The following is important information for anyone
considering self medicating their tortoise for worms

Someone forwarded this list message to me last night and I just wanted to make a couple of quick comments because I feel there might be some misunderstandings about the article I wrote. 

The following are the main points I was trying to get across:

 1. Panacur (fenbendazole) is a drug.  Even when used at published dosages, it has the potential to do harm...because it is a drug. 

2. Because panacur is a drug, it should be used with diagnostics (fecal checks) as well as in conjunction with a veterinarian.  Medicine is an art as much as it is a science.

3. There is NO universal dosage for panacur for any given situation.  My field is zoological medicine where dosages are based on experience, the species I am treating, the condition of the animal, the age of the animal, the parasite load of the animal (upper level dosages with high parasite loads/dehydrated animals have the potential to cause GI obstruction with sudden parasite death), the size of the animal, and ALSO the published dosage levels.  There is simply NO universal dosage for a drug.  Pharmacokinetic tests are run on healthy animals of one species generally so there is a lot of extrapolation which again is where your veterinarian comes into play.

4. The effectiveness of panacur (fenbendazole) continues to fade as an anthelminthic (antiparasite drug).  I am seeing more and more resistance in the herps that I treat and frankly am using this drug less and less compared to others.

5. Panacur (fenbendazole) comes in different strengths.  For example, there is a US product that is a gel that comes in a tube that is meant to treat 1200 pounds of horse.  Trying to scale something like that down to a 1 kg chelonian safely is not possible. 6. Because dosages are so dependent on so many variables, I find the publishing of generic cureall dosages to be highly disturbing.  I strongly believe that this type of activity does more harm than good.

Anyway, I hope this helps clarify the points I was trying to make. 

Off to check on my hibernating Russians!

ChrisChris Tabaka, DVMStaff

VeterinarianMemphis Zoo

World Chelonian Trust- veterinary advisor and trustee  www.chelonia.org

Turtle Survival Alliance- TMG point person/veterinary advisor and steering committee     www.turtlesurvival.org

AZA Chelonian Taxon Advisory Group- veterinary advisor