Not eating!

[GeckoMandi]

Ok I have finally become worried about my male blizzard, he's now not eating at all and shows no signs of wanting to eat. He is dropping weight as well very quickly.

He hasn't ever ate mealworms for me, only a few maybe at the most. He has had a fecal almost 2 weeks ago, and all clear. But I was kinda worried about this because the vet I went to is our cat/dog vet and won't even see him but he did agree to do fecals for me, I'm wondering if I should start to think about taking him to a herp vet myself. I will have to take off work and drive almost 2 hours if I have to.

He is very active, his poops are normal and still regular not runny like or anything. He acts like he wants to eat but never does. I did get him to take 2wax worms tonight, but I don't want to keep giving him those. I've tried everything mealworms, phoenix worms, crickets and he won't eat.

Another thing he is always all over the tank, I mean active wise diggin and tearing up his house!

 

[gothra]

How much weight has he lost? Some of my geckos do lose up to 15% of their body weight during the slow down period. Although I say slow down, some of them really stop eating altogether. I did intervene by giving them a bit of slurry if they had nothing in their stomach for more than 2 weeks, don't know if that'll do them any good, buy certainly will make their mama feel 100% better. During this time, my geckos are active as usual, and fecals always come back negative. I guess some geckos are just like that.

I agree that you should get a fecal done again if you don't trust the cat/dog vet; otherwise you'll be worried all winter...Welcome to the club, I'm going through the same thing every winter.

 

[GeckoMandi]

He was about 73 grams and now he's at 65, that's a big drop. Either that or my scale isn't all that great and I don't think it is. But I have thought about the slurry I used it on another one of my geckos not to long ago.

Do they slow down alot? I mean we haven't had any COLD weather yet it's freakin 82 degrees here today!!!

 

[gothra]

Wow that sounds like a big drop...how long did it take him to lose 8 grams? I think its definately a good idea to get a fecal done again. Just to make you feel better, I have 2 males that slowed down since september, Bubu was 93g on 23-09, went down to 85g on 14-10 (that's 8g in 3 weeks), but remained pretty stable at the moment. Another male, Gel, was 105g on 16-09, he's losing a little weight every week, his weight last night was 98g. And he'd only eaten 2 roach nymphs last month.

I posted something similar a while ago, maybe you can check that out:
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=2732

 

[KiKi]

find a reptole vet and take him to it. dont take any chances.

 

[GeckoMandi]

Ok heres the deal, I've called the nearest one to me which is an hour drive and then she said they don't do fecals or see leopard geckos, ok she gave me another vet to call this one is the 2 hours away one I thought was the first one and they said the same exact thing.

Now I am stuck because the others are 3 and 4 hours away, I hate living in the GD sticks!

So monday morning first thing I'm going to call every vets office within 30 minutes of me, I don't mind the drive but these people I call won't even see him or a do a fecal?? WTF am I supposed to do! I want him to get care and the proper care at that.

I swear if he dies or gets worse, I will sell my entire collection because I will not keep something I cannot get care for.

I do like my current vet, but honestly I don't trust him to do what I need to be done, and it really sucks. He's great for my cats/dogs but reptiles are not his thing, and he's been doing this for years the man is in his 70's.

Edit: Sorry the weight drop has been within the week, week and a half.

 

[LadyGecko]

I hope that you have some better luck calling more vets and that everything goes OK with him
my fingers are crossed for you both
Sandy

 

[gothra]

Good luck, Mandi. I hope you can find a solution to this.

 

[GeckoMandi]

Well I got him to take 1 waxworm from me last night, but still I am worried no change at all, I dropped him some crickets in this morning and he just layed there he is getting worse I can't tell by just looking at him and I feel so damn bad about this, I love my animals and I want them to get taken care of. I just hope and pray I can save him

 

[KiKi]

you need to get him to a reptile vet

 

[GeckoMandi]

you need to get him to a reptile vet

When I find one that will see him I will take him, didn't you read I was looking for one above?

In the mean time I'm going to make slurry tonight, and get some more food in him. There is a good many vets around and someone will have to take him, I hope.

Edit-I hadn't made the slurry yet but I did get him to eat 3 more waxworms, and 6 medium phoneix worms and he seems to be a little more active, but still going to find him help either way to see whats going on, I also gave him some water with the dropper and he lapped up 2 full things of it.

 

[GeckoMandi]

I found a vet in my town that will see leopard geckos, the nurse I talked to breeds them!! I was so freaking happy!!

She thinks he may have worms, and is going to call me back and find out if the vet that see's them can come in today or first thing tomorrow to check him out!

Edit: she called me back I have an appointment on thurs at 3pm! I'm very happy now!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Mandi, I'm so glad you found a vet close by! I'm just thinking out loud here, bit usually parasites like pinworms will not cause the gecko's appetite to go away. If he has been housed individually there is not much of a chance he would have any other types of parasites, but it is always a good practice to rule that out ASAP. Bacterial infections will not show up on fecal tests, but there is usually diarrhea associated with this type of gastritis.

Any chance you have females in the room that could be ovulating? If so, you may want to consider moving the male's enclosure to another room temporarily. Also, if you can, turn up his warm side temperature a few degrees and keep a light on to increase the photocycle. You may want to consider using my slurry, too(?).

I hate it when our geckos worry us like this! Good luck getting to the bottom of things... keep us posted.

 

[GeckoMandi]

I talked to her about that, I mean he has no signs of parasites poop wise, he has dropped weight fast though. Ya know something the other before bed I caught him in his tank ALONE rattling his tail like he would do before breeding and NONE of the females were even out. lol So I'm hoping he's just sexed crazed and nothing more.

He has lived alone since I got him, in his own tank all my geckos are kept apart at all times.

He is beside 1 female and 1 male on my rack you seen Marcia, but he can't see them all though I'm sure he smells the female. If I move him to the top shelf alone do you think that would help?

I will try and just take him out of the room all together.

 

[kart]

I found a vet in my town that will see leopard geckos, the nurse I talked to breeds them!! I was so freaking happy!!

Wow, talk about lucky. I think its so cool there are people our there that care for reptiles as most people treat dogs and cats. I can't remember the thread, but someone was actually injecting water in ones stomach daily to keep their lizard hydrated. (Requested and instructed by the doctor of course.)

 

[leopardgecko95]

I found a vet in my town that will see leopard geckos, the nurse I talked to breeds them!! I was so freaking happy!!

She thinks he may have worms, and is going to call me back and find out if the vet that see's them can come in today or first thing tomorrow to check him out!

Edit: she called me back I have an appointment on thurs at 3pm! I'm very happy now!

thats so kewl i am glad