Female henkeli necropsy

jadrig · #1 05-03-2011, 02:56 AM

This is a WC female henkeli that I have had for a little over 3 years. She was a good breeder and produced many offspring. I believe that the 10.0 UV light I had on her hurt her...but not as much as the light hurt the CB adult pair that I had raised myself. The CB adult female's one eye was swollen to almost twice the size of the other. it was just the membrane and it was completely clear. I believe that this was due to UV poisoning. I had never used UV before, but felt obligated since someone had given me 4 10.0 strip lights. I did have the bulbs around 8-10 inches fom the screen, but probably should have kept them a little further away being that they were 10.0. My henkels would get a little fussy every now and then and go a couple days/week without eating, but always come around. The main food item was Blaptica dubia...but would feed crickets on occasion. She would eat big roaches (last instar before adult), and never have problem with getting them down. Apparently getting them down the hatch was not the hardest part. Her health started to deteriorate in January and stopped eating on her own. I kept her alive since then with babyfood/CGD/fruitflies. She crashed really hard this week...so I decided to take a look inside after she gave up. I found two rostrum from adult dubia roach males

, dont remember feeding them to her...must have been a LONG time ago. They were in her gut right near her cloaca and appeared to be clogging everything up. I also found two little white packages of shed skin that were not digested. A coulple years back, I found 3 or 4 female cricket ovipositors jammed up in the gut of a dead female henkeli. So, make sure that you are not jamming up your geckos digestive system...even though I have seen them pass these objects before.

D.B.Johnson · #2 05-03-2011, 10:29 AM

Sorry to hear about your gecko. This is a very interesting post though, thanks.

Doug

sikorae · #3 05-03-2011, 01:03 PM

Sorry to hear about your female, very informative post though

miguel camacho! · #4 05-05-2011, 04:26 PM

So you think it's a combination of UV poisoning and the impaction from insect parts, or just one of the two factors? How much digested material was lying behind those insect parts? I have definitely heard of issues arising in reptiles from insect parts getting into awkward positions and whatnot, especially cricket ovipositors. Were there any obvious lesions from what you could visualize in the gut? Signs of infection? Seems somewhat reminiscent of an issue Andrew Gilpin had with a female henkeli that died a few years ago. When he and his wife opened her up, they found bark chunks from the substrate the previous owner kept her on. I can't imagine the feeling of spending months with something like a fork stuck in my gut...at the back door.

What leads you to the UV poisoning conclusion though? Is it just because everything else seemed to be working well? Did they have any refuge from UV light? What I've casually read about UV's role in metabolism is that excess metabolites are readily eliminated from the body...however that was more toward the human end of health and medicine. I realize it's too late to check and that chitinous plates are not easily digestible, but is there a chance that some protozoan parasite may have exacerbated the gut issues?

panthergecko · #5 05-05-2011, 05:41 PM

sorry to hear sounds like they both had a role and 10.0 is strong
tropical is 2.0
desert is 5.0
i just googled 10.0 is for turtles

jadrig · #6 05-05-2011, 11:09 PM

Yeah, I received the 10.0s for a group of Adult C.H. Meller's chameleons. It doesnt really bother them, but My female CB adult henkeli had a really swollen eye-not from infection.
They did have refuge behind the cork bark...They would hide from from the light...I just figured that the light was a little bright for them. They would soemtimes hide from the regular light. But when I put 2 and 2 together, it was too late. I would imagine that there was a a good chance she could have still had some parasites, being that I never treated her, but regardless, I still firmly believe that the UV was a catalyst. I lost the powersouce for my compound microscope during my last move, so I havent done any fecal exams, but her droppings appeared normal.
I still have my CB 1.1 in the freezer intact, but the CB adults were affected more by the UV light. It is definitely too much for all of my Phelsuma as well, even when at a distance...they hide from it. All it does is bring out their reds anyway.
I still have 1.1 CB henks from last year that are not going to see UV ever. I know many people have had success with the lower %, but I never used UV in the past and had success...so...
I would imagine that she could have passed those insect parts in the past, because they were not as large as her eggs, but there was definitely a lot of digested material right behind it.

Scott F · #7 05-06-2011, 06:18 PM

2.0 s are mainly used for visible light and UVA. 5.0 would be tropical UVA/UVB...10.0, is for use in desert terraria (or can be used appropriately in tall terraria, with thicker mesh, etc, for certain tropical species).

5.0 ZooMeds work well for my U.phantasticus colony, appropriately placed; using a UV meter helps establish safe distances in any application - since there are so many variables involved in regards to individual setups.

purple-vixen · #8 05-16-2011, 05:09 AM

Firstly, I'm sorry for your loss, and secondly, thank you for sharing the experience.

I have chosen not to use UVB or UVA and so far, have had no problems, and good healthy excrement from my boy.

I have read about the damage UVB in high percentage can do, and I've seen it first hand with a leopard gecko kept on a 10.0 UVB, though I did not know it could "poison". I think it would be worth trying to dig up some information on how to use UVB and UVA properly, especially when our rare Uroplatus are concerned.

Everyone always warns on how they are more susceptible to stress, disease etc.. But I never quite thought of UVB poisoning.

Once again, sorry for your loss.

Jac

jadrig · #9 05-16-2011, 04:24 PM

You know, I just realized that this was the female that had a broken leg around a year or two ago. The male kept pressuring her to mate. I have noticed that the males try really hard to mate with the females a day or two before the females lay their eggs. I always hear a 'rejection' squeal from the non receptive female. She let out a loud squeal and I got up and check and he was hanging onto her rear leg...I got him off and noticed that it was limp. It was dangling and I inspected it...I knew it was broken. I separated them and it healed naturally, as good as new. If I had rememberd, I would have looked at the bone after she died. Curious to see how it heeled... Oh well.