No Poops for 9 days... PLEASE HELP ASAP

[newbie0731]

About your leo:
- Sex: male (?)
- Age & Weight: 1yr (?)
- How long have you owned your leo: 1 month
- Where was he/she obtained (ex. Pet store, breeder, wild caught, friend): pet store

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo: still trying to tame him, but he'll walk onto my hand and i can lift my hand just higher than 3-5 inches or he'll try to bail out
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now: just as active moves around fine, no issues there. I work full time so I only see him 1 hour in the morning and from 6:30 to 8(his night time)
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe. this is my first problem so far
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal) hasn't pooped in 9DAYS!
- When was the last time he/she went: 12ish days ago
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on: on 10/13 i fed him 6 medium crickets dusted w. calcium and vitamin supplement, as normal for once per week, no poop for five days. 10/20 was told to see if he'd eat and he did eat another 6 crickets no dust. I tried bathing and he wont lay in the water, he just climbs the walls. I am worried about trying any kind of oils and I really cant take time off of work to take him to a vet unless its absolutely needed... I dont even know where I could take him.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size 32gallon
- Type (ex. glass tank) glass tank
- Type of substrate: carpet
- Hides, how many, what kind: one stone hide
B) Heating
- Heat source: under tank heating pad
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side) basking rock 90, cool side 80
- Method of regulating heat source: none, open to suggestions
- What are you using to measure your temps:digital therm on basking rock, 1 velcro therm in middle and stick on therm on cool side
- Do you have any lights (describe): 1 light for daytime, 15watts
C) Cage mates
- How many (males, females): none
- Describe health, or previous problems: none

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much) normally 6ish crickets every 4 days, dusted crickets once a week.
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect: dropped in individually to keep count
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands) calcium: Rep-Cal Multivitamin: exo terra
- What are you gut loading food with: total bites premade food

 

[acpart]

If the gecko is eating, is normally active and not getting more and more bloated every day, it's probably OK. Sometimes they just don't go for awhile. You can also check at the edges of the tank under the carpet in case there's poop there that you don't see.

Aliza

 

[newbie0731]

If the gecko is eating, is normally active and not getting more and more bloated every day, it's probably OK. Sometimes they just don't go for awhile. You can also check at the edges of the tank under the carpet in case there's poop there that you don't see.

Aliza

Thank you very much Aliza. He is my first gecko, but my boyfriend and sister have had leos in the past. I've done a lot of research to make sure his habitat is good, and in that research I've read alot about impaction. None of those examples have had such a length of time without passing at least something. I have check every inch of his cage and nothing... I hope he passes something soon. Should I keep feeding like normal? I normally dont feed him unless he's passed something. I hope I'm just being overly cautious, but I would much rather be safe than sorry. Again, thank you so much for your help. :main_thumbsup:

 

[newbie0731]

I've been doing online research, just in case, and it looks like mineral oil is a helpful home remedy, but there is so much conflicting information. what are your thoughts on the usage of mineral oil for impaction? what would be the recommended dosage?

 

[newbie0731]

Update: I should note that prior to this event I was only feeding him after I found poop in his cage (normally he would poop about three days after feeding). So when a week passed without a poop I worried. I fed him on the 7th day of no poop (cant starve him), and then another week passed without any poops. During this time he showed no other symptoms of impaction, which kept me hoping that I was wrong about impaction.

After being consumed by worry, I decided to treat my leo with mineral oil shortly after my original post. At the least it would help with digestion I figured. At first I tried putting drops on his face for him to lick off but that only went well the first time. After that I put the drops on his crickets. I gave him two drops everyday for for about 4 days. During this entire time I did tons of online research on impaction and looking for any other reason why my leo would be this way. In this I found that people were feeding their leos every day to every other day, not being stupid newbie like me and waiting for poop. So I began feeding everyday (I missed one day I had to go out of town). I would feed him 6 crickets (two of which had drops of mineral oil on them).

This brings me to yesterday, I tried to feed him dusted crickets, he only ate two and refused the rest. I thought, this is it... he's actually impacted. I've been working on taming him so I took him out on my bed and he let me massage his stomach (finally). I never thought I'd be so excited about poop but today HE POOPED, a large amount. It was probably the size of a nickle maybe. But it was pretty healthy looking (brown/black with urates), a bit softer than usual but that's probably because of the mineral oil.

So all in all, my leo went 15 DAYS without pooping. I will be feeding him every other day now, and hopefully he wont have me worrying anymore.