Small, thin white worms in poop

[Keytal]

Hi there!

Today I was cleaning one of my bluey-s and in the substrate I noticed a poop (that I missed to clean right away) had small white worms in it. They were like half a cm long , maybe a millimeter wide. I never saw anything like that in his poop until now. Can it be something that is not internal? I noticed he managed to flip his waterbowl twice and the place where I found the particular poop was very wet. Also his poop is kinda runny for a week now but I was thinking maybe it was like that cause I gave him a lot of locusts the past weeks.

I got so irritated by the fact that I have this situation (I try to be extremely clean with all my animals and got kinda upset) that I managed to throw out the poop without even thinking about making a pic. Is there anyone here who came across with something like this?

Thank you very much in advance.

[kayla990]

It could be from the substrate - do you happen to have coco coir or added any live sphagnum mosses/plants at one point? As in most soils there are tiny white worms (called nematodes, very tiny harmless decomposers). It's possible to find them at the surface of substrate when it's wet.

Alternatively, if you see it happen a lot in the poop I would suspect pin worms. I believe there are treatments for this from the vets. If my understanding is correct, pinworms are nearly always present in reptiles but only visible when they start to multiply too much (such as from a reduced immune system, or something more simple such as accidentally ingesting broken down poop from a water source).

Hmm, I can't comment on it potentially being runny from locusts (not tried feeding insects yet, so will let another say their input!).

Don't beat yourself up for it! It can happen in so many different setups and cleaning routines. If it continues the best course of action is always to seek a professional such as a vet, or perhaps request if you're able to send a stool sample for them to test.

All the best!

[Keytal]

Thank you very much, I'll keep monitoring the animal. Should I take the substrate out and keep him on paper towels?

[kayla990]

I think it should be fine keeping him on the same substrate, as I don't think it's the substrate that can cause the pin worms (and the nematodes if swallowed would be digested as normal food as far as I know!). Goodluck with the monitoring!

[Keytal]

Hi!

Sorry for forgetting to answer to you question. I keep him on the mix of coco fiber and bark chips. Today I checked his feces and it was totally negative but one thing I noticed when opened his enclosure: There were tiny tine bugs flying around. They were very small, looked like miniature flies. Could it be that? ... I don't know really but I am already happy about the fact that his poo is worm free. I actually spotted him doing the work so it was fresh. Anyway thank you for the answer

Cheers!

[kayla990]

Yay! Glad to hear that you've not seen anymore and yep, it's very possible! The majority of flies have a larval stage that also look like tiny worms (can be white or black). By chance, are they drain flies or fruit flies? They are commonly found in houses and are very tiny as adults. But as you say the better of the outcomes ^__^ While I won't jump to conclusions, they may have managed to lay eggs in the coco-coir if it's been very damp - but honestly not sure how to check for that since they will be pretty tiny eggs. So don't throw out the substrate based on that alone, have a check around further if they become annoying!