Leo ate paper towel during shed

[JIMI]

So I've had a pretty rough day. I seem to have things under control now, but I wanted to post this in case it happened to someone else. Before I went to bed last night, I noticed my leopard gecko, Theseus, beginning his shed. I misted his moist hide and then went to bed. At around 3 am, I woke to a couple of whistle sounds coming from his enclosure. I got up to check on him and noticed he was breathing with his mouth slightly open, and there were some pieces of torn up paper towel laying around him. A couple of the pieces looked as if he had regurgitated them, and appeared to have small amounts of blood on them. My heart dropped into my stomach when I saw this. I removed the paper towel and kept an eye on him until I could take him to the vet as soon as it opened. I was so scared that he was going to choke and die within the time I was waiting for the vet's office to open. By the time I was preparing to take him in he had been breathing and behaving normally.

The vet assessed him and noticed a white piece sticking out of his esophagus; she pulled it out, but it turned out to be a piece of his molt. She took an x-ray to check if the paper towel would appear on the radiograph. It did look as if he had some in his stomach, but it didn't look clumped, which is what we were hoping for. If it looked as if it were a thick mass, she would have suggested sedating him so that she can pull it out, but since it wasn't she wants to see if he can pass it himself.

She suggested that for the next week I feed him a little bit of baby food each night and give him a couple of hornworms or silkworms since they're high in moisture content. I'm going to be giving him warm soaks daily and dabbing the side of his mouth with a little bit of water as well. I also have the humidifier running in attempts to keep the humidity consistently around 40%. At first I was worried about the baby food, so I ordered some Oxbow's Carnivore Care. It figured it could possibly come in handy if things were to go bad. It should be arriving on Sunday, so in the meantime I bought a jar of gerber turkey baby food to try out. I also ordered some silkworms, but they won't be arriving until next week. She said I could just continue to feed him his roaches, but I'm worried that it might make it harder to pass. What do you guys think about this plan? Any other suggestions?

I'm worried about the kind of poops that I am going to see. If there is any blood, I will have to take him back in to have that taken cared of. And if he starts to reject food and behave abnormally I'd also have to take him in so that they could remove the paper towel themselves. I just hate the amount of stress that this is putting him through. She said that he'll likely be able to pass the paper towel since he's in good health, but to also be prepared for the worst. I really hope that he is able to pass it:sad: curse you paper towel... I'm going to be switching to coconut fiber as soon as he is better. I'll keep you guys updated on his condition. Sorry that this was a pretty long post. Wish us luck!

 

[JessJohnson87]

Good luck! I use moss and coco fiber in my moist hide, Ziggy never really burrows in it but does kick some moss out every once in a while. I think the carnivore care should work and be easier on his stomach than feeding the roaches, even though they are not as hard as mealworms, it still could be difficult to digest them if he does have paper towel in his stomach.

 

[JIMI]

Thank you! I can see how he might have confused the paper towel with his shed skin. I'm hoping that the coconut fiber will be better. I think so too. Right now, I'm about to do his warm soak, and then I'm going to try dabbing some of the turkey baby food on his lips, but just a little bit for tonight. He's just been hanging out in his warm hide since we got home, which isn't abnormal for him.

 

[muffin_song]

Poor Theseus! :shock: Sounds like a scary experience, but it sounds like you did all the right steps.

I'll be crossing my fingers for both of you!

 

[Zux]

Sorry to hear about that JIMI, indeed what likely happened is when in the process of shedding he mistook the edge of the paper towel for his recently loosened skin and began eating it, he in doing so likely consumed a large amount before realizing it wasn't what he wanted by which point it was too late. I have watched a Gecko shed only yesterday and she was chomping away on what occurred to me to be too large a piece of skin to consume in one sitting but it would seem this is normal behavior.

What happened is super unlucky and unlikely to ever happen again though a change of substrate is probably in-order regardless considering this development.

About him being able to pass it, its great news it is not balled up in his intestines so considering he is in good health and his temps are high enough I would be shocked if he didn't resolve the issue himself.


Wishing you both the best of luck !

 

[JIMI]

Thank you so much for the good wishes everyone!

muffin_song, I really hope that I did everything right. I'm willing to do what it takes to make sure my little guy makes it through this. I don't want to lose him, especially not to some stupid paper towel.

Shane, this really was a case of poor luck :sad: I considered putting stones around the edges of the paper towel, but I might go ahead and just swap out the paper towels for good to give myself some peace of mind. His heated tile has temps ranging from 88-92, and the ambient temp on the warm side stays around 82 throughout the day. I believe they should be warm enough and I checked earlier to ensure that the thermostats and heaters were working properly as well. I'm hopeful that he will be able to resolve this himself.

I gave him his bath, but held off on the baby food for tonight. He did not like the bath at all! He's already endured enough stress for one day. I still don't like the idea of giving him baby food, but tomorrow I will give the baby food a try after his bath. The brand is Gerber and the ingredients are ground turkey, water, and cornstarch. It smells pleasant...:roll:. His vet said any flavor would have been fine, but I went ahead with the turkey flavor because I saw it recommended on Elizabeth's caresheet. Hopefully the carnivore care and those silkworms get here soon. I have a local place I usually purchase hornworms from, but just my luck, they were out of them when I needed them most!

 

[Yoshi'smom]

So sorry to hear about this bad experience.
I too would recommend that you change your substrate. Tiles are wonderful. In addition to being great at conducting heat, they're easy to clean, look great, cheap and pose no risk of impaction.
I've personally used the Oxbow Carnivore Care for a Leo that went off food due to an eye infection. It helped to keep his weight up during the whole ordeal.
I hope for the best and that your little one passes the bit of towel without issue.

 

[JIMI]

I actually do have tile throughout his enclosure, the paper towel was only in his moist hide. Sorry for the misconception! I'm wondering if I should post pictures of his set up? Thank you for the good wishes.

Right now I'm having trouble keeping the humidity up. The humidity meter so far says that it's only gone up about 2%. I wonder if it's innacurate. It's at 25% right now.

 

[Yoshi'smom]

I wouldn't worry too much about the relative humidity with leopard geckos. They're native to arid deserts. So too much humidity is a bad thing and can cause respiratory issues.
I keep moss in my leo's humid hide and spray it about once a week. When I notice my gecko going into shed, I bump up the humidity in there just a bit to aid shedding.
Also if you're using one of the analog hygrometers, they do tend to be very inaccurate. You can find cheap digital readout ones that are way more accurate.

 

[JIMI]

My vet suggested I boost the the humidity for now to help keep him well hydrated and help him pass the paper towel more smoothly. I'm using a digital hygrometer, but it was also cheap. I actually found it at a thrift store for a dollar :roll: I've compared it to other reliable hygrometers in the past and it seemed accurate. I'll test it out and see if I need to replace it. Any recommendations?

 

[Zux]

If you wish to temporarily boost rel humidity you can add one or two extra shallow water bowls to the enclosure for the time being. That should help.

 

[JIMI]

Thanks for the tip. I just placed a couple of extra bowls on the heated tile. I also moved the hygrometer next to his warm hide and the reading began to rise a little. I used to have it on a tile about 4 in. above the warm hide, closer to the lamps which would explain why it remained so low despite having the humidifier on. The hygrometer is a bit bulky, it looks like a clock and reads air temperature as well, so it takes up a good amount of space in its current spot. I'll probably look into getting another one with a probe instead soon so that I can keep it in that spot.

I wonder if a sudden boost in relative humidity could possibly cause a respiratory infection?

 

[JessJohnson87]

He should be ok, I know how humidity is out there....blood boogers for 2 weeks after we came back home. I wouldn't let it get over 50% but with a couple of shallow bowls of water, it should not get that high.

 

[JIMI]

So far I've got the humidity up to 29%. He's been spending a lot of time in his moist hide so I'm not very worried about the humidity anymore, but I'l still try to keep it up. I tried giving him some of the baby food, but he's a bit skittish right now. He's probably still traumatized from yesterday. He went into his hide and won't come out now so I'll probably have to wait awhile for him to get comfortable again before I give him his bath. I took a pair of tongs and wiggled them a little, he was receptive and seemed willing to hunt, so that seems like a good sign. I'm tempted to give him a small dubia with a little bit of baby food to see how he'll respond, but I think I'll hold off on that at least for a couple of days, until I see some poop. I wish I had those silkworms!

 

[Zux]

You can also keep an eye out for any insect which has recently shed within any colonies you keep, those would be good to feed also if you are lucky enough to see one.

 

[JIMI]

Oh great idea, Shane! I got a little bit of turkey baby food on his lips last night and it was clear that he did not like it at all. He's willing to eat so I don't want to force feed him the baby food and cause unnecessary stress. I think I'll try a small molted roach tonight and maybe I'll try one with a little bit of baby food on it. I should be getting the carnivore care today, so maybe I'll use that instead of the baby food. I didn't find any poop this morning unfortunately... But I'm sure I'll find some tonight or tomorrow night.

Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[Yoshi'smom]

I never thought my leo was particularly fond of being fed the oxbow either, but it was better for him to get food in his system rather than be uncomfortable. I would also make sure that whatever you give to him is slightly warm or room temperature. If the baby food was cold, that could have also made it seem even more unappetizing for him.

 

[JIMI]

Thanks for the tip! I didn't think about that, luckily they were at room temperature when I offered them. I cave him two small molted dubia with a little bit of the carnivore care on top. He seemed wary of the roach at first, and even threw it the first time he tasted it, but eventually all of the movement enticed him and he ate the roach. As he was licking his lips afterwards I was able to get him to lick some more carnivore care off my finger, and as soon as he realized he gave me this face of betrayal and retreated back into his warm hide. I didn't find any poop this morning, but hopefully tonight he finally will.:sad:

 

[JessJohnson87]

Leo's are so funny sometimes about things. Keep offering the carnivore care, hopefully he will accept it a bit more.

 

[JIMI]

Still no poop. Now I'm getting worried:sad: