Necropsy results & need help

[atheris978]

History: Adult Male leopard gecko age 7 months, appeared to be of normal weight and health when I received it from a breeder. He was aclimated and offered food, but never seem to really thrive. Over a period of 3 weeks, he went down hill and showed signs of what seemed like metobolic bone disease and signs of paralysis. He lacked muscle tone, and while showing interest in prey, was unable to catch crickets. Only mild attempts were made to catch prey. His resting and moving postions were with the belly being dragged along the ground. Supportive therapy was given in the form of turkey and veal baby food via dropper. UV light as well as supplimental sun light was also offered. The animal continued to to go down hill and on 4/23/07 passed away. The gecko has lost some of his original weight, but was no where near being poorly underweight. I performed a necropsy and too photos. The first and immediate thing that was noticed was the enlarged liver, with many small (1-3 mm ) fatty bodies throughout the entire liver. It appeared that approx. 50-60 % of the liver mass was made up of these fatty bodies. All else appeared to be normal throughout the body cavity. My questions: Fatty Liver disease ? Hepatic lipidosis or could this be gout.
I'm suspecting that being this animal was purchased from a breeder, with the breeders intent to raise the animal into an adult animal as fast as possible. A heavy feeding schedule was used. BUT, I have seen many animals " power fed " with no obvious ill effect. As an interesting note, The first symtom that this animal displayed was very odd. While still acting normal, his entire head and especially his lower jaw area swelled up, seeming to be over hydrated. The swelling extended to some degree to the arm pit area. The swelling reduced over a period of 10 days, but never seemed to disappear.
I'd like to hear some comments and ideas. I have the pictures of the necropsy if anyone would like to take a look at them.
Please e-mail me directly at [email protected]
Many thanks for your help.

 

[snared99]

Hmm a couple things here. First hepatic lipidosis is fatty liver disease(which is common amongst our scaly friends) I do not think power feeeding would have cause that is in deed that was the problem. Second the swellings under the arm are not due to over hydration, but is a form of storage for proteins and some beleive calcium. Another question here is how did the stomach contents look and the interestines?? Thes could have been due to a parasite infection. THe swelling of the jaw could be due to lack of calcuim( was the jaw rubbery??) If you could post the pics it would be very helpful. I do necropsy on animals and have pics of leo necropsys tha i have done. I am a vet tech by day leo breeder by night...lol send the pics to [email protected] if you do not want to post.