Young Leopard Gecko Losing Weight

[emilykay405]

Hey! I am completely new to GU and gecko care. We currently have 4 leopard geckos and all of them are doing good except one.

Shifty has been a 'problem' child from the beginning...when we picked him up from the pet store he had recently shed but not completely and so he has very few toes left. During this time one of his eyes wouldn't open. I took him to the vet for the shedding/eye issue and got BacNeoPolyHydro Opthalmic Ointment that I put in twice a day for 10 days. Since then he's had one shed that I know of (I had to help him remove the shed from his feet). So hopefully that's cleared up. After the twice daily soaks for his shed issue he is super docile and content to hang out in my hand/lap.

Now on to the problem at hand. Shifty hasn't gained any weight, if anything he may have lost some. Monday night I noticed that he was gaping at me...almost immediately he had a foul diarrhea and then I realized he had thrown up 6-7 mealworms, the day prior to this he also had a slightly distended belly. Immediately we moved him to a 10 gallon temporary setup. Tuesday I had a sample of poo ready for the vet and she found nothing unusual. I did some research on here and other sites trying to figure out what was going on. I was (and still am...) concerned about Crypto or another bacteria/parasite infection. The thought also crossed my mind that it was impaction but he's been pooing regularly (nice big stinky poo, too). Tonight however, as he was getting out for his morning stroll he had a gigantic bowl movement that was somewhat liquidy (probably the baby food). I notices that his vent was also red and had a couple of white spots left from the bowl movement (urates? sand?). After seeing this I took him out for a soak and some baby food. We got the white spots off his bum and I did a check for any prolapse signs.

He eats 3-5 mealworms a night and I've been giving him beef baby food (was supposed to be chicken but got home with the wrong flavor).

I also have some reptaid and benebac on the way which will hopefully help the situation. Aside from that, I'm at a loss.


Habitat: Initially Shifty was with his roommates in a 18x18x36 habitat, substrate is sand, moist hides, dry hides, hides for days. The basking/warm area is at 90-92 degrees on the top of the sand. He is currently in a 10 gallon aquarium with paper towel substrate, one moist and one dry hide. The heating is a 50w night glo bulb and an x-small UTH (I figured the belly heat would help with his digestion...).

Food: Mealworms dusted with ZooMed Reptivite/Calcium w/o D3 and he always has access to calcium w/d3. I tried Minerall but NONE of the geckos seemed to care too much for eating berry flavored mealworms.

So, I'm at a loss. I have no idea what else to do for this little guy.

I have some pics I'll attach too.

Thanks for all the help everyone has given me thus far just reading the threads!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hello ~

I recommend reversing your calcium supplementation. Use the calcium with D3 only 2-3x per week for dusting his prey. Too much D3 is a very bad thing! Hopefully yours is phosphorous-free, because phosphorous interferes with the absorption of calcium and makes it impossible to achieve a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorous since feeders are "unbalanced" to begin with. Crickets and Blaptica dubia are more nutritious than mealworms. Leave a dish of the pure calcium in both tanks 24/7 for free access for your leos.

Sometimes repeat fecals are necessary to find parasites.

Have you collected the samples in this manner: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...n-procedure-updated-info-13-april-2011-a.html

 

[emilykay405]

I'll try that and see how he does. Thanks!

I assumed we would probably have to do repeat fecal exams to ensure a true negative. As for how we collected it since he's on paper towels I put towel and all in a ziploc baggie and refrigerated it until we could get it to the vet the next day.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I'll try that and see how he does. Thanks!

I assumed we would probably have to do repeat fecal exams to ensure a true negative. As for how we collected it since he's on paper towels I put towel and all in a ziploc baggie and refrigerated it until we could get it to the vet the next day.

My vet advised me that paper towels absorb some of the "parasites" we might be searching for and to place the sample directly onto the plastic of the ziploc. I assume he meant, even paper towels for the substrate (which is usually good, by the way, especially for ailing leos). Perhaps he just meant after the sample was collected???

 

[emilykay405]

I don't know...because there's not really a way to collect a sample without it being on a paper towel at some point. If that's the case wouldn't sand absorb them too?

 

[thehotchik1000]

Yes that's why he need to be on pt. If there's no way to get the fecal off of The pt in the tank try and just cut the peice of pt around The poop. His feces is super watery bc of the baby food which is crap for him anyways. If hes eating only give him appropriately sized crickets. Mealies are hard to digest and they are another junk food. Impossible to gutload, pretty much what your Leo is eating is baby crap and shell. Not so nutritious. Crickets still should be gutloaded I use laying hen feed sprayed with a bit of water to make it soft for the feeders. It works really well. Good healthy protein and good calcium. If he absolutely needs to be syringe fed use Hills Science diet A/D formula canned food. Throw the baby food in the trash. It sounds like his tummy may be upset. Gastro can be caused by stress. A few years back I took it a rescue and she had gastro. My vet suggested a drop of pepto about 1 hour before meals. It worked and it totally stopped the regurges. A few days of that and her appetite and system were back to normal.
Well I hope this helps a little.
Morgan

 

[emilykay405]

Yes that's why he need to be on pt. If there's no way to get the fecal off of The pt in the tank try and just cut the peice of pt around The poop. His feces is super watery bc of the baby food which is crap for him anyways. If hes eating only give him appropriately sized crickets. Mealies are hard to digest and they are another junk food. Impossible to gutload, pretty much what your Leo is eating is baby crap and shell. Not so nutritious. Crickets still should be gutloaded I use laying hen feed sprayed with a bit of water to make it soft for the feeders. It works really well. Good healthy protein and good calcium. If he absolutely needs to be syringe fed use Hills Science diet A/D formula canned food. Throw the baby food in the trash. It sounds like his tummy may be upset. Gastro can be caused by stress. A few years back I took it a rescue and she had gastro. My vet suggested a drop of pepto about 1 hour before meals. It worked and it totally stopped the regurges. A few days of that and her appetite and system were back to normal.
Well I hope this helps a little.
Morgan

The problem I'm running into is that he is actually eating. They are gutloaded for at least 24 hrs w/Rephasy Gutload and some carrot for moisture. He's only thrown up once and I really think that was because of over-eating (after all...there were 6-8 bunched up together) I did initially feed crickets but my group were more interested in the mealies. I'll keep the pepto in mind if he does start regurging again. The baby food is something we started yesterday so that I could ensure he had enough of the vitamin supplement (I mixed it with the baby food) because he is eating so little. I realize it's not the best thing...but he loves it so I will most likely keep it around as a small treat after his soaks or if we have to do any other physical husbandry.

 

[bwoodfield]

The problem I'm running into is that he is actually eating. They are gutloaded for at least 24 hrs w/Rephasy Gutload and some carrot for moisture. He's only thrown up once and I really think that was because of over-eating (after all...there were 6-8 bunched up together) I did initially feed crickets but my group were more interested in the mealies. I'll keep the pepto in mind if he does start regurging again. The baby food is something we started yesterday so that I could ensure he had enough of the vitamin supplement (I mixed it with the baby food) because he is eating so little. I realize it's not the best thing...but he loves it so I will most likely keep it around as a small treat after his soaks or if we have to do any other physical husbandry.

Keep in mind that baby food has no preservatives in it so you can't keep it around for that long once you open it.

Another idea that I read on a breeder's site, abet it sounds gross, is to blend crickets to feed to your leo. The breeder suggested getting a small, cheap food processor (not blender, the blades won't get most of the cricket), dust a couple of crickets like you would do normally, then puree them. I know it sounds nasty, but you're going to feed them to a reptile that will eat them alive. Being blended is probably quicker. You will then get the proper nutrition that their bodies need and the right amount of Calcium w Vit D already added in. You can also gut load the crickets ahead of time for better nutritional value.

Just make sure you don't make a smoothy with the processor after mixing the crickets. :coverlaugh:

 

[Debbie7054]

When one of mine was ill I mashed up waxworms they're fattening I know but since she was losing weight it didnt matter. They are really soft inside nearly liquid so they are very easy to digest and not so likely to be regurgatated - its pretty gross but it worked. When another of mine couldn't keep their food down at all I used Hydro-life. Its good for geckos that can't or won't eat if you squeeze it along the edge of the geckos mouth it will lick it. I hope your gecko gets better soon )

 

[emilykay405]

When one of mine was ill I mashed up waxworms they're fattening I know but since she was losing weight it didnt matter. They are really soft inside nearly liquid so they are very easy to digest and not so likely to be regurgatated - its pretty gross but it worked. When another of mine couldn't keep their food down at all I used Hydro-life. Its good for geckos that can't or won't eat if you squeeze it along the edge of the geckos mouth it will lick it. I hope your gecko gets better soon )

I'll have to try waxworms for him again...the last time I got a container as a treat for all of them he refused to eat them. Now that he's a bit bigger and relatively settled in he may decide to try some. =c)

 

[Debbie7054]

A few of mine aren't interested in them at all but Luma and Yoshi love them and can recognise the tub from the other side of the room if I treat them to wax worms lol.

 

[thehotchik1000]

Waxs though are like candy. They are another crappy food. It's like giving an Ill child nothing but ice cream. I don't use any worms whatsoever just roaches or crix. I'd rather have an animal get fully healthy than get fat and fatty liver disease. Putting on healthy weight is a whole lot different than putting on fat. It's much better to 1. Purée the crickets or roaches, or 3. If he's eating stick with gutloaded crix or roaches and feed whole. The animal will be healthy all over instead of getting fat. Which isn't a good thing.

 

[Debbie7054]

I onlu use them as an ocasional treat apart from when one of my geckos couldn't keep anything down and was losing a lot of weight. The vet couldn't find any parasites and recommended trying wax worm insides. She couldn't keep mashed up anything down I tried mashed up crickets, meal worms, locusts and so on and so on and so on. Believe me I tried them all.

 

[emilykay405]

Waxs though are like candy. They are another crappy food. It's like giving an Ill child nothing but ice cream. I don't use any worms whatsoever just roaches or crix. I'd rather have an animal get fully healthy than get fat and fatty liver disease. Putting on healthy weight is a whole lot different than putting on fat. It's much better to 1. Purée the crickets or roaches, or 3. If he's eating stick with gutloaded crix or roaches and feed whole. The animal will be healthy all over instead of getting fat. Which isn't a good thing.

I've researched the controversy over mealworms and made the decision to feed them. It's possible that the mealworms could be the issue with the lack of weight gain for him but the rest of them have been just fine on them so far. I've tried to find the roaches online but haven't found a good company to order them from. Any suggestions?

I onlu use them as an ocasional treat apart from when one of my geckos couldn't keep anything down and was losing a lot of weight. The vet couldn't find any parasites and recommended trying wax worm insides. She couldn't keep mashed up anything down I tried mashed up crickets, meal worms, locusts and so on and so on and so on. Believe me I tried them all.

I hadn't really thought about using the waxworms...they would definitely be better than the baby food.

 

[thehotchik1000]

The problem I have with mealies are they are impossible to properly gutload they poop whatever out as fast as they eat it. Really all of these feeders are basically just water and shell if not gutloaded properly making them all equally unnutritous. Crix or roaches have a longer intestinal tract than any worm. Meaning they have whatever they eat in their bodies longer. Meaning your animal gets more nutrion per prey. So that to me is way more important. Aaronpauling.com is whom I bought my origanol colony from. Then for the past 4 years I've been breeding my own which is the best way to do things. IMHO.

 

[emilykay405]

The problem I have with mealies are they are impossible to properly gutload they poop whatever out as fast as they eat it. Really all of these feeders are basically just water and shell if not gutloaded properly making them all equally unnutritous. Crix or roaches have a longer intestinal tract than any worm. Meaning they have whatever they eat in their bodies longer. Meaning your animal gets more nutrion per prey. So that to me is way more important. Aaronpauling.com is whom I bought my origanol colony from. Then for the past 4 years I've been breeding my own which is the best way to do things. IMHO.

Awesome thanks for the link! I recently got a Crested Gecko and wanted to get a colony started for him.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I don't know...because there's not really a way to collect a sample without it being on a paper towel at some point. If that's the case wouldn't sand absorb them too?

Yes, the sand would absorb them too. First check to see what your vet says about this issue. What about placing the gecko on a sturdy piece of plastic as the "substrate" for the time being?