Help! Leopard Gecko cough/sneeze/bark!?

[eliquidmatt]

Hey guy's.. I'm a little concerned about on of my ladies

Was watching her this morning and she walked over to the area in which she has selected to be her toilet (love how they do that!) she pushed her front legs low to the ground, arched her head up, opened her mouth VERY wide and let out a noise which I can only describe as sounding like a dog about to be sick!? Was like a "haaaacking" noise, she then did it again but this time she thrashed her head VIOLENTLY from side to side!?

I was quite shocked and I think my other female was too, she popped her head out of her cave and stared at her all the while she was doing this!?

She did this three times but then settled down and has now reatreated to her hide. It was like a cough, a sneeze, a bark and a yawn all at the same time!?

Just to avoid the inevitable questions - she is paired up with one other female of the same age, they are in a 30"x18" viv, UTH holding at 90 degrees f, I supplement with Nutrobal on every feed, I use vitamin BSP in their water which is changed every other day, they have TWO humid hides, 3 regular hides and I use untreated cork tiles for substrate.

Any help really appreciated!

 

[Mardy]

As long as it's not a common occurrence, it could be nothing to worry about. If it happens more often, then lower the humidity in the tank and see if that solves it.

If that still doesn't, then it would be time for a vet visit.

 

[M&S-328]

What you experienced was your gecko about to throw up.
If you've ever seen your gecko yawn, then you might have thought thats what she was doing at first - typically they open and snap their mouth shut a few times before they are able to fully get-sick.
Depending on the size of the food item she last ate, it can be very noticeable when they throw up (takes a long time to get it up and out) or not-so-noticeable because she expelled the item from her mouth so quickly.
Example: one of my geckos went through a issue where he was throwing up after each meal =[. One of the food items it threw up was a mealworm. That one happened quite quickly (similar to how you described your geckos experience) and I wouldnt have know he actually threw up except that I checked the area after he walked away and found a dead mealworm still gooey. But another time he threw up it was after eating a waxworm. Because I knew he was probably throwing up again I watched more intently, and I saw the waxworm come up and out of my poor geckos mouth - I was able to notice this happening more clearly because the waxworm was larger and took more time coming up and out..

But yes, thats their process before throwing up.
They go to their bathroom site, and open their mouth very wide sometimes "squawking" or "barking" once or twice as they expel their food. The shaking you saw is typically how they get the food out of their mouth once its made it up out of the throat.
so either your gecko did throw up and you didnt notice the food item fling out during the shaking, or your gecko was able to maintain its meal and just walked off feeling a little better.

Hope this doesnt reoccur often and your gecko feels better!!

 

[eliquidmatt]

Thank you so much M&S-328, thankfully she is now ok.. but after a good few hours of worry!

After my post here, I went back to the viv and she had come out again and was repeating the process over and over, I was so upset and didn't know what to do

I prepared my faunarium for a trip to the vets when I noticed she was having a drink, and walking back to her cave. So I looked in her toilet area and was absolutley horrified to see a piece of woodchip, about the size of a fingernail, covered in saliva :shock:

Just for the record, I DO NOT keep my reptiles on a purely woodchip substrate, They have about half an inch of woodchip covering the entire floor which is then covered by cork tiles. The combination of both works well with heat mats as the heat is absorbed into the woodchip and warms the cork above evenly to about 90. The one drawback is that cork tends to curl and twist when it gets warm and is this case, exposed the woodchip underneath.

Needless to say I have now been round all three of my viv's and cleared ALL the woodchip out completely!

As far as my female, well I think she was lucky... and so was I! There didn't seem to be any blood on the piece of woodchip and she has since passed a healthly looking stool with a decent amount of calcium in. I managed to catch her yawning earlier and at a glance, there is no blood or lacerations in her mouth at all and she does seem quite happy. I just hope it has not done any internal damage will be monitoring her closely for a while!

A lesson learned here I guess!

 

[Saskia]

It is very weird when you see them about to through up the first time, I was pretty shocked too when I saw mine do that.... but since M&S said, it is "normal" good that she had it out and everything is cool now, has she eaten since the incident? Mine didn't want to eat for a couple of weeks after his vomit...

 

[eliquidmatt]

Yea she is eating very well actually it appears no harm was done, still keeping an eye on her though!

After she'd been through all that, she then laid 2 healthy looking eggs.. so all in all a stressful day for her!

 

[Saskia]

I'll say!! Well, good for her!! (and good for you) if any news occur keep us posted!