Dragondrool
New member
My first post was about my crestie Talos who was choking on his shed. He was fine last night and recovering, at least I thought, since he was climbing. Today when I got home from school he was on the ground and more dirt was in his mouth. I immediately got him out and ran water on his mouth. He choked more, and this time didn't stop choking. I saved the pieces he coughed out because I wanted to call the vet's ER and reference what he was coughing out. While we were on the phone he started making popping noises and his mouth was filled with bubbles and mucus. It was hard, like stones or hardened black stuff with bits of skin.
I told my mom and she called a few places. This took a long time as it's after hours and the weather is bad. He was very weak, wouldn't even grip my hand. He lost around half his weight and wouldn't move or breathe for periods of time. Kept opening his mouth and trying to cough but whatever was in there caused damage, because the next time I tried to rub his stomach he was frozen. I knew he was dead. You could see the brown and red blood inside of his stomach. I went back and kept rubbing his stomach because I was distraught and I didn't want him to die, even though he was already gone. I'm happy to know that I was there for him for the whole time and saw his last breath. At least he had my mom and I give him pats and love before he passed. We kept him in the "ICU" we make shifted for him and I put the lid on after he passed.
I'm so upset because I really loved him. Crested geckos are by far my favorite geckos and very pleasant to look at. I loved him so much. His temperatures were fine, moisture was fine, he had a normal bowel movement around last week and was very active. Healthy weight. Ate food and drank water. Two days ago when he started to shed, I think it was too much and he swallowed too much skin and was impacted. His substrate is Ecoearth which I was told would not cause impaction.
I got him because I wanted to move on from my first crestie who was sick and only a month/few weeks old. He was from Petco and I should've seen it coming but I was ignorant then. I thought getting another crestie might create a new and better feeling towards owning them. I will no longer be owning crested geckos anymore, or any time soon. I feel like bad luck and that's the reason I'm very anxious around reptiles. I know I care for them right but at the end of the day if they get sick or die I feel responsible.
-------
More information on our routine:
He ate Repashy and I was planning to buy Pandora to mix it and eventually introduce meal worms or crush up crickets in his food. His cage is misted once in the morning and once at night. I make sure that the substrate is moist. His temps are always between 70-79, sometimes at 81, but I make sure to unplug the heating pad for the day until I get back home so he doesn't overheat. It never drops below 60. He's been eating and I've seen him drink water from the mist all of the time. He's very active, he never minded being held by me (he was a bit anxious than others) and liked to chill on my shoulder. I made sure he never got too stressed.
The issues started when he began to shed. He stopped moving, maybe skittered around and eventually began to eat his substrate and choked.
I told my mom and she called a few places. This took a long time as it's after hours and the weather is bad. He was very weak, wouldn't even grip my hand. He lost around half his weight and wouldn't move or breathe for periods of time. Kept opening his mouth and trying to cough but whatever was in there caused damage, because the next time I tried to rub his stomach he was frozen. I knew he was dead. You could see the brown and red blood inside of his stomach. I went back and kept rubbing his stomach because I was distraught and I didn't want him to die, even though he was already gone. I'm happy to know that I was there for him for the whole time and saw his last breath. At least he had my mom and I give him pats and love before he passed. We kept him in the "ICU" we make shifted for him and I put the lid on after he passed.
I'm so upset because I really loved him. Crested geckos are by far my favorite geckos and very pleasant to look at. I loved him so much. His temperatures were fine, moisture was fine, he had a normal bowel movement around last week and was very active. Healthy weight. Ate food and drank water. Two days ago when he started to shed, I think it was too much and he swallowed too much skin and was impacted. His substrate is Ecoearth which I was told would not cause impaction.
I got him because I wanted to move on from my first crestie who was sick and only a month/few weeks old. He was from Petco and I should've seen it coming but I was ignorant then. I thought getting another crestie might create a new and better feeling towards owning them. I will no longer be owning crested geckos anymore, or any time soon. I feel like bad luck and that's the reason I'm very anxious around reptiles. I know I care for them right but at the end of the day if they get sick or die I feel responsible.
-------
More information on our routine:
He ate Repashy and I was planning to buy Pandora to mix it and eventually introduce meal worms or crush up crickets in his food. His cage is misted once in the morning and once at night. I make sure that the substrate is moist. His temps are always between 70-79, sometimes at 81, but I make sure to unplug the heating pad for the day until I get back home so he doesn't overheat. It never drops below 60. He's been eating and I've seen him drink water from the mist all of the time. He's very active, he never minded being held by me (he was a bit anxious than others) and liked to chill on my shoulder. I made sure he never got too stressed.
The issues started when he began to shed. He stopped moving, maybe skittered around and eventually began to eat his substrate and choked.
First one was my fault for trusting Petco, my recent one... I just don't know what happened. Someone told me it was because of the substrate, which I do think was an issue since he was eating it, but I don't think that was the root issue. I think something was wrong with him. Is it possible he caught something from my tank? I got it a year before from a science teacher in my old school who gave it to me for free (nothing was wrong with it, he just had a lot of animals and leftover tanks) but I didn't clean it. But again, it's been a year since getting it without touching it or exposing it to anything so I can't imagine any parasitic animal or harmful bacteria surviving on there without a host/source to food/water