[Jeffk31]

Yesterday someone gave me a very sick tokay gecko. It has not eaten in weeks, and cannot close it's mouth. It appears that his jaw is broken or dislocated. I put water and a crushed cricket in a syringe and squirted it into his mouth, just because he refuses anything else. I will be completely cleaning the cage tomorrow and putting down newspaper and getting all the temps and humidity correct. Is there any sort of formula i can make for him? Any help is appreciated, i already really like this little guy. Thank you in advance.

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hi ~

Good job rescuing this tokay. I hope that it is not too late.

Sounds as if he could be suffering from Metabolic Bone Disease. One cause is a lack of calcium. You should get either some Calcium Glubionate (sweetened liquid calcium) from your local pharmacy or Rep Cal's phosphorous-free calcium with D3. With the latter, you can dab a small amount of the moistened powder right on his nose. In its early stages MBD is reversible.

Can you post a picture of him?

You can also feed him chicken baby food right on his nose. See whether he will lick that. You could mix a bit of the calcium powder in the baby food. The chicken baby food is a stop gap method until he can eat on his own.

[Riverside Reptiles]

If he can't close his mouth, he needs to be seen by a vet. It's not something that you can just hope will go away. If you're going to "rescue" an animal, you need to have the capability to have it treated properly.