[pakinjak]

I have now been officially baptized into the world of Uroplatus keeping. I own(ed) six of them, and they are by far my favorite animal I have ever kept. Their looks, the fragility, their status in the wild has really made me feel a need to help establish these guys in the hobby. So if for nothing else, I'm posting this so maybe it will help somebody else not lose on of these, IMO priceless animals.

I would guess about four days ago, I noticed my adult female fimbriatus on the ground more than usual. I didn't think much of it, since they sometimes end down there while hunting. That was until the next day and she was on the ground in the morning when I woke up and still there when I got home, presumably having been there all day. Also, I began to notice some tail curling. I immediately starting asking some people "in the know" what they thought, and took a fecal to my vet. I run a misting system, so humidity shouldn't be the culprit, I thought. She's my only breeding age female, so I figured it might be breeding stress/calcium related/egg related. I misted the crap out of the enclosure and gave her warm pedialyte soaks about three times/day. I also did get a good amount of water and pedialyte into her by dropper as well. The fecal came back clear, but that didn't really satisfy me, since fecals can come back clear sometimes even when there's a problem. I put down a paper towel and she pooped on it that night, but it did not look right at all. Looking back on it, maybe a week ago I saw a large poop in the enclosure that had a milky-mucously look to it. I thought it was weird, but nothing more of it until she dropped the REALLY weird one.

Of course, the first fecal was done this past thursday, and I took the new one the next day and explained to them what I see already in it and if they could check it for parasites and give me some kind of opinion on what everything else was. The did a smear, and it came back negative for parasites still, but heavy with bacteria, red blood cells and some white blood cells indicating some kind of infection.

And that's as far is it went, because she was dead on the floor when I got home from work friday. The biggest thing I wish I had done differently is immediately go to the vet with the fecal. I waited a day or two, and while she probably wouldn't have made it anyway, I will never know that for sure.

I have pics of the nasty poo, if anybody really wants to see it, as well as a video of her friday morning and how she moved.

To button up my epic long post, I knew what I was getting into when I decided on Uros, but I had no idea how hard this would be for me. She came into the country in 2008, all the way from the island, lived those years in captivity and then died under my care. I am seriously crushed in a way. It helps a bit to know that it's probably not my fault, but still...

Anyway, here's a pic of her finally getting a real rest after the four day ordeal-



She was an absolutely gorgeous Uro, and I'm so sorry she died with me... Safe travels girl, as you fly to worlds unknown.

[latshki]

Oh god, this post made me even more sad than the last!
Hang there buddy, for all we know she was an old and weak animal in the first place

[rhacoboy]

She was absolutely beautiful. As said before, its probably just old age.
She looks extremely healthy, so I can't see any physical issues. And sounds like everything you are doing was correct.

Don't blame yourself, these things happen with Uroplatus. Just keep doing what you've been doing with the rest of your crew .

So sorry for your loss, truly beautiful animal.

-Armen

[sikorae]

Sorry to hear of your sad loss, but as already said she could have been an old lady when you got her, she was really stunning

[pakinjak]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the sentiment. I've been thinking that this is ONE of the frustrations with imports. You don't really know how old they are when they arrive, do you? From what I've read, fimbriatus are somewhere is the 10-12 year range for lifespan. An educated guess puts her at at least around four, so who knows if that was an issue?

I just wish so bad I could have gotten a pair of eggs from her before she left, then it wouldn't feel like such a loss. At least then the population wouldn't be one Uro down...