Got a new gecko, but I think he may be sick

[Jadie.Glitch]

I just got a new gecko from one of our church friends. He looks pretty standard and they say he's about seven years old. The bad thing is that when we picked him up, I immediately noticed that they had him on very damp coconut fiber and they told me they used an overhead heat lamp. The first thing I did when I got him home was remove the coconut, put him on newspaper, and give him belly heat. I have noticed though that his lips and nose holes are always wet, like he's drooling... but not quite. Our other gecko doesn't have this, which is why I noticed it. My husband said he thought he could hear him breathing, but I haven't witnessed this myself (and he's sitting on my shoulder right next to my ear right now). No sneezing... just the wet face as far as I can tell. Do you think he has a problem, or am I being over paranoid?

I just can't believe the poor thing has been on wet bedding for seven years!! They've had him since he was a hatchling they said. Also, they were feeding him TINY baby crickets. He's fat enough, but I have no clue how he was surviving on those tiny things, especially not gut-loaded.

 

[geckogirl3]

any trowing up

 

[acpart]

I would give it a couple of days and see how he does. From my experience, signs of a respiratory infection include mouth-breathing, lethargy and looking as if it's difficult to breathe. However, I'm not a vet, so take it for what it's worth.

Aliza

 

[M_surinamensis]

any trowing up

Saw this, thought of you. There are conditions besides Cryptosporidiosis which can affect leopard geckos. You're not qualified to diagnose any of them. Please stop asking that question in every health and medication thread you open.

Edit: I'm also not a vet but liquid discharges can be a symptom of respiratory infection or distress, as can those listed by Aliza, along with a few others. Without seeing what you're seeing it's difficult for anyone else to say if it warrants a veterinary trip. My rule of thumb is generally that it's safer to get a professional opinion on anything that I see which I find suspicious, unusual or inexplicable. What constitutes those things is subjective, filtered through the experiences and observations of the individual. Best case scenario, you waste a trip and hear some good news. Worst case scenario, the vet checks things out, finds something that requires treatment, and you start early; before it's severe.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

It would be a good idea to go ahead and look for a qualified reptile vet, even if you aren't sure if you need one yet. It's very frustrating to realize on Friday afternoon that you need to get your animal in ASAP and don't have one lined up yet. Then Monday rolls around and you're scrambling to make an appointment for the next day, only to end up going to a vet that says they treat reptiles, but thinks all lizards need the same thing as a bearded dragon.

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

Okay, I'll be calling around in the morning to locate a specialist in the area.

As it appears right now he's acting completely normal. I haven't witnessed him poop yet since we've had him (about two days now), but he also hasn't eaten much, just two or three mealworms. The lack of eating could be because of the long car trip and changing cages, etc. He's a little fattie, not obese, just big, so I don't think his non-eating is a real problem right now. Just stress.

I'll be calling around and observing him closely to see if things change. I'm hoping that the extra moisture on his face is just him leaking out the extra in his body (does that makes sense?). He was always sitting RIGHT ON TOP of the soggy bedding, and his underside was squishy and moist so he definitely had lots of fluid in him. His skin is back to normal since he's been dry (except for the brown staining on his toes from the wet bedding). But like I said, I'm wondering if maybe that was his body's way of excreting the extra fluid he was soaking up? I dunno, I could be crazy, lol.