Enigma Syndrom and optimal care?

[EnigmaEcho]

so my baby miss sophie, now 6 months old, was eating well, nice and fat, very active, pooing regularly, super curious etc. about 5 days ago, my cat let her out of her cage( somehow) came home and she came running out to meet us. found a hole in her tail and decided to put very diluted bacitraycin ( ratio 1 part to 15 parts water- this of course on the miniscule scale of a que tip) the next day as recomended by a pet store. as my husband tried to hold her still, she panicked and started writhing around franticly. i got a little on the spot, and let her down so she coul calm down, hide, whatever she needed. suddenly, she started to walk in circles, tighter and tighter, and she couldnt go anywere. at first, i thought she may have sprained her neck, since it seemed centered on that, and my husband thought she was very irritated by her tail ( i imediately cleaned of the medicine when she started freaking out)- but she seems to be only getting worse.
she is an enigma gecko, and this is her first extreem display of the syndrome. i ve been trying to find ways to cheer her up, since she loves to explore and no longer can navigate- ive been hand feeding her as well and she has small poops ( her apitite is down- im going to get her crikets today, her favorit to hunt and see what happens) ill take her out and let her climb the things she likes and have a few out-of-cage hides for her as well. ( her tail is healing fine, no swelling, no discoloration, nothing
my question is, shes miserable. due to her active behavior beforhand, im reconcidering moveing her to her larger cage setup( a naturalistec 20 gallon tank)- so, what is the best care options to make her happy ( space, objects, etc) and i wonder what kind of life expectancy she could have now that she seems debilitated? i want to make her as happy and comfortable as possible, please help my baby!

 

[lillith]

Some enigmas will suddenly begin showing syndrome signs, and never go back again.
However, a lot of otherwise healthy, happy, non-syndrome symptomatic enigmas will exhibit symptoms when stressed. I would say pounced on by cat qualifies as stressed. I know it's upsetting, but it's possible that the handfeeding may be increasing her stress, and therefore symptoms.

Try letting her be for a while, handle her less , not more until she is fully healed. Use slower feeder items and put them in her dish (i.e., if you use crickets, consider taking off their jumping legs. I know that's mean, but so is a hungry leo.)

I have had some enigmas in my collection go full bore symptomatic, but I have been able to improve them somewhat by making sure they are handled infrequently, have extra vitamins, and are given fatty feeders like waxworms and roaches as a higher proportion than I would normally, up to 1/3 of their diet. Mind you, this only has worked for my enigmas and could be a fluke, I'm not claiming any scientific basis here.

I've also had enigmas I had to entirely handfeed for awhile, and slooooowly recondition to catching their own feeders. I have one I call my "barbie gecko" because she is very beautiful but a complete, wobbly-headed ditz. I have had to put enigmas down that I could not handfeed that refused all food and slowly wasted away. I haven't put my "barbie" girl down because she's always willing to feed. The past few months she's actually been stalking her own prey, she just misses a lot. But I let her try, and then finish off with handfeeding if I think she needs it.

So all in all, I would say let her heal before you freak out about her feeding habits/spinning issues. I think she has a slightly better chance of being reconditioned to "normal" if you give her enough time, especially since she had no issues showing until this incident. Don't feed her for 3-5 days, let her hunger build, let her heal up, and then introduce food items, 1-3 at a time, and just watch what she does. Treat her like she's a newly bought pet you shouldn't handle until she settles...and see how that goes...

I do wish you the best of luck, you seem to be very caring and I think that goes a long way for a good outcome. Enigmas are just unpredictable...

 

[EnigmaEcho]

thankyou so much for your reply! sorry, im a touchy person when it comes to animals, and i just feel bad that shes not able to do the things she wants to- i know time will tell, ill be a little more distant- she just gives me these looks when she starts to spaz, and the other night she grabed a hold of me and wouldnt move for five minutes, fallowing my face constantly! i feel like shes saying " whats going on? help! " she ate a mealworm on her own last night at some point ( i tipped the bowl for her so she could get to them easier), but she seems to HATE the taste of vitamin powder! it was funny watching her ( wide eyed, bite, spit out, shakey, lick lick lick, sniff food, snuff food)
ill definitly have to do the leg thing with the crickets- its her favorite food because she can hunt them ( her favorite thing in the world to do)- hopefuly that can be something i can do that wont stress her!
the cat is always jumping up to her cage- its frustrating! sometimes she minds, sometimes not- she will actualy run TO my cat, climb on her, lick her, etc.- its when its just the two of them she gets nervous. hence the new tank- i just hope that i do that right, and hope the syndrome waynes a little

 

[EnigmaEcho]

ah, crickets made her very happy! i feel bad that i didnt gut load them myself first ( although the store i go to is pritty good with thier crickets), but i figured lets see what happens- first one, took of the back legs, she got fast- so i gave her the next with legs- she had a total of 4! her syndrom barely hindered her- i am so relieved! ill let her be in her cage until she starts to shed again or wants out- thanks again for the advise

 

[M_surinamensis]

she will actualy run TO my cat, climb on her, lick her, etc.

You need to seriously reexamine your control and care of your pets.