Introduce Yourself: Frazzle and Bart

[El Barto]

About your leo:
- Female
- 22 years old
- owned 21 years
- obtained from a pet store

A) Health/History
- Handled once a month
- Currently bloated with fluid. Bowel movements have stopped. Eating has stopped. Very active. Sometimes releases fluid and chirps when handled. Healthy body fat.
- no significant issues in the past
B) Fecals
- last fecals were small and stringy
- last bowel movement was mid October 2023
C) Problem
- 2.5 weeks of increased bloating with fluid. Bowel movements have stopped. Eating has stopped. Very active. Sometimes releases fluid and chirps when handled. Healthy body fat.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- 55 gallon tank
- glass tank
- coconut fibre and excavator sand
- warm hide, humid hide, and cool hide
B) Heating
- iridescent bulb heat lamp (day only).
- Heat rock beside warm hide
- ipower reptile heat pad under tank warm hide
- Cage temps: 26 Celsius and 32 Celsius
- temperature measured with temp strips on tank wall
C) Cage mates
- no cage mates
- no previous problems

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- mealworms 2-3 times a week)
- mealworm placed in empty glass mason jar during feeding
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- calcium dust mealworms once a month
- gut loading mealworms with carrots

 

[Mr. Leopard gecko]

About your leo:
- Female
- 22 years old
- owned 21 years
- obtained from a pet store

A) Health/History
- Handled once a month
- Currently bloated with fluid. Bowel movements have stopped. Eating has stopped. Very active. Sometimes releases fluid and chirps when handled. Healthy body fat.
- no significant issues in the past
B) Fecals
- last fecals were small and stringy
- last bowel movement was mid October 2023
C) Problem
- 2.5 weeks of increased bloating with fluid. Bowel movements have stopped. Eating has stopped. Very active. Sometimes releases fluid and chirps when handled. Healthy body fat.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- 55 gallon tank
- glass tank
- coconut fibre and excavator sand
- warm hide, humid hide, and cool hide
B) Heating
- iridescent bulb heat lam (day only). Heat rock
- Cage temps: 26 Celsius and 32 Celsius
- temp measured with temp strips on tank wall
C) Cage mates
- no cage mates
- no previous problems

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- mealworms 2-3 times a week)
- mealworm placed in empty glass mason jar during feeding
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- calcium dust mealworms once a month
- gut loading mealworms with carrots

I AM NOT AN EXPERT

Some things I recommend you take out the "Heat Rock". Heat rocks are deadly for animals since the rocks temperatures can't be controlled so it can accidentally burn your gecko.
Another big problem I see is that I don't see any UVB strips or bulbs, this may lead to MBD so get yourself a UVB.
I don't have a UVB but I feed my gecko calcium with D3 every feeding day (Sometimes I don't give him the calcium on 1 feeding day). Also giving your gecko calcium every once a month can lead to MBD and especially without UVB, it can be more serious.
Try to give your gecko calcium powder every 1 a week after you get UVB.
I don't like your temps in your gecko enclosure that much. The basking area should be 90-95 degrees and the cool side should 75-80 degrees.
I wouldn't just feed your gecko mealworms since variety is very important. I would recommend crickets (They are a pain to keep alive though).
And I can see that your gecko is sick by how you are describing his health problems. I would recommend you to take out his substrate and keep her on paper towels until she gets better.
Not sure about your gecko's feces though, my gecko is pretty big, like about the size of a penny.
However, your enclosure size is very big, Im jealous

and welcome to the forum

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome!

 

[acpart]

There's a range of how different people care for their geckos. Most of the time leopard geckos are provided with vitamin D3 through supplements as opposed to UVB light. It isn't that they shouldn't have UVB light, but that they seem to do fine with supplements. I feed my leopard geckos twice a week and supplement them at one of those feedings with Repashy calcium plus which has calcium, vitamin D3 and other vitamins/minerals. The temperatures you describe are similar to what I have and everyone is doing well (as well as can be expected in a crypto positive household anyway). My oldest leopard gecko died in May at age 19. 22 years is amazing for a leopard gecko. I'm no expert, but it could be that systems are wearing out leading to the symptoms you're seeing. You could consider a vet visit, or try to make her comfortable and see how things go.

Aliza