[Whodaplatus?]

Hi all,

Sad news on my big U. ebenaui gal, Oprah. She's always been big since I acquired her 12 months ago, but she started showing signs of accessory breathing muscle use, gasping, and abnormal posturing (horizontal on cage floor) over the past 2 weeks. I treated her with panacur to no avail, and transillumination was nonspecific throughout. A shed 36 hours antemortem and bright greenish coloration during the last day were also bad prognostic indicators. She was still strong when handled and showing interest in food 12 hours before death. I did a necropsy and found 2-3 ml of sero-mucoid ascites and massive ovarian swellings bilaterally. It looked like 3 eggs on the left and 4 on the right. My guess is that this represents egg binding with reactive ascites and death secondary to respiratory compromise. There's only so much space inside a rib cage, and it looked like Oprah's lungs were the first things to get squashed.

Anybody out there have experience with egg binding in Uroplatus? Any suggestions on how to treat this? I suspect she would have temporarily benefited from drainage of the excess abdominal fluid with a sterile needle, but ultimately would succumb to the condition.

Regards,
Mike

[WildEyeReptiles]

Mike,

What kind of feeding/gutloading/supplementation regime was being used?

[Whodaplatus?]

Hi Leah and Jason,

I feed every other day with 2-3 crickets per animal. This was in a group of 1.2. I religiously dust - Herpcare cricket dust for the past couple of months which doesn't have vitaminD (before that I was using a dust that included vitD but had an episode of possible D3 toxicity in a Rampholeon chameleon so I switched over). Believe it or not, I'm using Wildeye cricket gut load - I'm pretty sure it wasn't the gut load . The ebenaui aren't under a direct UV lamp, but they do get a good amount of sunlight in my bay window.

What kind of nutritional suggestion did you have in mind, Leah? I'm not at all familiar with the pathophysiology of egg binding, is it sometimes associated with a calcium imbalance? This little gal always had respectable chalk sacks, if that weighs in.

By the way, the dubia you sent me several months back are starting to take off.

Many thanks,
Mike

[WildEyeReptiles]

Originally Posted by Whodaplatus?

I religiously dust - Herpcare cricket dust for the past couple of months which doesn't have vitaminD (before that I was using a dust that included vitD but had an episode of possible D3 toxicity in a Rampholeon chameleon so I switched over).

I just looked at the ingredients and it lists Vit D3 (doesnt say what formula)... please explain the D3 incident though, I'm quite interested to hear.

On another note, overfeeding is often a contributing factor and while a calcium imbalance could be to blame in some cases, with 33% calcium in the dust, I'm disinclined to go with that. This has happened to other people too, but most dont offer much in the way of background history, and its difficult to draw conclusions.

Why were you treating with panacur?

[Whodaplatus?]

Hi Wildeye,

The panacur was a last ditch effort just in case the bloating was somehow related to an intestinal parasite. It seemed unlikely given the animal's history and LTC status, but I decided it couldn't really hurt since it was pretty clear she was on her last legs. This is only the second time I've ever messed around with an antiparasitic, but it was actually tolerated very well (diluted down to about 0.5 mg/ml).

Overfeeding can cause egg binding, you say? I had no idea.

Best,
Mike

[WildEyeReptiles]

Mike,

In some species where egg production is tied to food abundance, yes, there is a correlation. I dont know if this is the case with Uros, but it didnt sound like you were over feeding anyway.

The reason I asked about panacur, is that its damaging to eggs/embryos - not that it mattered in this case - but something to keep in mind still. Panacur is actually tolerated extremely well by most animals.

I'd still like to hear about the D3 incident.