My gecko threw up a bug and it was still alive!

[Luisa]

Hello, interesting question today.
My gecko is currently getting treatment because she has respiratory problems. She always seems a bit exhausted but today I tried feeding her though. I fed her two medium sized roaches with a tweezer. (About the size of a cricket)
A few minutes later she threw them up.
I left the dead roaches in the tank for about an hour, then I decided to remove them. But I realized: One of them was still alive and moving! Not very alive, it looked a bit deformed. I always assumed the bugs would immediately die after being eaten. It scares me a bit. How long can they "survive" inside a gecko?

 

[acpart]

Sometimes if the gecko throws them up right away they may still be alive. I've seen this with super worms before. The bug probably went down (whole) and then came right back up. I think that if a feeder is properly chewed and swallowed it would die pretty quickly.

Aliza

 

[Luisa]

Little update:
I tried feeding her smaller feeders because I thought the feeders might have been to big for her.
She kept them inside for almost an hour, but threw up again.
So for the record: Those two little roaches were inside my gecko for almost an hour and when she puked them out, they were totally alive. One of them was even able to walk around and I considered just sitting it back to the colony :roll: (Which I didn't do, because I thought it might be unhygienic)
I mean... Isn't it somewhat unhealthy for a gecko to have living roaches inside it? What if they bite her from the inside

 

[acpart]

I guess it depends where she's keeping the roaches --if they're sitting at the back of her throat it would make sense that they're still alive. The question is whether this is happening because she doesn't like them and is holding on to them and then throwing them up or whether she is having a problem that needs a vet visit. I don't think you should put the roaches back in then colony, especially if you have other geckos. If this gecko has a contagious problem, you don't want it to be transmitted to other geckos through the feeders.

Aliza

Aliza