Quote Originally Posted by TeeRiddle View Post
I got the results back from the fecal exam this past Tuesday (8/28) and it wasn't good news.

Unfortunately Grif, you were spot on - Orion has parasites.

I haven't had the chance to speak to the vet directly as we have been playing phone tag the entire week, but he left me a voice mail saying they found two different types of intestinal parasites.

I'm calling his office first thing in the morning to set up an appointment. It figures since this has been found my work kicked into major overtime so finding the time to take him in will be a challenge. I'm sure I'll catch (you know what) for taking off early to take a frog to the doc lol.

I have a ton of questions for the vet, but I would like to also express some of those questions here, if that's ok.

First, I'm almost pretty sure that he probably contracted the parasites after I brought him home. I say that because his first two stools were solid (the first two weeks I had him), while all the ones after that have been much softer.

I'm assuming he contracted the parasites via food, so something I've fed him must have been contaminated. The problem is I don't know the source as I've purchased feeders (crickets, night crawlers, and occasional hornworms) from various pet stores in my area. Because of this I can't really pinpoint where the "bad" feeders came from.

So, once he's treated and hopefully parasite-free, how do I prevent this from happening again? I could get him all well just for him to get parasites again from contaminated feeders. I would not want to continually need to keep putting him through a treatment process every 3 - 6 months because he continually becomes infected, ya know?

He's still acting normally - appetite is good, activity is good, and no signs of any sickness. I have been watching his weight closely and it seems fine. Hopefully he will be okay for a couple more days until I can get him in to the vet.

Grif, I really appreciate the heads up on the possibility of parasites, which lead me to have the fecal exam performed. Without your advice I would have never thought of parasites as the problem.
You're very welcome and knowing these symptoms will help catch any future infections if they occur.

More than likely he contracted the Parasites from the crickets, but he may have had them all along and just now has begun to show the symptoms as the infection grows. Crickets are dirty feeders no matter how clean their culture is kept. about 1 out of 10 will contain some sort of parasite, but perhaps fewer. Pinworms being one of the most common they carry.

If he has protozoa than that came from dirty water. Water should be changed no less that every 2 days whether the frog uses it or not. Stagnant water breeds bacteria and protozoa as well as Amoeba.

Hopefully you'll get it cleared up quickly.