I think my baby gecko is sick and I don't know what to do.
- Thread starter ShelbyLu
- Start date
So, Pretty seems to be bouncing back. She aggressively hunts crickets in her cage, is active and even ate a horn worm.
Sweetie will NOT eat no matter what we do. She is so thin and I took a fecal sample this evening and I have an appointment with a herp vet tomorrow at 10am. I'm worried that they will want to euthanize her. They warned me on the phone that it is a possibility depending on what they find/think.
I also talked to a reptile specialist in our area and she said there are certain parasites that are easy to treat and some that are difficult to treat. So, I guess I'll know more tomorrow. The man that owns the reptile store says that when he breeds geckos a certain amount do just stop eating. Do you really think it's that common?
I feel bad. I keep wondering if we could do something more, but I don't know what we could do. I've offered her 4 different types of live food options: crickets, dubias, meal worms and horn worms..OH 5 and wax worms.
I wonder if she's sick so she just has no appetite? I'm guessing if it weren't for slurry/reptiboost that she would have died already. If anyone can think of something we haven't tried, I'd love to hear it.
Thanks,
~Shelby
Sweetie will NOT eat no matter what we do. She is so thin and I took a fecal sample this evening and I have an appointment with a herp vet tomorrow at 10am. I'm worried that they will want to euthanize her. They warned me on the phone that it is a possibility depending on what they find/think.
I also talked to a reptile specialist in our area and she said there are certain parasites that are easy to treat and some that are difficult to treat. So, I guess I'll know more tomorrow. The man that owns the reptile store says that when he breeds geckos a certain amount do just stop eating. Do you really think it's that common?
I feel bad. I keep wondering if we could do something more, but I don't know what we could do. I've offered her 4 different types of live food options: crickets, dubias, meal worms and horn worms..OH 5 and wax worms.
I wonder if she's sick so she just has no appetite? I'm guessing if it weren't for slurry/reptiboost that she would have died already. If anyone can think of something we haven't tried, I'd love to hear it.
Thanks,
~Shelby
Update:
We never got to the vet because I woke up super, super ill. We've had it going through the house and it's my turn.
BUT, I have this awesome vet and I called her and talked to her at length about Sweetie. She said since she's so very thin that normally she wouldn't advise that, but that I could go ahead and start giving her the antibiotics that I brought home Tuesday from a Bearded Dragon that I rescued Monday night. I have way more medication than Hermes (The beardie) will use and since Sweetie was at the point that we may have to put her down, she said there is nothing to lose by trying it.
So, Friday I gave her her first dose and by today (Sunday night) she has actually eaten one - 2 wax worms that was in her cage and at LEAST parts of two crickets. Oh, the other thing that we did is we FINALLY found a dimmer. We couldn't find one anywhere. So we were able to turn down her UTH, which was the only thing in her husbandry not right. But we had a towel down so that the floor was the right temp, but this made a great place for crickets to hide that Sweetie couldn't get to.
So, for the first time in a while, I have hope for her! She's been good about taking her medicine, so I'm really proud of her. If she keeps eating, I think we might just have a gecko on the way to recovery. Pretty is doing so well. Her belly is fattening up and she doesn't just lay around anymore. She's more active in her viv now. I'll take pics this week.
I guess it's a great message of not giving up because these two got so skinny, I was wondering if it was even possible for them to come back. It definitely takes a lot of dedication. We had to hand feed them slurry and repti-boost for quite a while before they started eating again. I still don't know why they stopped unless they just had really bad transition shock.
I don't know if anyone is still following this, but I'll give you an update in a bit and add pictures.
~Shelby
We never got to the vet because I woke up super, super ill. We've had it going through the house and it's my turn.
BUT, I have this awesome vet and I called her and talked to her at length about Sweetie. She said since she's so very thin that normally she wouldn't advise that, but that I could go ahead and start giving her the antibiotics that I brought home Tuesday from a Bearded Dragon that I rescued Monday night. I have way more medication than Hermes (The beardie) will use and since Sweetie was at the point that we may have to put her down, she said there is nothing to lose by trying it.
So, Friday I gave her her first dose and by today (Sunday night) she has actually eaten one - 2 wax worms that was in her cage and at LEAST parts of two crickets. Oh, the other thing that we did is we FINALLY found a dimmer. We couldn't find one anywhere. So we were able to turn down her UTH, which was the only thing in her husbandry not right. But we had a towel down so that the floor was the right temp, but this made a great place for crickets to hide that Sweetie couldn't get to.
So, for the first time in a while, I have hope for her! She's been good about taking her medicine, so I'm really proud of her. If she keeps eating, I think we might just have a gecko on the way to recovery. Pretty is doing so well. Her belly is fattening up and she doesn't just lay around anymore. She's more active in her viv now. I'll take pics this week.
I guess it's a great message of not giving up because these two got so skinny, I was wondering if it was even possible for them to come back. It definitely takes a lot of dedication. We had to hand feed them slurry and repti-boost for quite a while before they started eating again. I still don't know why they stopped unless they just had really bad transition shock.
I don't know if anyone is still following this, but I'll give you an update in a bit and add pictures.
~Shelby
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