Advice on Parasites

[jemjdragon]

I've held a male and female leopard gecko in the same tank. Recently (about the past 3 or 4 weeks) Ryoo, my female, has been getting skinnier especially her tail. The male (Mift), however, has gotten much fatter.

After noticing that, I began to monitor how much food she ate and noticed she either ate very very little or nothing at all. Her stool is also greyish now.

The temps in the tank are fine. I have an undertank heater and termostat and I know its not impaction because they are housed on slate tile. I did think it was egg binding but I took her to a local reptile breeder/store and he told me it was parasites.


Right now both geckos are separated and on newspaper/paper towel.
I've called the vet to see if he does fecal testing, etc and am still waiting for a call back.

My question currently is, what else can I do to help her? (And him since they "were" in the same tank so he may have parasites too.) I'm thinking of making slurry for her (I bought a syringe to help. Note that I'm not going to force feed her with it, just put drops on her nose with it) but I think I bought the wrong baby food. The guy at the reptile store said to buy turkey with veggies but on this site it says to use squash and pumpkin.

 

[gothra]

I think you're doing everything right by separating the two and called the vet for fecal checks (make sure you get the fresh moist poop, the dried ones cannot be tested). With regard to the slurry, the turkey and veggie baby food is fine too, don't worry.

 

[jemjdragon]

Alright, thank you very much.
Ryoo is still refusing to eat live food and she even refused her favorite and rare treat of waxies.
If she doesn't eat I won't have anything to get fecal tests. So I am going to go make slurry. Hopefully she'll eat that.

 

[jemjdragon]

Givng a gecko slurry and it actually eating it is easier said than done...
Does anyone have any advice on how to get her to eat more than 5 drops?

I'm guessing its because this is something new and she is going to refuse until she figures out "Hey this tastes great!" or "This is awful..."


Also, gothra said that to test a fecal sample it has to be "fresh and moist". How amI supposed to keep it this way until I get to the vet? Should I put it in the fridge or will a plastic container/ziplock-bag be fine?

 

[gothra]

You'll need to check out for fresh poops more often; when you've got one, put it in a ziplock bag to prevent drying out. You can put it in the fridge in the meanwhile (my vet recommends it), but you'll still need to get the sample to the vet within a day, 2 days max. The earlier the better.

With feeding slurry, some geckos like it, some don't. If your gecko doesn't like the taste of it, then... just be more patient. lol. I have some geckos that hate it too, whenever I put a drop on their lips, they'll wipe it off on the paper towel right away. Just keep trying, eating 5 drops is still better than nothing.

 

[jemjdragon]

I think she's one of the ones who don't like it. I did figure out that if I put the drop on one side of her lips she'll eat it right away instead of putting it directly infront of her.

Good news is she ate one mealworm and one waxworm, but that's about it. She refused anything else offered to her, but I left a few mealies in her calcium dish in case she changed her mind.

Anyways, the vet called back and they do do fecal testing which is great because the other 3 places I called didn't. My mom still insists I call the vet we normally use for our dogs and cat though.

 

[jemjdragon]

Anyways, good news is that she is starting to eat solid and live food. I also have a vet appointment tomorrow. I hope everything is okay.