In 2010 I posted, Peach's story. Here are the links to the original threads.
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...eublepharis/49735-leo-has-sand-impaction.html
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/leopard-geckos-other-eublepharis/49884-my-dear-peach.html
Her story seems to have had a real impact on members here and I've been asked to go into more detail about what happened and how she lived and whatnot.
I rescued a leopard gecko, Daisy, from a friend of mine who wasn't taking care of her. I took her home and she was thin as a twig and wouldn't hardly move or anything. She had a light fixture with normal lamp bulbs, sand, a heat rock, 1 hide, and no food or water in a 10gallon tank. Long story short I got her the right husbandry items (I will list all the items below) and after reading about sand impaction I got rid of the sand and replaced it with paper towel. I experimented with tiles, reptile carpet, and bark. The tiles didn't let heat get through as easily, her nails got hooked in the carpet on occasion and the bark was just plain dangerous. I got slivers from it and no way was I going to allow Daisy to be hurt. (Though it was pretty so I took a few pictures with it before removing it.)
In a few months Daisy was a whole new gecko. She was thriving. I bought her a 40 gallon breeder tank and shortly after I decided she might want a few friends. I came home with a male (Bowser) and female (Peach). I bought them from a small family owned pet store. They were the biggest best looking healthy geckos I could find. I was told that though they lived in a sand substrate, they were never fed on it so they would not eat the sand as they hunted.
At the time I didn't know about quarantining new geckos before adding them to Daisy's cage, so I came home, introduced them and that was that. They got along perfectly.
I fed them crickets every night. Daisy and Bowser would eat but I never saw Peach eat. I figured she was just having a harder adjustment. As the days went by I noticed she was much more lethargic than the other two, wouldn't eat or drink, and I started to get worried. I asked for advice on these forums and got many tips and help.
I took her to the vet and had an Xray done. She had what we feared, a sand impaction. I moved her to a smaller tank so Daisy and Bowser wouldn't stress her. I started soaking her twice a day in warm water, tried syringe feeding her chicken baby food, and gave her a small dose of cat lax. She would eat the baby food just fine but never had a bowel movement. She seemed to be perking up so I was hopeful that she would be just fine.
A day or so later she finally had a bowel movement. I had never been so happy to see poop! lol. Anyway I searched through it with toothpicks and found some sand particles in it. She was passing it! This was about day 9-10 or so of me having her.
The next day she had another bowel movement and a bit more sand came out. However she was being very lethargic again. I had so many great people on here helping me emotionally and encouraging me to keep going. I'm pretty sure I can say we were all holding our breath through this experience.
What happened next, well, I'm just going to post my original words from 2010...
Last night my husband and I started hearing Peach screaming and I took her out of the tank right away. She was trying to poop but it was hurting her so bad. She was bleeding a very little amount from her vent and I could see the sand impaction was trying to come out. I gently helped her to pass it and it was successful. It hurt the poor girl so badly but it was clear the impaction was out and it was over. We put her to bed to rest thinking she'd feel better in the morning. I also planned to take her to the vet on Monday for a recheck to make sure she was better.
I woke up this morning and my husband told me Peach didn't make it. I went to her cage and she was gone. Our best guess is the shock to her body and the damage to her intestines was too great. Ugh I told myself I wasn't going to cry again.... Anyway we said our goodbyes and put her to rest outside our apartment where she will always be close to us. We'll see her again.
Daisy, Peach, and Bowser where all large, healthy looking, adult geckos between ages 2-4 years. I had Peach for, I think it was a total of around 12 days. Everyone says it's ok to have an adult leo on sand, I will never agree with that.
Today Daisy and Bowser are happily retired from breeding. I got two very cute little leo babies. Isabel and Bella. It was a wonderful experience breeding them all on my own. Everyone is separated now into their own tanks. In his "old age" Bowser decided he was through sharing a tank with Daisy, he attacked her and I broke it up immediately. No one was really hurt but I wasn't taking any chances.
People have been wanting to know the specifics of my husbandry so here it is, as of today.
Substrate-Paper towel with no colored designs. I didn't want the ink to get on them.
Vivarium Size-Some of my leos are in 20 gallon reptile tanks, and some in 40 gallon breeder tanks. Everyone has a tank to themselves.
Heating/Humidity- Zoo Med ReptiTherm Under Tank Heater large enough so it covers 1/3 of the bottom of the tank.
Zoo Med Daylight Blue Bulb in the appropriate fixture.
Surface temperatures range from 90 degrees(ish) on the warm side to 70(ish) on the cool side. Air temperatures range from 85-75degrees
Humidity was around 60%
Lighting- ReptiSun 10.0 UVB Bulb big enough to go across the entire cage length.
Food/Vitamins-Gut loaded crickets fed everyday, dusted with Tetrafauna ReptoCal with D3 3x/week, Zoo Med ReptiCalcium without D3 3x/week, and dusted with Rep-Cal Herptivite Multivitamin 3x/week. The occasional wax worm as a treat.
Hides- In the 40 gallon there are two hides on cool side, two on warm side, and one big one in the middle with a water dish inside to create a more humid hide.There is a second water dish outside the hides, and a calcium dish. In the 20 gallon tanks there is one hide on the cool side, and one on the warm side. A water dish in the middle and a calcium dish.
All heating and lighting items are checked regularly and replaced about every 6 months.
Attached are some photos of each of them, and Peach's Xray. I lost most of my pictures of her when my old computer blue screened but was able to find a few.
Peach (at the pet store, only pic I could find)
Peach Xray with sand impaction
Daisy
Bowser
Isabel
Daisy In Her Tank on Paper Towel
I am afraid I don't have any pictures to upload of Bella right now.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me at crmason88@gmail.com
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...eublepharis/49735-leo-has-sand-impaction.html
http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/leopard-geckos-other-eublepharis/49884-my-dear-peach.html
Her story seems to have had a real impact on members here and I've been asked to go into more detail about what happened and how she lived and whatnot.
I rescued a leopard gecko, Daisy, from a friend of mine who wasn't taking care of her. I took her home and she was thin as a twig and wouldn't hardly move or anything. She had a light fixture with normal lamp bulbs, sand, a heat rock, 1 hide, and no food or water in a 10gallon tank. Long story short I got her the right husbandry items (I will list all the items below) and after reading about sand impaction I got rid of the sand and replaced it with paper towel. I experimented with tiles, reptile carpet, and bark. The tiles didn't let heat get through as easily, her nails got hooked in the carpet on occasion and the bark was just plain dangerous. I got slivers from it and no way was I going to allow Daisy to be hurt. (Though it was pretty so I took a few pictures with it before removing it.)
In a few months Daisy was a whole new gecko. She was thriving. I bought her a 40 gallon breeder tank and shortly after I decided she might want a few friends. I came home with a male (Bowser) and female (Peach). I bought them from a small family owned pet store. They were the biggest best looking healthy geckos I could find. I was told that though they lived in a sand substrate, they were never fed on it so they would not eat the sand as they hunted.
At the time I didn't know about quarantining new geckos before adding them to Daisy's cage, so I came home, introduced them and that was that. They got along perfectly.
I fed them crickets every night. Daisy and Bowser would eat but I never saw Peach eat. I figured she was just having a harder adjustment. As the days went by I noticed she was much more lethargic than the other two, wouldn't eat or drink, and I started to get worried. I asked for advice on these forums and got many tips and help.
I took her to the vet and had an Xray done. She had what we feared, a sand impaction. I moved her to a smaller tank so Daisy and Bowser wouldn't stress her. I started soaking her twice a day in warm water, tried syringe feeding her chicken baby food, and gave her a small dose of cat lax. She would eat the baby food just fine but never had a bowel movement. She seemed to be perking up so I was hopeful that she would be just fine.
A day or so later she finally had a bowel movement. I had never been so happy to see poop! lol. Anyway I searched through it with toothpicks and found some sand particles in it. She was passing it! This was about day 9-10 or so of me having her.
The next day she had another bowel movement and a bit more sand came out. However she was being very lethargic again. I had so many great people on here helping me emotionally and encouraging me to keep going. I'm pretty sure I can say we were all holding our breath through this experience.
What happened next, well, I'm just going to post my original words from 2010...
Last night my husband and I started hearing Peach screaming and I took her out of the tank right away. She was trying to poop but it was hurting her so bad. She was bleeding a very little amount from her vent and I could see the sand impaction was trying to come out. I gently helped her to pass it and it was successful. It hurt the poor girl so badly but it was clear the impaction was out and it was over. We put her to bed to rest thinking she'd feel better in the morning. I also planned to take her to the vet on Monday for a recheck to make sure she was better.
I woke up this morning and my husband told me Peach didn't make it. I went to her cage and she was gone. Our best guess is the shock to her body and the damage to her intestines was too great. Ugh I told myself I wasn't going to cry again.... Anyway we said our goodbyes and put her to rest outside our apartment where she will always be close to us. We'll see her again.
Daisy, Peach, and Bowser where all large, healthy looking, adult geckos between ages 2-4 years. I had Peach for, I think it was a total of around 12 days. Everyone says it's ok to have an adult leo on sand, I will never agree with that.
Today Daisy and Bowser are happily retired from breeding. I got two very cute little leo babies. Isabel and Bella. It was a wonderful experience breeding them all on my own. Everyone is separated now into their own tanks. In his "old age" Bowser decided he was through sharing a tank with Daisy, he attacked her and I broke it up immediately. No one was really hurt but I wasn't taking any chances.
People have been wanting to know the specifics of my husbandry so here it is, as of today.
Substrate-Paper towel with no colored designs. I didn't want the ink to get on them.
Vivarium Size-Some of my leos are in 20 gallon reptile tanks, and some in 40 gallon breeder tanks. Everyone has a tank to themselves.
Heating/Humidity- Zoo Med ReptiTherm Under Tank Heater large enough so it covers 1/3 of the bottom of the tank.
Zoo Med Daylight Blue Bulb in the appropriate fixture.
Surface temperatures range from 90 degrees(ish) on the warm side to 70(ish) on the cool side. Air temperatures range from 85-75degrees
Humidity was around 60%
Lighting- ReptiSun 10.0 UVB Bulb big enough to go across the entire cage length.
Food/Vitamins-Gut loaded crickets fed everyday, dusted with Tetrafauna ReptoCal with D3 3x/week, Zoo Med ReptiCalcium without D3 3x/week, and dusted with Rep-Cal Herptivite Multivitamin 3x/week. The occasional wax worm as a treat.
Hides- In the 40 gallon there are two hides on cool side, two on warm side, and one big one in the middle with a water dish inside to create a more humid hide.There is a second water dish outside the hides, and a calcium dish. In the 20 gallon tanks there is one hide on the cool side, and one on the warm side. A water dish in the middle and a calcium dish.
All heating and lighting items are checked regularly and replaced about every 6 months.
Attached are some photos of each of them, and Peach's Xray. I lost most of my pictures of her when my old computer blue screened but was able to find a few.
Peach (at the pet store, only pic I could find)
Peach Xray with sand impaction
Daisy
Bowser
Isabel
Daisy In Her Tank on Paper Towel
I am afraid I don't have any pictures to upload of Bella right now.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me at crmason88@gmail.com
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