Any advice besides....

[Whitey]

go to the vet... So here's the deal.

I picked up my girl about a year ago along with her two sisters. They went through their first year of breeding just fine. Well, shortly after the breeding season stopped, I noticed that she (let's call her Smiley), stopped eating. So for about a month I watched her and she gradually, and I mean gradually lost weight. Then I decided to separate her from her sisters. Well, over the course of the next two months, I was basically hand feeding her repti aid (hoping that she would eventually want to start eating again). She didn't lose weight at this time though. So, moving right along to this month, she started to throw up the repti aid when I would give it to her. So, I brought her to the vet, and he gave her some medicine to help keep her repti aid down. This worked for about a week, then she started throwing up the repti aid again. So I bring her back to the vet, and he gave us medicine for worms/parasites, so I give her the medicine, and BAM, she is able to keep repti aid down again, only now, it goes straight through her system and out the other end, FOLLOWED by RAPID weight loss. So, I find another herp vet, and get xrays, fecal, and he gives me more medicine for parasites that the first doctors medicine might have missed. Fecal came back negative and the doctor made me STOP giving her repti aid and feed her A and D dog food (apparently it has more protien in it). Well, I have been doing this for the past three days, (1 1/2 CC 3X a day). She just passes it through her and her weight loss is horrific. It seems every time I check on her, shes lost more weight. In the course of two weeks she's gone from 44 grams to 26 grams, and this is with "medicine". Any suggestions as to why she quit eating or won't eat? Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, and her tank mates from before, are 100% healthy still. So highly doubt it's crypto.

 

[gitrdone0420]

I am no expert on reptiles. But I know in dogs and cats A/D gives them a lot of diarrhea, (In fact, at work that is our nickname for A/D- Alot of Diarrhea) lol. So, if it were my leo and I wasnt taking her back to the vet, I would stop feeding the AD and get her on a slurry type of food, which consists more of a diet for reptiles. You can find the directions here: http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=19356.

Obviously, as that thread says, it IS NOT medicine and I would not advise you to go AGAINST what your vet is saying, because well I am not a vet. However, in my opinion I would think that the Slurry is a better food then just AD.

Hope this helps. But even though you dont want to hear this, I would also find another vet to take the leo back to if you dont like the few that you saw before. Good luck.

 

[got spots?]

Yea slurry works miracles I hear, but honestly I would go fiind another vet I am sorry. Try to put calicum powder on his/her nose they normally like it off too.
=[ I am sorry to hear your situation but get her on slurry asap

 

[robin]

remember the slurry is not a cure, it is rather an aid/supplementation. it certainly is not a cure-all. it should be used along with some sort of treatment prescribed by a veterinarian. it won't cure parasites, disease, bacteria or infections.

 

[got spots?]

remember the slurry is not a cure, it is rather an aid/supplementation. it certainly is not a cure-all. it should be used along with some sort of treatment prescribed by a veterinarian. it won't cure parasites, disease, bacteria or infections.

Thanks for that add on, reading my post it made it seem that way.
slurry should only be used to get some weight on the leo if I am correct. Of course it won't cure anything being just food. I don't mean that slurry is like a medicine I personally think though if they leo starts to eat it may be able to pull its self back together with the help of meds.

 

[Whitey]

I hope so.... I'll check out the slurry and try it. Today she hasn't pooped at all, which, I guess is a good thing, and I gave her three helpings of the A and D. If she continues to lose anymore weight, I'll def. get her on some slurry.

 

[gitrdone0420]

I hope so.... I'll check out the slurry and try it. Today she hasn't pooped at all, which, I guess is a good thing, and I gave her three helpings of the A and D. If she continues to lose anymore weight, I'll def. get her on some slurry.

Honestly, I wouldnt wait until she continued to lose weight... I would try the slurry now and take her off just the AD. Just because she hasnt pooped today doesnt necessarily make that a good thing, there could be something going on internally that you are completely unaware of.
When you are taking her to these vets, are they vets that have handled reptiles continuously? I know vets that will try to help with reptiles, but dont know much about them (Covering reptiles in vet school only takes up like one semester... Not that long...) So, my best advice at this point would be to find a vet who is really good with reptiles and who knows their stuff..
If it were my leo, I wouldnt want it suffering anymore

 

[Whitey]

Well, the "new" vet that I took her to (the one that did the xray, fecal, and put her on the A and D) handles all of the reptiles at our local zoo, so I'd have to say he knows more than the first guy who just occasionally handles reptiles.

The thing is, is that she is still quite active, and alert, Oh, and I forgot to mention this, in the xrays, he said that her bones were not as "strong" as he would like to see them. He had me stop giving her calcium and wants me to just use the UV light to get her bones back to normal also. I don't know, this whole thing is just wierd. She just went through a shed too, which came off perfectly.

 

[thestack510]

If you follow the slurry recipe as it is written it has Hill's A/D in it. As a matter of fact it is the first ingredient on the list. It will surely work better than Hill's A/D alone. I hope you can save your Leo. I wish you luck in your efforts.

 

[Whitey]

Update: Came home this morning from work and noticed one of her sisters is also getting skinny, so I placed a mealworm in front of her... she licked it, then turned her head away. I have now quarantined her also. Any advice on what this may be would be awesome. Her third sister is perfectly healthy, and the male is perfectly healthy. I just washed out their tank with windex and bleach a few days ago.

Is there a such thing as overbreeding?

 

[robin]

is the male new?

 

[Whitey]

Nope...

 

[got spots?]

yea sometimes leos die after breeding due to dificulties. I would seperate all 3. change cages daily. Keep everything clean enough to eat off of. Also if by worms u mean meal worms try something new like wax worms or phoneix worms are good too i think