[pakinjak]

Having kept Uroplatus for a little while now, I'm getting used to strange things happening for no reason. It seems to be the defining characteristic of the entire genus. I've experienced, several different parasites, everted hemipenes, possible calcium crashes and a death or two for no apparent reason at all. With each trial I learn a little more and get a little better at keeping these guys. But this one has me scratching my head. I'd appreciate any educated guesses or similar experiences. here are the details-

Main symptom- can't grip well with his front feet. Seriously, this is the ONLY symptom, but it's affecting him bigtime since he can't climb around very well.

Pertinent info (maybe)

It's a male, LTC. Well acclimated import from last year.

Last two sheds have left toepads on most of his feet. I've soaked him and gently removed it with cotton swabs and/or tweezers. There is no stuck shed on his toes at all right now.

I treated him with panacur and flagyl about two weeks ago. I had a fecal checked yesterday and it came back clear.

His tail is flat, his eyes are full and he eats crickets from tongs if I offer, but I haven't seen him hunt for a while.


My possibly theories (they both stink)

#1- the worst shed was always been on his front feet, so maybe his front feet were hurt in some way when I removed the shed. Just in case this is it, I'm soaking him regularly for his feet and general hydration.

#2- He's old. Yeah, this one sucks, I know, but It's all I can come up with.

Any ideas?

[D.B.Johnson]

Sounds to me like the shedding difficulty or the removal of the stuck shed is what has affected his toes. So, I think theory #1 doesn't suck. The question is whether the condition will heal on it's own or be a long-term issue. I would think it may be able to heal at least somewhat. Can you see anything or do the toe pads look normal? By the way, what species are we talking about?

[pakinjak]

The species is sameiti. I didn't mention it before because I didn't want the possibility of casting a bad light on the seller I got it from. I certainly don't think this is their fault.

During tonight's soak, he had his front feet up on the tub wall and I got a good look at the toepads. They don't look damaged at all. Right now though, the shedding issue and some possible relation to that is all I have to go on.

Thanks for the reply.

[Salzy]

Interesting....my guess is that the toe pads are still a bother to the gecko and it's not able to get a grip. If that's the case, I would think it would heal up just fine in a week or so.

How long has this been going on?

[pakinjak]

I'd say the lack of ability to climb... about a week or two. Thing is, I just noticed it then, it may have been earlier too. Most of the time I walk in the room, they aren't exactly bouncing around the cage. I have a few that go bonkers when I feed, but some wait and feed stealth-like.

As an aside, do you have any idea how hard it is to get stuck shed off a Uroplatus' toepad? Pretty frikn' hard, that's how hard. You can't really grab with tweezers, since you'll grab the setae under the shed. You can't roll it very well with a swab because the claw catches. All of this is made even more difficult by the fact they he is always trying to grab stuff with his toes and it's pretty tough to even see the pads at all.

[rhacoboy]

I would almost gurantee its because of the shed.

I had a female Sikorae have a bad shed, I removed it all and she seemed fine, but still couldn't grip things like normal. Shortly after that she started shedding again and it seemed to start off normal, and then she ingested a large amount of substrate and ended up dying. It was devistating, but not unexpected.

Once they have a bad shed, its very hard for them to come back from it. After her first bad shed, she was never as strong as any of my other animals, it just screwed her up for good and I believe its better that it happened sooner rather than later, because the animal was clearly suffering. Although seh probably wasn't in pain, it was just difficult for her to get around like normal.

A lot of times there's simply nothing you can do. This female was in an 18x24x24 glass enclosure, misted twice a day. I have other animals in screen enclosures that are misted the same amount and have all had perfect sheds. It really is very frusterating, but I know I don't have to tell you, or any other Uroplatus keeper that.
Good luck, hope this helps.
-Armen

[Percision Geckos]

I had a W.C. female henkeli that had just that same problem last year. she was hanging on the ground alot, and at first I thought she was gravid but then noticed she couldnt grip the branches, cork bark, and glass that well and would almost slide right off. I checked the toe pads and no extra shed was attached. I watched her closley and made sure her food was heavily dusted with calcium/vitimans and I would say within a week It was like she never had a problem.

[aquapimp]

any swelling in feet or front legs?

[pakinjak]

No swelling.

[D.B.Johnson]

It seems to me that bad sheds can be caused by 'simple' husbandry issues like hydration, vitamin/mineral levels, humidity, stress, etc. or be a symptom of a more serious underlying issue/disease. I do think that bad sheds, and in particular some skin left on the toes will happen from time to time even with otherwise healthy geckos when they are low on a certain vitamin or dehydrated. I'm on the same page as percision geckos ^^. I have had occasionally some incomplete sheds (phantasticus) and the problem has remedied itself with an increase in vitamin supplementation.

I think that if your gecko's poor shed was caused by some simple issue, it should resolve itself ok. If your gecko is suffering from some bigger underlying problem, then that may be another story.