My Gecko is having seizure, help pls

A

aaaeeeo

New member
I just got an AFT for about a month. He's a 7 months male and eating good.
Couple days ago he accidentally ate a small piece of moss when he was hunting crickets. He didn't poop for 2 days after that and I suspected he have impaction. So I gave him warm bath and 3-4 drops of olive oil as many people suggested. It seems worked and I found a large poop this morning.
However, I noticed he is twitching his legs and arms for several times today, very similar to having seizure. And sometimes even like a spasm from his body or chest. I never saw him doing that before. Many people suggested it could be calcium crash, but I always give him crickets fed with flukers cal dict and dust, and he's always eating very good and active. I don't know how to give him more cal if that's the case.
Could the seizure related to impaction?
 
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Elizabeth Freer

Elizabeth Freer

Active member
Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet isn't high calcium at all, if that's what you're feeding the crickets. I can recommend a better product that's made in the USA.

There's some chance that your AFT is getting too much calcium carbonate and/or vitamin D3.

Please share the exact name of the product(s) you dust the crickets with and how often. Have you been heavily coating his crickets or lightly dusting them like a sprinkling of powdered sugar on a cake?
 
A

aaaeeeo

New member
Elizabeth Freer said:
Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet isn't high calcium at all, if that's what you're feeding the crickets. I can recommend a better product that's made in the USA.

There's some chance that your AFT is getting too much calcium carbonate and/or vitamin D3.

Please share the exact name of the product(s) you dust the crickets with and how often. Have you been heavily coating his crickets or lightly dusting them like a sprinkling of powdered sugar on a cake?
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Yes, I'm feeding crickets and sometimes mealworms with Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet, Fluker's Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified and some fresh baby carrots.2 of 3 days I dust them with Fluker's calcium with D3 and the other day I dust them with Zoo Med Reptivite reptile vitamins without D3.
I use a cup with cover to shake crickets/mealworms with powder. I guess crickets are usually fully covered by powder after shake, mealworms on the other side seems not very sticky with powder and more close to lightly covered
 
Elizabeth Freer

Elizabeth Freer

Active member
aaaeeeo said:
Thanks!
Yes, I'm feeding crickets and sometimes mealworms with Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet, Fluker's Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified and some fresh baby carrots.2 of 3 days I dust them with Fluker's calcium with D3 and the other day I dust them with Zoo Med Reptivite reptile vitamins without D3.
I use a cup with cover to shake crickets/mealworms with powder. I guess crickets are usually fully covered by powder after shake, mealworms on the other side seems not very sticky with powder and more close to lightly covered
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You're welcome! :) I think you may be overdosing these supplements.

Please significantly cut back your current schedule. Even crickets should only be "lightly covered". I use a tall deli container: add powder, add crickets, swirl. Then "bounce" the crickets against the container's bottom to shake off excess powder.

I use 1 tall deli container per supplement. Then tightly cap container until next use.

Do this instead:
  • Dust with Fluker's Calcium with D3 @ 1 feeding per week
  • Dust with Zoo Med's Repti Calcium without D3 (or NOW calcium carbonate for humans) @ 1 feeding per week

  • Vitamin D is fat soluble. A single dose sticks around ALL week long and metabolizes calcium carbonate during that entire week.
  • Replace Zoo Med's Repti Calcium without D3 with Zoo Med's ReptiVite multivitamins without D3 @ ONLY every other week
  • Consider switching to Zoo Med's Repti Calcium with D3.

Zoo Med Repti Calcium with vitamin D3---phosphorus-free ***Highly RECOMMENDED***
38%-43% precipitated calcium carbonate
Vitamin D3: 22,907 IU/kg, 10,390 IU/pound

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

Fluker's Calcium with vitamin D3---phosphorus-free......:-( Extremely high D3 content
Click: Fluker's Calcium with D3
No less than 36% Ca from limestone flour, flavor
Vitamin D3 minimum: 100,000 IU/pound
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A

aaaeeeo

New member
Ty, I didn't realize too much cal or vitamin could be bad.
I still feed him everyday as he is only 18g now. So you mean dust 2 times every week and for other days just feed without any dust?
Is this temporary? Should I dust more after a while?
 
Elizabeth Freer

Elizabeth Freer

Active member
aaaeeeo said:
Ty, I didn't realize too much cal or vitamin could be bad.
I still feed him everyday as he is only 18g now. So you mean dust 2 times every week and for other days just feed without any dust?
Is this temporary? Should I dust more after a while?
Click to expand...
Yes. Just lightly dust 2 times every week and for other days just feed without any dust right now. If the symptoms subside, possibly you might add a 3rd dusting per week of plain calcium carbonate -- no D3!

Maybe this schedule will be good for life.

For a very short while I used Zoo Med Reptivite multivitamins @ a normal frequency with two Northern Velvet geckos. Each of these Northern Velvet geckos developed a small head bump. I stopped the Reptivite multivitamins. No more Northern Velvet geckos began growing those bumps.

Zoo Med's Reptivite multivitamins are good. Some geckos need way less than others.

Here's the new link to Professional Reptiles' Pro Gutload Insect diet from my care sheet.

Gutload Ingredients for Bugs & Worms......thanks to Olimpia -- August 2013

"A commercial gut loading food like Bug Burger or Superload (both by Repashy), Cricket Crack, Dinofuel, etc. is going to make your life easier AND provide a nutritious diet to your crickets at the same time. Avoid Fluker's gutloads, as they are super feeble in their formulas.

"If you opt for making your own gutload at home, here is a list of great ingredients to use:
Best: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion flowers & leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress, and alfalfa.
Good: sweet potato, carrots, oranges, mango, butternut squash, kale, apples, beet greens, blackberries, bok choy, and green beans.
Dry food: bee pollen, organic non-salted sunflower seeds, spirulina, dried seaweed, flax seed, and organic non-salted almonds.
Avoid as much as possible: potatoes, cabbage, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, corn, grains, beans, oats, bread, cereal, meat, eggs, dog food, cat food, fish food, canned or dead insects, vertebrates."
Click to expand...
 
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A

aaaeeeo

New member
Yes, I was dusting feeders everyday as many care sheet suggesting alway dust the feeders..
Thanks, I will try your schedule
 
A

aaaeeeo

New member
Okay.. so I want to post an update.

I did everything Elizabeth suggested and he seems stopped having seizure, tks!

However, two weeks later, he again stopped pooping while still eating good. I tried gave him olive oil and warm soap everyday, but not working. After a week of no pooping and sometimes urinary only, he also became less interested in food.
And thought he may had impaction because I do have a bio active tank with mosses in it. I made emergency appointment with vet but they didn't find obvious sigh of impaction. They still gave me lactulose for help him pooping.

After another week of no pooping, he also stopped eating. I went to vet again, they did X-ray and still no impaction/blockage found. They just found his calcium is low in bones which I think could be normal given he stopped eating. He did finally poop during his vet visit. They told me the poop is somewhat undigested so he may have a digestion issue. They also did the fecal analysis but nothing found. They still gave me metronidazole and told me maybe small parasite is bothering him which is hard to find during fecal analysis. They also gave me calcium gluconate.

Another week after that now, he is still not pooping, still not very interested in food, but I am able to get him eating twice. He didn't seem to lose wright but maintain at 26-27g though.
However, yesterday he suddenly became aggressive. He was very tamed before even when he just arrived, always walk around and lick my finger when I was handling him even when he is shedding.
But yesterday, when I put him on my hand, he will just stand still slowly wiggle his tail and suddenly try to run away or jump off my hand. When I try to catch him back, he will bite me. It gets even worse today that he bite me 4 times.
I don't know if it's just a sign that he is sick or if it's I recently fed him medication on his nose, poke him with crickets and got him checked in the vet make him really nervous. But he was also fine to take meditation on his nose and was quite calm before yesterday.

At this point, I feel I don't really know what else I can do. With him being aggressive now, I can hardly medicate him. And I am not sure how helpful it will be to pay another vet visit. They already did bunch of exams and we still don't know what's wrong.
 
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