simplicamonas (in the tritrich family) one of the cages tested negative after diet change and addition of the probiotics. Consult with your vet about brand of Probiotic and amount to add in but I HIGHLY recommend doing so

Dr. Spillers said Benbac. or Benebac. Dr. Tristan told me it was not really necessary to treat with a probiotic but I really want to with all the gut problems they've been having. Poor babies. They have lost a little weight but not too much. Dr. Tristan told me Tritrich is not too common in gliders. I think he said back when there was a 'breakout' 40 were tested nationwide and only 6 had it. He also assured me it was not a certain death sentence...which is what I was afraid of. The bad mealies did not do this to them. And that nothing I could have done would have caused it. He said just finish the Metronidazole and retest right after. I'm confused, wouldn't that show nothing then being they just came off treatment? He said thats what you want isn't it? Yes, but I don't need to go on false hopes that they are fine when indeed they are not. Has anyone dealt with Giardia here? Any tips other than sterilize and clean and medicate? I got all those .