Distended Belly

[Ishtoya]

About your leo:
- Sex - Female
- Age & Weight - 11 Years and 55-58 grams
- How long have you owned your leo - 1 Year
- Where was he/she obtained (ex. Pet store, breeder, wild caught, friend) Friend

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo 3-4 times a week
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now. Acting fairly normal, maybe a little more agitated than normal.
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe. She was very thin when I got her, but she put the weight on rather quickly.
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal) All have seemed normal.
- When was the last time he/she went Unfortunately, I can't say. Someone was watching her for me and I came back to a bit of a pile to clean, so I don't know when any of them happened.
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on A bulging belly, much larger than normal from what I can tell. It doesn't feel hard, however, like I would expect out of an impaction. She did just shed recently, and none of her poops after really looked like shed poops, is it possible that she's still working on the shed or should I be especially concerned about an impaction? She's also been turning her nose up at food/hasn't eaten anything since she shed.



Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size 24" long, 18" wide, 12" high
- Type (ex. glass tank) Glass tank
- Type of substrate Slate tiles
- Hides, how many, what kind 3 Hides. One Warm dry hide, one cool dry hide, and one humid hide right in the middle. (Humid hide uses paper towels and mossy stuff..
B) Heating
- Heat source UTH and overhead 60 watt bulb (we live in Alaska and she's somewhat close to a window. Hence the bulb.)
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side) 85-89 hot side, 68-72 cool side.
- Method of regulating heat source Laser thermometer & checking frequently
- What are you using to measure your temps ^
- Do you have any lights (describe) Overhead 60 watt bulb
C) Cage mates
None

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much) 10-15 Giant mealworms twice a week (sometimes I change out a feeding with 2-3 superworms.)
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect) Mix of feeding with tongs and leaving the worms in a dish.
B) Supplements (describe how often) Dust every feeding.
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands) Alternating with Reptivite (no D3) and Rapeshy Ultimate Calcium
- What are you gut loading food with Rapeshy insect gut loader stuff

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ishtoya]

Minor update: She's actually in the process of pooing now but it's very large and she's having trouble getting it out completely. Is there anything I can do to help her? (Vets are all closed for the holidays, so I'm on my own here.)

 

[Ishtoya]

Update 2: She finally managed to pass the poop completely. It definitely looked pale like a shed poop but had a significant amount of moss in it from her moist hide. I'll be confiscating the moss and replacing it with just moist paper towels. I'm guessing she accidentally ate it while she was shedding.

In the meantime I'll be giving her some warm baths and a drop of olive oil on her nose in case there's any more, and I'll keep an eye on her. She's still not interested in eating, but it looks like she's finally starting to pass her blockage.

 

[sausage]

im glad to hear she finally pooped. i feel for the poor luv passing all that lol.
do the warm baths twice a day for a few days, combined with a few small drops of the olive oil once a day should help any thing else pass.
they can be clumsy some times. one of mine threw up a load of paper towel once that it ate while shedding. its never happened again though thank god.
keep a good eye on her till the vets reopen, record her weight ect.
i would also say your hot side temps are a tad to low. what are you using to measure it?

 

[Ishtoya]

I have a laser read thermometer that I bought at a food supply store a few years ago. It seems really accurate, so I trust it more than the little cheapy one that came with the tank. I just checked and got a reading of 86.4, which is pretty much average. The problem is, I have the recommended size UTH for her tank, it just doesn't seem to be up to snuff. We tend to keep our house fairly cool, and being December, it's actually -5 outside right now and her tank is on an outward wall. It's really hard to keep temps up when it's just so darned cold in here. That's why I run the bulb above her too to help heat the air a little.

Should I maybe invest in the size up UTH? I worry about making it too warm in there for her.

 

[Ishtoya]

Another Update: She passed a second poo last night (this one didn't have any urate attached) which was a lot of mossy grossness after I gave her a bath and stroked her belly a little. Her belly's gone down significantly already and she looks pretty normal! I'll give her another bath today and give her a dab of oil, but after today I'll just leave her be. I think she's got it mostly handled now.

 

[sausage]

oh yeah that looks better. glad shes not had a problem passing it. as far as UHT goes i think the recommendation is that it covers only 1/3 of the tank or that theres enough room for the whole gecko to lay on with room to spare. iv got one of those inferred thermometers too, they are really good. the fact that she seemed to pass the moss fine is a good indicator that the temps are right.
during the winter i put polystyrene round the back and sides or thick towels, have you tried this?

 

[Ishtoya]

I'm pretty sure she's out of the woods now! She passed a third poo which had some moss in it but was almost normal. Nice and firm. She's also started eating again. Took a couple super worms and two wax worms (her christmas present).

As for the UTH, I think part of the problem was the one I got was suggested for her size tank, gallon-wise, but her take is a long, so it's actually much wider than it is tall. I'll go pick up a bigger mat next time I'm out. The one she has is providing heat enough, just in a small area, so a bigger one should up the temps a little bit and spread it out a little more, hopefully. I'll go wrap some towels around that side of her tank now, though, until I can get the heat where I want it. Thanks!

 

[tb144050]

Be careful with a larger oversized mat. It is a good idea in theory, but in theory it may cause the surface temps of a smaller tank to be too HIGH. Use that IR thermometer to check the temps. If needed, get a "Table-top lamp-dimmer cord" from Hom_D_pot for $11 to lower the power of the mat.

 

[sausage]

i have found that if you sandwich the UTH in between ceramic tiles the heat is distributed quite well and does not tend to over heat. my male seems to like it hotter then my females so i have a cave on top of the heat mat.

 

[Phoenix1115]

I've had this problem with one of mine and it was that he had eaten moss from the hide also. He bloated and stopped eating for a while until he passed the moss. Then the swelling went down and he went back to normal. I suspect that was the issue for yours