So my blue tongue skink pooped today and was pretty watery. It was very fresh and had these tiny white worms in it. His appetite and behaviors seem normal and hasn’t lost any weight. Anyone know what these are?
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They look like they could be fly maggots. The small ones like drain flies or fruit flies. If they’re hovering around the area they love going after fresh poop. You would be surprised at how fast they can infest an area
If this is something where you see the animal poop and these are actually passed by them, I would definitely look into having your little one dewormed. It’s better to be safe than sorry and when you have worms that are visible to the naked eye, they can definitely cause problems down the line.
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Seems to me like possibly some kind of nematode, not sure if environmental or parasitic. I’d consider having a vet do a fecal float to confirm and go from there.
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Alright! Thanks. Yeah today was the first time seeing these in his poop. He pooped earlier this morning and I didn’t see any till this evening. I’ll get a vet appointment hopefully they can see him this or next week. I collected the poop for a sample.
He just got out of brumation successfully for the first time as less than a year old. Only losing 16 grams in three months with no eating. I feel these worms are very recent, otherwise wouldn’t his condition be a lot worst if he was brumating with parasites?
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Not necessarily. If an animal is healthy, it’s possible they can have parasites and be entirely asymptomatic until something stresses them or their immune system is compromised.
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Alright that’s true. I guess I figured during brumation he would be more susceptible to disease if he did have parasites this whole time. I’m hoping it’s nothing too serious. I just can’t tell what they are cause at first was thinking pinworms but they aren’t usually defecated out as living adults. Also tapeworms but they’re very rare with captive bred and from what I seen online tapeworm segments look more flatworm. These literally look like tiny maggots. They’re still alive in the bag I put them in so hopefully a vet can easily ID them.
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They could just be some sort of fly/gnat larvae like @armiyana mentioned, since you didn’t notice them until later in the day after the poop had been sitting a while. As he is asymptomatic, you could wait and see if the next time he poops they’re visible immediately.
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