can someone please HELP!? i think Buddy is dying.. ):

[sistuhhwendd]

Okay, so for sometime now, my leopard gecko Buddy seems to be sick. I kinda know he is because he is not eating and hasn't been for about almost a month now. It all started three to four weeks ago. I noticed his eyes were shut and he didn't seem to wanna eat or anything. (I usually feed him meal worms and sometimes crickets.) He didn't open his eyes for about a couple more days, and i figured i'll go on the internet and see what's wrong. Low and behold, he didn't shed his eye caps and people were saying use a q-tip and some water and try and get his eye open and put some preservative free eye drops in his eyes and it'll pass. I did that, and it didn't pass. He shed again, and he shed his eye caps, but his eyes are still closed. He still hasn't been eating and he seems so lethargic. Buddy always let's me hold him and he'll sit on my shoulder and crawl around; he's really friendly. But now when i try and help him out a little, he just freaks out and runs away from me. I tried force feeding him with chicken baby food (because if i try and give him a meal worm or something, he can't see so he won't eat it), but he gets so stressed and spits the baby food out, and i feel so bad. Yesterday i noticed his stool wasn't normal at all(most likely because he's not eating).. it was a clear, sticky looking substance and he was eating it.. He seemed constipated because while he was passing his stools, he was moving so slow.
I feel like such a bad owner but i always take good care of him. In his terrarium, i have pebbles on the bottom with one side with the heat lamp and a heating pad so it's always warm, and the other side i have a little hut for him with some fake moss i spray with water everyday so he has a little spot if he gets too hot or for when he sheds. (But lately he's just been sitting under the log under the heat lamp and not moving. He likes his head pet, and now when in do that he just runs away. sad.) Also, his little pond bowl i refill everyday with water. I would take him out every couple of days to feed him and he would be so energetic and pounce on the meal worm and attack it, and it's so cute. My parents bought him from a local pet store in July of 2009, we moved in August and we can't have any pets in our new house, so my boyfriend decided to take him in and we've had him at his house ever since then and he's the best pet that i've ever had, and i can't imagine losing him. I can't afford to take him to the vet so any advice or help would be highly appreciated.

 

[acpart]

I'm really sorry, but unfortunately I think you're just going to have to take him to the vet. I'm not a vet but it sounds to me like some kind of infection (geckos don't have eye caps like snakes, by the way but it's easy for them to get some shed in the eye) which only proper diagnosis and antibiotics could cure. Maybe if you could ask your parents and boyfriend to come up with $10 each it would be possible. Other people on the forum have been in the tough situation of being teenagers and not having money and having their parents initially say they wouldn't take the gecko to the vet, but after reading the (sometimes strong) opinions of people on the forum about responsibility for animals, they have often changed their minds.

At this point if you just can't take him to the vet, the only other things you can do are to keep him warm, make sure he gets water by dripping some on his nose, see if he'll eat a little chicken baby food by putting some of that on his nose. Have you been giving him calcium? I saw a gecko last month that had been acting fine, the family said, until about a week before, when it got kind of lethargic. When I saw it, it clearly had advanced MBD because they hadn't known about giving it calcium. It's legs were rubbery and its spine was bent. I'm not saying that is the case with yours, but it's worth checking out as well.

Good luck,

Aliza

 

[fl_orchidslave]

That sux I hope he pulls through for you.

 

[sistuhhwendd]

thanks..
i gave him some calcium and he decided to lick his eyes, and they opened for a while finally. and then he yawned? which i have never seen him do before.
kinda scared the crap outta me.. lol. and he sneezed after that.. which i have also never seen him do. he's just the cutest thing and i hope everything's gonna be good. if i give him calcium everyday and give him some TLC, i think that's the best right now. affording a vet is kinda outta the question right now so any home remedies to make him better will just have to do at this point. ):

 

[mindgamer8907]

Well one way to go about this is to diagnose the symptoms: possible constipation, possible eye infection, lethargy.

The third symptom would likely improve if the other two symptoms are addressed. If he is having a rough time with his poops then try giving him some warm (luke warm to the touch) water soaks and a nightly or daily drop of vegetable, olive, or other naturally occuring edible oil. This can be done by applying a dab on the nose which he may lick.

I've had geckos with problems too (as have so many others) and to be honest (and this is me kinda putting my reputation on the line here, I know that most people aren't fond of just using an over the counter supplement and hoping for the best) I've come across a product that works quite well with at least helping the animal cope with infections and healing and otherwise vitality. Unfortunately, it's far more expensive than a vet visit and you're probably better off at a good herp vet anyway as a bottle has an expiration date.


But honestly, I swear by this stuff. It looked like my gecko Camille was going to die of the various infections plaguing her. She had a massive mouth infection, one in her eye, and one in her tail. Soon after we started her on a correctly dosed regimen of the Repti-Aid though she perked right back up and she's been strong and healthy since. All
of her infections appear to be long gone (several months past anyway).

If you do decide to use it, it's "rept-aid" or some such thing. One drop is supposed to be the dosage for a 100 gram animal so you'll have to dose it down. I can help with that if you'd like. Keep us updated.

 

[sistuhhwendd]

i was looking at some other forums and i seen someone with the same problem as Buddy, and they used Zilla Jump Start which helps with their feeding and gets them back on track with eating. It's price is $7.99 and i was thinking about using that. i'm going out tomorrow to get some stuff for him so i'll most likely get that while i'm out, unless you've heard of this stuff and it's not a good idea to get it. Also, i gave him a little bath today and gave him some nutrients mixed together, (vitamin e, pumpkin for beta carotene and calcium) and put a little on his nose and he ate some of it. he enjoyed the bath and then after wards i let him walk around on my bed and on me and he was just so energetic and it made me so happy that he was aware of his surroundings. i think he may have cataracts because when he opened his eye, it was blurry and it was kind of oozing some clear stuff, so i gave him some eye drops and he was just licking away at his eye, aware that he had some stuff in it. so, so far he's doing "alright" but not the best that he's been.
i will def keep you posted though.
thank you for you concern and sympathy and advice, it's really appreciated.

 

[Khrysty]

The blurry, oozing eyes aren't cataracts. It's an eye infection. As Joe said, we've cleared up eye infections before with Reptaid (not to be confused with Repti-Aid, which is a different product entirely) with excellent results. If he won't fully endorse it, I will. A vet visit seems as if it would be far more expensive than a thirty dollar bottle of this stuff, unless you've found a much cheaper vet there than the ones I have out here.

I'd really give the stuff a try if you can't get your gecko to the vet. It's helped so many of our animals.

And Jump-Start is a good product, too. It's a temporary solution for an off-feed animal but it usually gets them started on live food pretty quick, in my experience.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

I have used Reptaid with good results for several different animals with several different issues. It's 24.97, shipping from the main dealer, Chameleons Northwest, is only 4 bucks and very fast. If you can get it, you will have it within a few days. Here's the link http://www.reptaid.com/ It takes so little- if you were close by I would give you some.

If you have some contact lens saline, it's an excellent and sterile eye wash. Good luck

 

[Sandyballs]

a few months ago one of my geckos eyes got badly swollen, what i did was make tea and get the tea baggie when its warm and moist, put it in her eye for a few seconds, do this trought the day and it may get better,

I dont know if it was this that helped or just time
Also what I used was (Lagg's manzanilla tea)

 

[RampantReptiles]

I am curious about the temps on the warm side of the tank.. you never really mentioned what they are. I imagine they should be warm enough with a heat lamp and under tank heater but that would be a good thing to check.

I dont meant to frighten you but you mentioned the gecko yawning and sneezing. Have you noticed any discharge around the gecko's nose? Is there repeated yawning like if you watch for a few minutes or was that just a one time thing? A gecko with a respiratory infection could have discharge around the nose as well as gasping for air that could look like yawning.

Also vet visits are really not that expensive. I mean the worst part is that it is essential $50 to sit in the same room as the vet. Then medication would be the cheap part in this situation... probably $20 depending on what you get. I just want to the vet for one of my geckos with a respiratory infection and got baytril(one of the most commonly used antibiotics). The visit cost me around $75. But when you take into consideration that the alternative is to try 2-3 $20-25 products you will be spending basically that much.