Please help - sick little gecko

[D_K]

I am completely new to geckos (but have done my homework) and of the two we just adopted a short while ago one is doing great and the other... not so much. We brought him home from a breeder in the Chicago area. He was a little on the young side, 3 or 4 months old when we got him at the end of November. He had quite the appetite though and was doing good, just not really growing much and skittish as hell. Well about 3 weeks ago, right after his first shed, his eating began to slow down and now, at best, he eats 1 or 2 crickets every few days. I am really worried now because his stools have been runny lately and I just saw him trying like hell to go but only white stuff came out and there was just a little bit of watery blood too.

As for his arrangements, right now we have him and the second one kept in a divided 29 gallon aquarium. The aquarium is a temporary setup split down the middle with a UTH heating both sides constantly and a narrow flood non-UVB light supplementing it during the day. I will admit the temps are not as high as I want them to be. They reach about 91* during the day and sink to about 84* at night with the light off. The substrate has always been paper towel with tile under their moist hides. The sick one has 3 separate hiding places and the aquarium itself is in a nice quite place. Their diet was just mealworms but now I am giving them crickets once or twice a week to try to entice the sick one to eat. I always supplement their food with the ICB stuff on top of gut loading. So far his weight has dropped from about 10g to 7g. I know that the setup isn't 'perfect' but with the holidays, buying a bigger UTH and / or a whole new setup is not an option for another couple of weeks. There is also the option of the 'slurry' but then I need to buy a blender (no, I really don't own one). The stupid think is that the other one is healthy as a horse and quite active. The little bugger even likes to stalk my hand when it is in her cage.

Sorry for the long post, but does anyone have any ideas. :main_huh:

 

[MrLeoGecko]

sounds like parasites
and for the blender carnt u use a knife and fork and crush things
as for the going like hell to the bathroom sometimes they just do the urate by it self if theyve slowed down eating but the blood thing is a whole diffrent matter which brings me back to parasites which would need to be checked out buy a vet

 

[mindgamer8907]

How often does he poop normally? If he's going regularly, just document the quality and rough frequency of each poo (I mean with the brown and white, or feces and urea). I would definitely take the feces to the vet immediately for a fecal test! If the problem is parasitic and you've caught it early, you may be able to get an antibiotic that will remove them, or the real problem will likely present itself. Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

[D_K]

He hasn't had a 'normal' poop in the past week. The trick is that he is on paper towel. So trying to collect a sample before it turns to a rock is difficult. At least with my cats, the Vet prefers them moist. :main_lipsrsealed:

Anyways, I will go Vet hunting today since my current Vet isn't a herp specialist.

How amusing is it when you adopt one gecko from a herp breeder and one from a Petshmo and the latter is the healthier? :freak:

 

[D_K]

This forum needs a section where you can recommend vets, because I found an awesome one!! They gave me the usual sheet to fill out describing the 'patient' AND a sheet just for reptiles. It actually had all of the right questions on it too (i.e. cage temp and humidity, substrate type, bulbs used, bulb age, food given and is it gut loaded, supplements give and how often, etc). Then when I actually met with the doc she wasn't at all pushy about what she thought I was doing wrong, she was just very helpful. The only issue was that I spent dang near 3 hours there because she had literally a mountain of herp cages in the next room from two other Petshmos that she was giving checkups too in between running tests on my gecko! So if you are in the western Milwaukee WI area, check out the Delafield Small Animal Hospital!! :main_thumbsup:

Anyways, so my gecko was kind enough to take a big poo sample right as the doc was handling her. They couldn't find any parasites but the bacteria balance (?) was indicative of them being there. So now I have to give him 1ml of Panacur daily for the next several days and then take him back for a followup. She also gave him a subcutaneous fluid injection because he is a little dehydrated. Plus she gave me a 5% dextrose solution to supercharge him to help him get his appetite back. All in all I am now a whole lot poorer after this visit and I have to force feed the bugger liquids about 7 times a day. But she did give me free puppy chow and some guidelines for making my own gut load with it. So I am pretty stoked that I have a plan to get my gecko healthy and that I found a knowledgeable vet!!!:banana:

 

[Chipkali]

How much did all of that end up costing?

 

[Misstasha]

good luck

normally (at least in my town) the vet fee is 55.00 (the most expensive thing) fecal exam 10-20 dollars depends on vet, medicine 10 - 20 dollars...

 

[D_K]

That was the only real downside. The vet definitely dented the bank account. The exam / office fee was about $48. I can't remember the break down of the rest of it at the moment but on top of that fee they ran two separate kinds of tests, they did the subcutaneous injection (I watched them do a pinch test and this was definitely needed), and finally they loaded me up with the medication and the dextrose solution. So the total bill was about double what the gecko cost me originally or $125.

So yeah, not pretty, but when you also have two stray cats with non-stop issues you get use to bills like that. :freak: