Distended abdomen; is this really the end?

[Jayme]

Last week I took my gecko to the vet. She was overdue for an annual check up but also I noticed her abdomen swelling, yet her appetite decreasing and tail slimming. My exotics vet is wonderful and extremely knowledgeable, she examined her and found that her organs are all out of place and several swollen fluid sacs in her body which were visible when shining light against her belly. There's so much pressure from the swelling she labors to breathe. It could be anything from a tumor to an enlarged organ like the liver. I take her back this Tuesday for an xray.

I'm devastated, I've on occasion had stress nightmares about bad things happening to my little girl and this is a nightmare come true. I've had her for 8 years now, I always expected her to live to be at least 15...

I'm wondering, have any of you had a leopard gecko in a similar situation and managed to pull them through? If she is suffering I would rather euthanize her then allow the suffering to continue, as painful as the thought is to me.

On the other hand, if it is the liver issue for example, it *could* be treatable with 3 different medications over the course of 30 days to 6months to take effect. Maybe the swelling would go down well enough and she would be revived. It's not without it's trade offs though, taking the blood sample is likely to cause her tail to drop, and attempting to force several medications down her throat for a month to half a year may cause undue stress and suffering with no guarantee of recovery. An equally painful thought.

I've been watching her and keeping detailed notes for a 5 days (since the vet trip). In that time she's eaten a mere 3 crickets. She probably hasn't pooped in two weeks. There's just no room in her body for any of that. I watch her, she seems dazed sometimes, ignoring even food or my hand in front of her face, and breathes sharply like she might be in pain, waking up from sleep and re-positioning her massive belly. This makes me think maybe I should euthanize her.
On the other hand, she still has life and fight in her, can walk around no problem, runs to escape the vet, bites at the vet and is such a trooper. Two days ago she was lunging at crickets, although she couldn't catch them. This makes me think I should attempt whatever treatment I can afford (I've always had an emergency 500$ set aside for her).

I don't know what to do. What are your thoughts please?
Thank you,
Jayme

 

[PanJaster]

Poor gecko, hope she will get better

I have also one female with ball shaped objects in her stomach, she is about 3y old. First health problems with her were when she was about 1y old, she got sand-impacted (shame on me for sand ), but then she got pretty good after some cure (fortunatelly, she was just lightly impacted). But this year, after copulation, some ball shaped hard on touch objects appeared in her stomach, her belly is bigger than normal. She is like this for a few months, so it is not an egg impaction (she will be probably dead already if it was it), she has still weight about 50g altough I have to force feed her sometimes with roaches (she is so picky, eats only grasshoppers and locusts on her own). In last few days, this objects in her stomach started to get smaller, so I hope she will get allright again I want to tell you to not lose hope, do your best for your gecko. I did not abandon my and here she is, after few hard month she is getting better slowly, so should also yours. Plus you have experienced vet that will help you the most.

Again, hope to see your gecko healthy in few days / weeks do not lose hope

 

[Eavlynn]

If the pressure is built up fluid, couldn't it be drained to alleviate some of that pressure?

Treatment isn't easy on any reptile, and it's never a simple task weighing the costs with the benefits. Our sweet companions can't speak, so it's hard to know how much discomfort they're in. I'm sorry that you and your gecko have to go through this. I hope that everything works out for both of you and that the next vet visit gives you a better idea of what's going on.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Are you positive she isn't impacted? You mentioned she hasn't pooped and her abdomen being distended could be because of a build up of fecal matter in her intestines. Is there anything at all she could have swallowed in her tank? Moss in the humid hide, small bits that may have broken off of furnishings, substrate.

But you say you're going for x-rays, so that will reveal if there is a blockage.

If it were a liver thing, I think that is something best discussed closely with your vet. If your vet thinks that's what it is, ask questions and really come to understand what the trouble is. Discuss with your vet realistically what her chances are and what her quality of life would be like. I think you're right to not want her to suffer. I had a gecko with gout that I ended up euthanizing because the medication wasn't working and she was in immense pain.

 

[Jayme]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond to me today.
PanJaster, thanks for the encouragement. I'm so glad you were able to pull your gecko through their health troubles. Did you find it very difficult to force feed? I'm worried about how difficult it will be to get food/medication in my leo's mouth. I worry about hurting her. I've offered a cricket and a butterworm to her today. She looks at them as if she's hungry, but then closes her eyes, sitting very still and breathing weird. My vet said her body is so swollen that there is probably not much room for her to consume the food. At this point I'm considering making the 'gecko slurry' to feed to her.

Eavlynn, thank you for your kind words. I'm not sure if the fluid can be drained, my vet didn't mention that as an option. I'll have to inquire.

Neon, I keep her on paper towel and there's nothing to swallow so it's very unlikely. Many months ago I did have her on moss in the humid hide to try to help with her toes shedding but she's eaten and pooped normally since then. Thank you for the advice and sharing your story. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm going to take my notes about my gecko and a list of questions to ask the vet to the appointment tomorrow. Hoping for the best, thank you all again for your time. I'll post an update tomorrow.

 

[PanJaster]

At the beggining, it was pretty hard to force feed her, took me about an hour to get a cricket into her ... but it goes better with some experience & also I don't force feed her too much, when she really does not want to eat, I let her be and feed her next day. Also for me, dubia roaches seems to be the best for force feeding, because they are quiet flat and you can get them into geckos mouth much easier.

 

[Jayme]

Ok, today was the big day. I went in to the vet expecting the worst. Now I'm hopeful.

The X-Ray shows her organs as a large indistinguishable mass. Her colon, which should be more in the center apparently, is pushed far over to the left. We could see poo and the vet managed to pull some out. It looked good albeit a little dry from being in there a little too long. We could see the upward pressure of the organs up onto the lungs, and a strange pocket in the bottom right that could be a follicle. There's no fluid in her lungs and the xray doesn't really show any fluid in the abdomen so that's good. She used a needle to investigate it, said it was sticky but doesn't really know what it is.

My vet suspects an infection where the organ lining has become inflamed, and has proscribed antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine. She doesn't suspect fatty liver disease, and has never seen anything like this she said. I really hope this medicine works.

To help support Jasper through this I'm switching her to the gecko slurry. My vet even had a lot of the ingredients for it on hand, such as the milk thistle and pedialite and threw it in on the house! What a wonderful person she is. My gecko's body is so inflamed it takes food and poo a really long time to pass through her tract, so hopefully the slurry will be easier for her. I'm not looking forward to blending 200 mealworms in my blender... :uhoh2:

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting updates in this thread.


Above: You can really see how massive her belly has become.
Below: Cutie face! Wish us luck. <3

 

[PanJaster]

That seems a lot more optimistic Fingers crossed

 

[Jayme]

Update:
First day of medication down, 9 more days of antibiotics and 4 more doses of anti-inflammatory medicine.
I managed to get her to eat about .5-.7 mL of the slurry. She seemed to like it. She's so bloated I'm not sure if I should strive for the daily 1mL of slurry but at the same time she's getting so thin, I'm really worried.

 

[PanJaster]

How is your gecko doing now ? Is she getting better ?

 

[Jayme]

Hi guys, I'm back with a final update. She was non-responsive to the medication and is doing worse than ever and clearly suffering. She's losing weight despite me hand feeding her, her colors are dull, she's just as swollen as ever and can barely keep her head held up or keep her eyes open. I love her so much I can't bear to see her suffer, I think it's best I euthanize her. When the vet reopens tomorrow I'll be making the appointment. Special thanks to you, PanJaster, for your support and encouragement through this, I wish my story had a happy ending.

In retrospect I can remember her stomach looking more unusually shaped for a while, but I had always assumed it was just her normal, individual way of storing body fat and did not worry about it. If I had taken her for regular, annual check ups, the issue would have been caught sooner and maybe she could have been cured of whatever it was. Hindsight is 20/20, so they say. I hope others will read this thread and learn from me, please take your animals in for proper check ups, and keep good records of their eating and weight (and maintain good husbandry practices of course) to help them live long, full lives.

I also regret not doing all the cool things with her enclosure that I had dreamed up, instead she lived with a basic set up her whole life. I took for granted that she would live well into her teens.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of her to remember her by:

 

[Neon Aurora]

I'm so sorry to hear that it turned out this way. I know the feeling, and it is hard. A lot of what you just said hits home hard for me because I feel very similar about losing my dog recently. You tried very hard to save her, though, and that is more than a lot of people would do for a leopard gecko. I respect those who can recognize when their animal's quality of life is suffering too much and make that final selfless decision.

 

[PanJaster]

I'm sorry it ended like this I think you did the best possible for your gecko when you realized something is bad, more than most gecko owners would do. Hope others will also read about your gecko and realize that regular check ups will only help find hidden problems with their pets.

 

[Eavlynn]

I'm so sorry Jayme. We all wanted her to pull through. It breaks my heart that you have to euthanize her, but you're doing the right thing. It takes a lot of strength to realize the cost to the animal outweighs the benefits of prolonging treatment, and to make the decision to let them go. She had a great life with you, and you'll always have those fond memories of her.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Jayme]

Thank you all for your kind words, it really means a lot to me.

I just wanted to add in this post that my vet ended up discovering in the autopsy that it was in fact a massive tumor on one of her ovaries causing the swollen appearance. It took up 3/4ths of her abdomen, and that's why we couldn't distinguish anything in the x-ray, because the whole thing was a tumor basically.


I had her cremated. The ashes should be back any day now. I like to think she's a ghost gecko on my shoulder, a little angel of sorts. RIP little girl.