Juvie not eating

[Spots]

I'd suggest the cricket keeper too...I'm just too lazy when it comes to a DYI project for gecko stuff lol I just never know if my DYI project is good enough. I have a cricket keeper and it is a pain to clean. The poop doesnt come out easy and they always die and smell. But it's nice because the crickets climb up the tubes and then you just shake the tube into a bag to dust them...so you never have to touch them! But you can put them in some sort of plastic container as TifaBea has suggested. Make sure you gut load them and give them some sort of water dish...I just use the cube things but I've hear people use fruits/veggie peices but you'll have to research that as some veggies are not good to use for gut-loading I hear? I would just start with say 10 small (maybe 1/2" or less?) crickets and gut load them and then feed them to her...I'm re-introducing my girls to crickets so I only by 10 at a time so I don't have to deal with the cricket keeper. But once she starts eating them more (and keeping them down!) you can then research the methods of keeping crickets (most likely in the feeders topic thread).

In terms of feeding her...I fed them in a seperate tank ( a previous one, but you can use a large tupperware container). I throw them in there with her and let her eat them until she shows no more interest. Make sure you don't play with her before she eats...because I find they won't eat after you play with them because they are so curious still lol. Then put her back in the tank and take out the crickets from the previous tank. When I use tupperware, I would just dump the tupper ware into the cricket keeper. Nice and easy! and you don't even have to touch them

 

[bowsertime]

Hey guys.

Just a relatively boring update - she's still not eating on her own. I've been feeding her every night with a small syringe of baby food/reptile powder mixed with a bit of water to keep her from dying of starvation. I looked back at some older pics of her and noticed just how much her tail has shrunk. She continues to be alert, quick, and strong, but still shows absolutely no interest in anything that moves... any ideas?

 

[TifaBea]

Can you post a picture of her? And how big is her tail?

 

[Dog Shrink]

I'm out of ideas... I still think the excessive drinking (mentioned way earlier in the thread) is a symptom of a bigger problem, still not on regular food, and losing weight to a noticable point... you need a vet at this point... it's been going on for over a month... I fear you may lose the gecko soon with out more experienced intervention.

 

[Adinar]

Hm, I had no luck with the Carnivore Care when the first herp vet I tried suggested it. It was a pain. The slurry did the trick for us. Make a batch then freeze it in an icecube tray then thaw it out as needed. High in protein, vitamins, and calcium. Everything she needs.

Have you tried talking to the breeder you had gotten her from since this all started? Any suggestions or feedback from them or their site from other customers?

 

[bowsertime]

Her tail seems like it's getting a little thicker now, thankfully. She had another shed yesterday and got most of it off, she just needed a bit of help on her tails, toe, and vent. It seems like she may have scratched herself on the side of her mouth however... is there something I should be doing? Normally I'd use neosporin or something, but since it's so close to her mouth, I don't want her licking it up or anything.

I made a slurry of superworms, water, reptile powder, and vitamin D3/electrolyte supplement with the food processor earlier today. She took to that rather readily, licking it up from the tip of the syringe without much protest. I still had to open her mouth up to get it all into her in a reasonable amount of time, but somehow I just think she enjoyed it more than the baby food (which I'm still keeping on hand). I would have liked to throw some wax worms into the mix, but my local pet store is atrocious at keeping insects/insect supplies in stock and only has butterworms, crickets, superworms, and mealworms.

Unfortunately, the person I bought Binti from had an ad on Kijiji for her to begin with, and has never bothered to respond to any e-mails I sent him (I sent pictures of her to him a few weeks after he sold her, because I thought he'd appreciate them... guess not). So there's nothing I can really get out of him.

Edit: I forgot to mention, the excessive drinking has gone away. I no longer see her drink at all. I'm sure she's probably doing that ninja-drinking thing where she does it in the middle of the night or just before her lights go on, because she is sometimes found around that area when it's morning time, but yeah. I'll get a picture of her up when I come home from work tomorrow to feed her.

 

[bowsertime]

Hey guys. Haven't been able to get a good picture of her yet... she pretty much doesn't appreciate me uncovering her and I've been trying to cause her as little stress as possible by leaving her be unless I need to force-feed her. Suffice it to say, she's not skin-and-bones, but she is fairly slender. She seems to maintaining this state fairly consistently.

She comes out during the day to lounge about and drink for short periods, but otherwise spends most of her time sleeping in her warm hide. When the lights go off, she wanders now and then, but I find her in her moist hide by morning time, until she decides to make the journey back to her warm hide again. She still fights me if I try to pick her up to feed her (and bites!) and is quite feisty and observant.

I changed her mealworm dish recently to one with clear sides, which she initially showed a lot of interest in, watching them for an hour or so from the side, but never touched them and still hasn't. She no longer seems interested either. Her water is being changed nightly for a fresh dish with water and reptile electrolyte/D3 supplement mixed in. Due to the temperatures in my room changing a lot lately, her heating situation has been less than optimal, but has stabilized now with about 88-92F during the day and about 82-85F at night. I bought a new digital probe thermometer to keep an eye on this.

I guess I'm just really at a loss here. Outwardly, she shows no health issues. According to the vet, the only possibility could've been parasites, but after a dosing of metronidazole, nothing has changed. She has not eaten on her own for over a month now. I would try crickets, but she doesn't seem to care for movement, so I don't think it would help. I'm going to pick up waxworms when my local pet shop next has them in stock so I can mix them into a slurry and fatten her up some.

Any ideas? At all? I'm completely stumped.

 

[bowsertime]

Still no change in appetite, but I've upped the feedings to being nightly so she can put on more weight - which she seems to be, slowly but surely. Took some pics tonight... and then she peed on me. It was a moment for the ages for sure.

First, a belly shot... looks pretty normal, I think. The vet thought so.

Showing her weight a little.

Another weight shot.

Helloooo...

Go away now!

 

[bowsertime]

Progress!

I brought home some butterworms today and was going to give Binti her nightly feeding, when I decided to drop one wriggling butter in front of her and see what she thought of it. Looked at it... closed in... then, bam! Snapped it up, wrestled with it for a bit, then swallowed it down and licked her lips. She didn't care for a second offering, so I put everything in her tank back together and left one butter in her feeding dish in case she decided to go hunting.

An hour later or so, I checked back... and it's gone. Doesn't seem like it escaped either; I looked and found nothing. So, I've since put another in in case she cares for a midnight snack.

Yay!

 

[Dog Shrink]

YAY Binti... 'bout time she started to eat maybe she just needed an extra long settling in period. odd that she went for the butter worms... I hear that few geckos actually like them. Are they really active when you drop them in?

 

[bowsertime]

YAY Binti... 'bout time she started to eat maybe she just needed an extra long settling in period. odd that she went for the butter worms... I hear that few geckos actually like them. Are they really active when you drop them in?

Well, she was eating... seems like she's dropped off again. I'm going to be making the slurry tonight, sans the A/D pet food because I can't seem to get it here without a prescription.

The butters are active on and off... I didn't fridge them because I wanted them to stay active with her and it's worked, for the most part, until now that she's decided not to eat again. She ate four of the nine that I got though, which is better than nothing, and I still have a few in case she decides to grab more grub. For now though, slurry time.

 

[bowsertime]

Well, it turns out from a fecal done at the vet's that Binti has pentastomids, which the vet is thinking of prescribing ivermectin for, but is wary since it's so toxic to reptiles. With a little bit of online research (something I really expect the vet is supposed to do, not me), I've discovered that fenbendazole (Panacur) is a much, much safer alternative, and a few other gecko keepers have recommended the possibility of trying Reptaid.

Has anyone ever had a pentastomid parasitic infection and has treated it with either med to any degree of success? What dosages did you use, if so, and are there any other things I need to know about them? I don't have a lot of faith in this vet hospital's ability to prescribe decent meds... the vet barely knew what I was talking about when I mentioned acidophilus and never even recommended probiotics when she prescribed metronidazole for Binti, later saying it was entirely optional and really unnecessary. :/ If she can't prescribe it, where else can I possibly get a hold of Panacur?

 

[Dog Shrink]

So sorry to hear Binti has a parasite something I can tell you about is the ivermectin and the panacure. Before I tell you about the meds tho, this is by no means a recommendation/suggestion that you treat your leo with out veterinary imput/oversite (even if the only vets available are idiots yyou stil don't want to OD your leo). Panacure is available several places but the problem you're going to find is its either pancure C which is intended for dogs (but notfatal to other animals. Just a different ratio of active ingredient). You can get panacure granules right at wal mart either as brand name or as fenbendiazle granulse in 2 and 4 mg packets, 3 packets pr box around $7-10. Another option fo panacure which a lot of rabbit breeders use is called safeguard for horses, which comes in a paste. Problem there is its dosed per 1200 pound animal and you'd waste a lot of it. You'd also have to get dosing recommendations from your vet. Panacure is a lot safer for herps (animals in general). Usually you'd have to almost triple the dose before you see toxic results.

Ivermectin is much more dose specific. If it's 1 drop per 10 pounds then it HAS to be 1 drop. We also use ivermctin. We get the ivermec injectable for cattle (the same thing in your monthly heartguard meds for your dog), for our dogs and our rabbitry. From what I understand herps Don't tolerate ivermec well. Problem is ivermec treats some parasites panacure doesn't and vice versa but BOTH are broad spectrum wormers/mite-a-cides.

So you need to ask the vet if there is another way (or research yourself) what parasites are treated with each drug. I know tractor supplies web site gives a good description of what ivermec treats as well as safeguard for horses (panacure). All panacure/fenbendiazole treat the same parasites but you'd likely get a more complete list by checking the safeguard label rather than the panacure C label. Both are available at tractor supply or most feed stores.

So I hope some of that was helpful. Maybe you an put your head together with the vet and come up with the best treatment plan.

 

[bowsertime]

So sorry to hear Binti has a parasite something I can tell you about is the ivermectin and the panacure. Before I tell you about the meds tho, this is by no means a recommendation/suggestion that you treat your leo with out veterinary imput/oversite (even if the only vets available are idiots yyou stil don't want to OD your leo). Panacure is available several places but the problem you're going to find is its either pancure C which is intended for dogs (but notfatal to other animals. Just a different ratio of active ingredient). You can get panacure granules right at wal mart either as brand name or as fenbendiazle granulse in 2 and 4 mg packets, 3 packets pr box around $7-10. Another option fo panacure which a lot of rabbit breeders use is called safeguard for horses, which comes in a paste. Problem there is its dosed per 1200 pound animal and you'd waste a lot of it. You'd also have to get dosing recommendations from your vet. Panacure is a lot safer for herps (animals in general). Usually you'd have to almost triple the dose before you see toxic results.

Ivermectin is much more dose specific. If it's 1 drop per 10 pounds then it HAS to be 1 drop. We also use ivermctin. We get the ivermec injectable for cattle (the same thing in your monthly heartguard meds for your dog), for our dogs and our rabbitry. From what I understand herps Don't tolerate ivermec well. Problem is ivermec treats some parasites panacure doesn't and vice versa but BOTH are broad spectrum wormers/mite-a-cides.

So you need to ask the vet if there is another way (or research yourself) what parasites are treated with each drug. I know tractor supplies web site gives a good description of what ivermec treats as well as safeguard for horses (panacure). All panacure/fenbendiazole treat the same parasites but you'd likely get a more complete list by checking the safeguard label rather than the panacure C label. Both are available at tractor supply or most feed stores.

So I hope some of that was helpful. Maybe you an put your head together with the vet and come up with the best treatment plan.

My vet isn't in during the weekends, so I'm waiting until tomorrow, opening time, to phone the office up and ask for a Panacur prescription for herps. I'm also hopefully getting hold of some Reptaid from a local reptile dealer - can the two be given simultaneously?

It's a little sad, but I had to do all this research myself without any further clue from my vet... the only idea she really had was ivermectin. She also called the parasite a 'pentafilmid' and ivermectin 'ivomec' or something, which didn't help with online research at all. :/ But I'm definitely going to brainstorm up something with the vet as to dosing. A lot of people online seem to have used Panacur for pentastomids and recommend it. If they don't have it at the vet... I guess I'm going to have to go look for it, or ask another vet if they could prescribe it to me without having to do another fecal - the sooner I can get something into Binti, the better, I think.

Thanks for the recommendations. In the mean time, I've sterilized her entire enclosure, am continuing to clean up any waste as soon as it's seen, and have been syringe-feeding her the gecko slurry twice a day, giving her as much as she can handle before she gets too fidgety. I wish she'd put more weight on her tail.

 

[bowsertime]

So, success with the prescription. I have fenbendazole, which the vet has recommended dosing 0.1mg once weekly for four weeks, and she also prescribed Baytril at 0.2mg once daily. The Baytril, she said, was because pentastomids have the tendency to travel to and infect the lungs, and it was to clear out any complications there. She said it was safe to dose both simultaneously, so Binti got the recommended dosages tonight - something she was none too excited about. Do meds taste awful to Leopard Geckos? She spent a few minutes after I put her back in her tank, just sitting there and looking like she was going to throw up... head thrashed back and forth, mouth open, but nothing came out thankfully... yet.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Yay,,, glad to hear she opted for the safer treatment. Now I see why she wanted to consider ivermec... it treats lung worm infections but so will panacure, it just may take a longer time/longer dosing regimin. She really doesn't sound like she appreciates the meds tho... poor thing... hopefully it gets a lil easier as time passes but ... don't count on it... from what I understand both fenbendiazole and ivermec are both very bitter tasting. Keep us posted... really anxious to hear how future fecals turn out.