Worms!

In what was quite possibly the most disgusting thing I have seen in some time, Andreas pooped on Sunday and there were visible worms crawling around -- lots of them! We bagged it up and put it in the fridge (in a drawer where I couldn't see it, but I couldn't get it out of my mind) and made vet appointments for the lizards, who we due for their annual visits anyway.

Here they are in their carrier (large Rubbermaid container), waiting to go. They interact rarely, but when they do, they aren't hostile. Andreas is on top. His tail has been slowly shedding, but you can still see the red on both of them from when they were on Calci sand in the pet store.
I won't get blood work results back until tomorrow, but the vet said that they both looked really healthy (other than the worms). He recommended that we try topsoil for their substrate, so we've got to go shopping tonight.

When he did Andreas's fecal sample, he found 2 types of worms! Ick! Even though we didn't get a fecal sample from Elsa, we decided to treat both lizards for what was found in Andreas as they lived in the same tank when they were at the pet store and he thinks that they've had these worms the entire time and just weren't caught on last year's vet visit (different vet).

The vet was pretty excited about seeing tapeworms. Apparently they're rarely seen, so he feels fairly confident that our lizards were wild-caught (which just breaks my heart). He took pictures of the tapeworms and will be including them in lectures that he gives to other vets!

They both got injections today for the tapeworms (Andreas's arm was a little sore so we have to watch that) and Thomas will have to do another injection in 2 weeks. We were given oral medication for their pinworms that they'll have to take for 5 days. He said we could wait until after our vacation to treat them since day 5 would fall on a day we're not there. Our wonderful pet sitter is more than capable and willing, so Thomas and I will discuss tonight and decide what to do. She already does so much I hate to put additional responsibilities on her.

This vet is fairly new to the area, and I'm so happy he's here! He's certified avian and also a reptile expert. The difference in his expertise from the last vet we saw (supposedly also a herp vet) was amazing. We'll be making appointments for the rest of our parrots to get their annual visits done with him later this summer.