Do you think there's something wrong with her?

[Azazel]

Hi, a friend of mine gave me this for a present (since I spent so much buying his animals in the past LOL!) somewhere in early September 08. It's an APTOR het for RAPTOR. But I believe there's something not right about it.

Here's why:

This is about a week or so after I got her. I was told that she is roughly about a month old or so at this point. So, I figured maybe that's why she looked like she was in the photo.

But I suspected something amiss and therefore had quarantined her away from the rest about a month after acquiring her. This is because she doesn't seem to have the same agility as any other leos in my collection. And she doesn't seem to grow correctly like the rest.

Here she is now. She has grown yet her tail and body is quite skinny compared to the rest of my geckos. She eats, peed and defecated like normal with no ill effects except that her body and tail are quite skinny and whenever I pinched her skin, it will not retract back to its original position. Her legs are skinny too. All husbandry remains the same with the rest of my fatty leos. I could not figure out what's wrong with her.

Also, she seems to lack tubecles at the front half of her body as can be seen in the photo below:

What do you think is wrong with her? Do the symptoms suggest that she has crypto?

She is now placed in a very dark room and her appetite and response to my touch are getting pretty much increased (from my own observation).

All feedbacks are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sitting_duck]

It looks like shes grown alot since the first pic. I don't see anything wrong with her.

 

[Pepper]

She looks a nice weight, but your right her tail is pretty skinny..could she be dehydrated?

 

[Lena]

Well, I know in humans, the pinch test is a great way to tell how hydrated they are.. Though I'm not sure about geckos.

In people, the skin not retracting back is a big sign of dehydration.

Give everyone a good idea of how you care for your leos.. Temps, substrate, what you feed, do you provide hides, is there a moist hide, is there a water bowl, is there a calcium bowl.. Etc etc.

 

[Azazel]

Everything is provided i.e. calcium bowl, water bowl, hide, mealworms and crickets. Except for the crickets which I take out after 30 minutes feeding time, the rest is pretty much in the enclosure 247. I add mealworms everytime she finished her meal and replace the water every other day. Temperature is room temperature. Roughly 30-32C on normal days. It's pretty much humid from where I come from. She never had any problem sheddings. She passes stool regularly with normal looking stool sample. But sometimes after she passes stool, there will be a small smear of urates around her cloaca. Not much but enough to be visible to the naked eyes.

The skin condition tells me that it's dehydrated. The problem is I don't know why is this so. The rest are kept at the same husbandry level yet she's the only one who suffers this condition.

What do you guys suggest I do? Hydrate her orally through some form of injection? If so, what is the formula to accurately gauge the dosage needed?

 

[vctkiller]

The last picture is it's eyes regularly like that or is it that she is just blinking.

 

[Azazel]

I think she may have blinked abit due to natural sunlight (I took photos using the natural photoperiod instead of a light box). But I assure you she can't really open wide. It's pretty much just like in the picture. Maybe a little bit wider. But that's about it. Why?

 

[vctkiller]

Maybe its a deformity. Genetic effect from her parents or that there was a glitch in the incubator. Thats the only things that I would consider.

 

[Azazel]

Actually, my friend told me about the defect. But he was only focusing on the eyes and not the rest. I guess I was just being paranoid after reading RT book on crypto especially when he said "60% or leopard geckos in captivity is affected with crypto"...or something that may sounded like that in the book.

 

[vctkiller]

I don't know much about leopard geckos. State if I'm wrong, but when Crypto happens doesn't it make your leopard gecko skinny?

 

[Azazel]

Hey I just noticed one thing after comparing the first two pictures, she now has a smiley on her neck. It wasn't there when she was smaller. Nice!

Yup! I'm a nerd. LOL!

 

[Azazel]

Yup. I guess so. It also mentioned about how the tail will be skinny and thus nicknamed and "pencil tail".

 

[vctkiller]

When crypto happens doesn't make the leopard gecko skinny skinny. Your gecko is only skinny.

 

[Azazel]

Bro, you lost me at "skinny". What do you mean when you say "doesn't make the leopard gecko skinny skinny. You gecko is only skinny"? Do you mean if she has crypto, she will be even more skinny?

 

[Pepper]

yes, she would be more skinny.

 

[Pepper]

This is skinny, skinny.
http://www.exoticpetvet.com/breeds/Leopard gecko sickly 1 web.jpg

Your gecko at least has some mass

 

[Azazel]

Oh wow! That is skinny. Even the tail looks more like a stick than a pencil. What morph is that? A snow Bell?

And in the event that a gecko contracted crypto, its mass should drop gradually or drastically?

 

[Geck-O]

My friends gecko looked like that when he died. Does that mean he had crypto?