Leopard Died- Trying to figure out why. Help if you can.

[GroovyGeckos.com]

EXTREMELY generous, since it has been a month, and sounds like there is no way it could have been your fault. You have got to stop somewhere. Usually after a live delivery, up to 12, 24, or 48 hours later, the gecko is the owners responsibility, not yours.

Set a length of time, in which your geckos will be guaranteed for health, and once it has gone past that length of time, you are no longer responsible, for what may happen to an animal you`ve sent out. There is no way, that a month later, you should be required to do anything. Why? Is it your fault? My guess, is no. You basically have no guarantee, that your gecko/s have been taken care of properly, once you have transfered ownership. So more than likely, it is the customers fault.

Some breeders do not guarantee anything more than a live delivery, and yes that is exactly what they mean. You get a live gecko delivered, then it is out of their hands.

Sorry to hear about the gecko though. Turning brown, sounds like stress.

 

[Drunvalo]

i agree with dan.

 

[GeckoGathering]

Cause of Death,??????

This may be rather late on this post but I just read it last night......Some one posted parts of this copy: Due to cause unknown, one of the salivary glands gets infected. Because the animal was stressed , the immune system wasn't able to restore the inflammation. The infection kept spreading to the throat and different cavities in the head of the gecko, causing a seizure which led to the death of the gecko. This pretty well hits home on a death here. She had been to the vet twice for eye infection, seemed like she was coming along then "bang" ...checked on her one morning......dead that evening....stiff outside the humid hide...total tail dropped
inside the hide with blood....After talking with my daughter (an R.N.) I think the infection spread causing a stressful death from systems shutting down. Her living conditions were very much cared for in all respects, and vet care concerns were given....
What else can we do???????
Sad to say, but they won't all be with us for 20 years. Take care. HJ

 

[Stevie]

If a vet can't find something, you can't treat it. It's very sad, but the cold reality. Antibiotics don't always help (unfortunately) and sometimes the gecko have to heal themselves, wich they're sadly not always capable to...

Greets,

Stevie

 

[Alusdra]

Poor gecko...

I would say in the future that you should recommend that a person take their gecko to a vet if they call you with a concern. "Cloudy eye" might have been a mushroom growing out of it or something- people's descriptions of medical problems can be crazy. Or it could have been completely unrelated. Telling them to go see a vet is probably best- then at least someone with (theoretically) experience can see the animal hands-on. And the droppings- the owner might have thought sandy droppings were 'normal', after all- if that's all he ever saw. A gecko can be partially blocked, after all. In this case impaction sounds less likely- but without a necropsy who knows?

And it is super generous of you to want to give this guy a refund so long after. If it were me I would at the least want a necropsy report before sending him another- if it was a husbandry issue (which sounds rather likely) then do you really want to send another gecko into this same situation to possibly meet the same end?

 

[Gecko Ranch]

It is a bit puzzling the owner did not go to the vet as soon as the eye clouded. Eye problems are often symptoms of ear nose and throat issues. Color is also key, once a gecko loses its normal color drastically like that we are descending on the downhill slope fast. Then the undigested poop or shed, now you have three symptoms that signal veterinary care is needed. In combination this is a full out Star Trek Red Alert!!!:bomb:

As part of my care sheet I encourage folks to establish a relationship with a non-domestic vet soon so they are not scrambling or hesitating when they need one. I hope this info helps you for the future; that's how I look at my losses.

 

[Herpcam]

I'm betting on husbandry and a good possibility the temps didn't help much. It is very difficult to get a good temperature gradient with overhead heating in a 10 gallon enclosure. I wonder why they switched from the UTH to the heat emitter in the first place (if they actually switched and didn't use both). They obviously had a reason, so maybe it was because they realized (or thought) the temps were too low with just the UTH. Then, it was either too long with low temps, or they used the emitter or both and it just got too hot in the enclosure.

I've found that more often than not, when people contact me with leopard gecko health issues, it is the result of husbandry problems. Sometimes the owner is not sure what they need to do, they take 'advice' from pet store employees (experts?), or they don't have the money to do it right. Whatever the cause, most of the time heating is the issue or one of the issues. In fact, I'm amazed at the number of people who have geckos at home without even a way to determine the temperature accurately. Many that get their kit from the local Petco-type store only have some sort of stick-on thermometer and then try to adjust temps up to 87-90F on those, resulting in a drastically overheated tank.

Otherwise healthy leopard geckos are pretty tough animals. I've personally had one live for around 6 months or so in my house outside its cage when I was on an Iraqi vacation a couple years ago. We're talking southern California, so temps weren't drastically cold but they dipped down pretty low some nights. I guess the gecko lived off of normal household insects and whatever crickets escaped the other enclosures. She could have hung out under one of the racks where the heat tape may have been putting off enough to warm the ground a little. The key to its survival was probably the fact that it had the ability to choose the environment that was best for it. The gecko in this thread didn't have the ability to leave the 10 gallon tank, which may have contributed to its death.

Someone mentioned that it was pretty quick for it to die, so maybe improper temps allowed an unidentified medical issue (parasites, trauma, stress, etc) to take over. I guess there's no way to tell what actually happened and caused the gecko to die. It's unfortunate when this happens.

I'm sorry to hear about the gecko dying and I also agree that you're being very generous offering a refund or credit. Initially, the business side of me would be inclined to go with a credit...but do you really want to send another gecko to the customer now knowing how it will be kept. I typically offer 72 hour guarantee unless I know the person I'm sending the geckos to. After that, there is simply too many things that can happen that I don't have control over.