Pooping question

[noctua]

Some of you might've seen me in other threads asking about temps, because as of recently my thermostat, digital thermometer and infrared thermometer have been reading all different, and I'm concerned about the frequency of her poops.

She used to poop maybe once a day, but since my temps went a bit wonky she's been doing one big one every two or three days. I've turned up the temps to see if it'll make a difference, but here's a photo of the poop from this morning:



it doesn't have as much form as the ones she was pushing out daily, but I assume its because its an absolute monster of a turd. Does this still look healthy? I just want to make sure its just a temperature thing that I can easily remedy and not anything more nefarious.

She's also developed either fat or calcium pockets, which I've read aren't an issue, but since I won't know which they are without blood tests I'm not giving her many mealworms (she only gets those saturdays and sundays now), and I suppose if the pockets go down then it's fat. She gets 2-3 dusted crickets on supplement days, and I've started giving her more crickets every day where it used to be mainly mealies.

 

[PoppyDear]

As geckos get older the rate of poop produced decreases, how old is your gecko? I would say that this might be caused due by:
A.) Improper temperatures
B.) Age and development which is causes poop to be produced less

Did you manage to get the temperatures sorted out? The poop looks pretty normal if just a bit (Not too concerning) liquidy with a small urate. As humans do, animals have different looking poop, it may have just been because of the too factors above. I think once you sort out the temperatures things may return more or less to normal, however keep in mind the frequency of poop will decrease as they are older, as long as they are normal poops it isn't an issue.

If you are worried about dehydration a bath or feeding insects liquidy feeds may be of help.

 

[noctua]

She's 6 months old. It looks like the temperature was the issue, I turned the thermostat up to 32 from 31 and so far we're back to regular pooping!

 

[noctua]

Well we're back to irregular poops! :roll:
Temps are fine, but she spends all day (and I suspect most of the night) in her humid hide, which although it's on the warm and doesn't reach the same temps as the tile, so I suspect that's why she's not doing much. She went 4 days between poops and when she finally did one it was small but OK looking.
We're on day 3 right now and if I don't see one tomorrow I'll give her a warm bath. Her stomach isn't hard and she's still alert and very enthusiastic about food (eats 10 1cm crickets daily with a few mealworms as treats twice a week)

She never used to spend this much time in her humid hide, and I don't want to take it out (temporarily) because I know it'll stress her...she has a vet appointment this weekend so we'll see what they say about it. Hopefully she gives me a poop to take along!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Well we're back to irregular poops! :roll:
Temps are fine, but she spends all day (and I suspect most of the night) in her humid hide, which although it's on the warm and doesn't reach the same temps as the tile, so I suspect that's why she's not doing much. She went 4 days between poops and when she finally did one it was small but OK looking.
We're on day 3 right now and if I don't see one tomorrow I'll give her a warm bath. Her stomach isn't hard and she's still alert and very enthusiastic about food (eats 10 1cm crickets daily with a few mealworms as treats twice a week)

She never used to spend this much time in her humid hide, and I don't want to take it out (temporarily) because I know it'll stress her...she has a vet appointment this weekend so we'll see what they say about it. Hopefully she gives me a poop to take along!

Even if she doesn't produce a very fresh poop, IF there are feces in her colon a vet can get a sample anyway.

I would not worry. Sometimes we are more "regular", sometimes not. The same goes for our pets.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Click: Fecal Sample Collection Procedure

 

[noctua]

Even if she doesn't produce a very fresh poop, IF there are feces in her colon a vet can get a sample anyway.

I would not worry. Sometimes we are more "regular", sometimes not. The same goes for our pets.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Click: Fecal Sample Collection Procedure

Well this morning she dropped one big poop, so I bundled that up to take along with me to the vet.
He said everything looks good, except the fecal test brought back a small parasite infection, I can't remember the type they identified but it's a common one, maybe Coccidia, so she's on panacur and caster oil every 2 weeks to help remove the worms without tearing her stomach lining.

They tried an enema but she didn't produce anything, until I got home and she dropped one!

I don't know where she got the parasite, the vet suggested either infected insects (i buy them from a farm so i really hope that's not the case) or more likely, she had them when I bought her from a breeder, who co-habbed his leos.
Either way hopefully the meds work and she gets cleared up and stays that way!

I was hoping she'd just lick the meds off her nose, but nope, I had to restrain her and gently ease her mouth open. She gave me her best attempt at a 'back off' bite but I got the meds in her easy enough.

edit: a few hours later and she's been to the toilet twice, once was 90% fluid with bits of poop, and the second time was undigested mealworms. I'm assuming it was a mix of enema fluid and the effects of the panacur? The poor darling looks miserable right now. As soon as she came out of the loo I re-sanitised that spot and put fresh paper down.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

edit: a few hours later and she's been to the toilet twice, once was 90% fluid with bits of poop, and the second time was undigested mealworms. I'm assuming it was a mix of enema fluid and the effects of the panacur? The poor darling looks miserable right now. As soon as she came out of the loo I re-sanitised that spot and put fresh paper down.

Good that you brought her to the vet.

I'd change the paper towels every time she poops, just to keep the parasites at bay.

I hope she makes a solid recovery very quickly.

 

[noctua]

So it's been a month, and the follow up appointment is on saturday...just as well because in the last week she's gone irregular again!

Up til then, while she was on panacur+caster oil it was all well and good, pooping just about every other day like clockwork, and shot up to 33g since the vet visit, where she was 24g.
I had an incident last week where (TWICE in one feeding) a cricket got behind her background and I had to strip everything out to retrieve it. (I am now merciless with cricket leg removal, they're lucky if they have three to stumble around on :-x
And I had to put her in a little box while I did it, which she hated with a passion. Since that no doubt stressful incident (for both of us) she didn't poop for four days...then did one two days in a row, and now it's been five days since then. I've done the warm bath thing and massaged her stomach (doesn't feel hard though i can see a very small dark area in the middle of her underside), and tonight I put a bit of caster oil on a fresh shed worm to maybe slick things up in her stomach, so we'll see in the morning if that's given us results. But I fear that incident gave her a big enough fright to give the parasites another foothold. Could just be I have a very easily stressed individual and this is gonna be a regular battle?

When I first took her to the vet I contacted both cricket suppliers I used, because I read that egg carton that has been used to store eggs could contain coccidia that crickets then catch from bits of egg they eat. One email I put why I was asking, and never heard back from them . The other place I only asked where they get their cartons, and not why. They replied saying they buy fresh cartons that never see use with eggs. So you can guess who I'm buying from.

 

[noctua]

Update! She's parasite free!!! :biggrin:
Had an x-ray done and the vet said it looks like she had either a couple of small breaks or born with a kinked tail, either way he said it's an old injury.


So it looks like she's in perfect health now, and the last case of irregular poop was just her being constipated

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Update! She's parasite free!!! :biggrin:
Had an x-ray done and the vet said it looks like she had either a couple of small breaks or born with a kinked tail, either way he said it's an old injury.
View attachment 43555View attachment 43554

So it looks like she's in perfect health now, and the last case of irregular poop was just her being constipated

:yahoo: :cheer: :yahoo:

Good job!!! Many thanks for sharing both radiographs too.

I'm happy that you followed up with the vet and that Azula is in perfect health.