Agamura persica problem...

[kimo]

I have one male A.persica for a little over 2 months and he stopped eating 7-10 days ago. I don't know if he is WC or CB but he is adult and has fat reserves underneath the front legs, but is looking skinny to me...I will put picture later, he is basking all day and is active and moving also at night...

My question : is it possible for him to eat for a month or more and than suddenly stop because he got parasites or something like that? If they have some problems and loose weight will they loose their reserves first or their body will shrink?

He is from the start in that terrarium alone and the temps are about 40+ on basking spot and he is on sand with rocks put so he can hide and climb a bit. I am very worried, cose I know they are hard to acclimate and I suppose he is WC, cose they are not common CB...

Any thought and suggestions are welcome!

Here is the picture 14 days after I got him:

And here is one picture 2 days old while he was basking:

What do you think?

 

[Reptiluvr]

I cant make any really educated guesses but I would suppose this gecko could be impacted. What is with the large bumb in front of its right hind leg??

 

[Mez]

looks like an egg to me!
Is it female?

 

[kimo]

No, it is male for sure, he has visible bulges...they can be seen in the first photo if you look carefully. He has something what you saw, but I don't know what it can be, because he has some weight loss and I don't know how to help him, any ideas? What I can do, before reach the vet? Any suggestions for something that can help him pass that impaction, I can't imagine soaking him cose he is so "fragile" and I don't want to stress him that much with handling, maybe something on his nose to lick? I read for some olive oil and similar stuf, any experience tips?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mez]

hi.
although they look fragile they are actually built like this..
A warm bath does help but i do understand that with jumpy species this is not aways appropriate, so what people i know have done is put them in a small tuppaware container with airholes drilled in the lid (or make a small mesh one if you can) and fill it with warm water til it touches his belly.
If it is not impaction it could be a tumour...i would take it to the vets asap.
James

 

[spidergecko]

If you want to see if he has an impaction, lightly press his abdomen just above the pelvic bone and you will feel a hard mass. If you feel nothing, there is no impaction. Common forms of impaction in this species (in my experience) is directly related to substrate. If you use a playsand or any form of silica sand, you will have an impacted gecko. Usually the impaction clears after a couple of weeks. Sometimes it just kills the gecko. I've had both cases. I had a female that got impactions regularly so I would need to move her to a quarantine container with just paper towel and wait for the impaction to pass. I had another male that had an impaction and he just prolapsed his cloaca and died a few months later. Both of these geckos were housed on playsand. I've lost other geckos of varying ages to playsand so I have officially banned it from my gecko room. BTW, when I say "gecko" I'm speaking strictly about spider geckos.

Other species aren't as prone to impactions by playsand but Agamura, for some reason, always seem to get it at some point.

However, there are other sands on the market that are completely safe. If you find a good quartz-based sand you will have no problems. Some of these brands are Repti-sand (Zoo-Med I think) or Jurassic Sand. Even coral sand is fine. Sometimes these are mixed with calcium but they are still fine. They are soft and powdery unlike playsand which is coarse and gritty.

If you gecko has an impaction, the best thing to do is to move him somewhere without sand until the sand passes. Taking him to the vet will do you no good because he has passed the stage where parasites are affecting him (unless he has been stressed) so a vet won't do much for you. He will probably not eat for a week or so but be patient. Soon a little bit of sand will pass and then a little more and soon enough he will eat again.

If it makes you feel better, your gecko doesn't actually look that bad. Like most geckos, the fat reserves are stored in the tail. The patches under the arms will disappear as the gecko starves but no more quickly than from the rest of the body so this is not a good indicator. Watch the tail. As I can see in your pic, the tail is still very thick so the gecko is still fine. Don't stress it too much and it will be okay.

If you notice caking around his vent, you can put him in a dish of luke-warm water to rehydrate him. In fact, if you have an eyedropper handy, it might be a good idea to drop some water on his nose once or twice a day so he licks it. Try not to force him.

That should get you started. The egg-like bulge looks a lot like trapped food or intestinal gas. I bet it's soft to touch.

 

[spidergecko]

BTW, Agamura is not fragile; trust me.

 

[kimo]

Thanks for your replies, I am sure he was ok, because he was eating every 2 days or so and was pooing much(poo was ok). But suddenly stopped for about a week now...I can see he lost some weight by seeing his backbone and some bones around lungs(don't know the right word...) but he is basking much, so I suppose he want's to get it passed...

So I need to put him on paper towels, right? Should I catch him and touch that to see if it is hard or soft to be sure(I think he will stress alot, so it is better to wait and see)? What about olive oil on nose to pass it easier?

Here one better picture that I took today...see the bones before the tail is that something to worry about? I thnk that they were not visible before this eating pause...

He is now on paper towels and he was calm while I was transporting him, so he is not stressed at all.

Thanks!

 

[spidergecko]

I think you are worrying too much about stressing him. You can easily pick him up and examine his abdomen. Lightly press it and see if it's an impaction if you are interested. Don't worry about how boney he is. Worry more about how fat his tail is and you can see his tail is still very fat.

You don't need to give him oil. You just need to give him water. Now it's all about waiting. If you see his the bones in his tail, then you can start to worry. The bones you see near the tail are pelvic bones and not the tail bones.

If you want to give him oil, do it sparingly; maybe just a drop or two everyday.

You really should examine him because if it isn't an impaction, you need to figure out what it is.

 

[kimo]

Ok, I examined him, and his belly and that bulge are soft, nothing in there hard, he was a bit jumpy but after I cought him he was calm...I can see his bones as I told already, but his tail is same as before and he is having fat-reserves under the front legs if that are fat-reserves?

But he lost his appetite for over 10 days and I am worrying is he has some parasites, I can get him to the vet in a few days, but I don't know how he can help him...

What can be the problem? Can he get parasites somehow if he was alone in his cage with the food from my colonies, which eat all the other pets I have or can he have parasites and now suddenly start to loose appetite and weight, cose he had them before, if he is WC?

What are your suggestions Mike?

Thanks in advance!

 

[spidergecko]

1) Put him on paper towels
2) Monitor his feces for sand
3) Monitor his feeding
4) Try feeding him once a day and if he doesn't take it immediately, remove the food and try again the following day
5) If you wish, go to the vet to get medication prescribed. The vet will just give you meds in hopes of clearing up whatever it is he might have because without a fecal test, he won't know. Administering meds is very stressful.
6) Spray his enclosute with water daily so he can drink. Or, use an eyedropper with water if he isn't taking it.
7) Remove any playsand in his enclosure and replace it with better sand or an alternative substrate

The fat under the arms will not be the first to disappear. It is the tail. Watch the tail.

That's the best advice I can give. Meds are expensive and usually unnecessary if the gecko has been doing well prior to fasting. Check his cloaca regularly for caking. If he is sick from parasites, you should be seeing runny stool.

 

[kimo]

Thank you Mike!

He isn't eating for about 10 days, he is on paper towels already, there's no sand in his enclosure, there is no feces as he isn't eating.

I don't know how much tinner a tail can be, because their tails are already very thin in comparison with other species, so I can't tell if it is thinner than before...

Anyway, thanks everybody, I will transport him to the vet tomorrow and will update this thread if something happens.

 

[spidergecko]

I don't know how much tinner a tail can be, because their tails are already very thin in comparison with other species, so I can't tell if it is thinner than before...

The tails can get pretty thin You would see the tail gets knobby at the tail segments.

I will look and see if I have any pics of a sick/dying spider gecko and I will show you the tail. I don't think I have one of an adult but I do have one of a very young juvenile somebody sent me. The gecko in THIS picture is hopelessly at the end of it's life.

 

[Griesi]

Hello,

I wouldn`t only concentrate on impaction and would let a qualified vet examine the feces. If there are no feces: a vet should be able to make a lavage of the cloaca. Some parasites, eg worms, can produce very similar symptoms.

Kind regards
Karsten

 

[kimo]

This little fellow died today...I will update this when the vet do an obduction(spelling?)...He was transported to the vet 2 days ago and today the vet told me bad news. Very frustrating for me, cose it is not easy here to get one of those and he was great gecko, shame that there are not so many breeders of those geckos around...thanks for all the help guys anyway!