TigerJon73
New Member
- Messages
- 2
- Location
- Kansas City
Hi,
Last night our pet leo, Izzy, passed away. Izzy was our beloved pet for about 6 years and we already miss her very much. We are trying to learn from this experience in order to decide if we did something wrong, or if she just became ill beyond anyone's ability to help her. We also want this information to help us correct anything for our next pet leo. To begin, we kept Izzy in a 20 gallon aquarium with a reptile carpet for her substrate. Please forgive me, but the brand of some of the items used in her habitat I cannot remember. We used an Zilla adhesive heating pad stuck to the bottom of one side of her aquarium. We never had a lot of luck getting this heater to maintain a temp much over 85 degrees Fahrenheit. We did not have a rheostat. On this side of the aquarium she had a tupperware moist hide (most times her substrate was damp paper towels, but occasionally we'd use sphagnum moss). Also on this side of the aquarium (as well as the non-heated side) she had a synthetic log she could hide in. Her diet always consisted of meal worms dusted with Repashy Calcium Plus (but we never had a little bowl of Repashy other than her worm bowl in the aquarium, but there was usually enough in the bowl she could eat some if she wanted). She also had a small water bowl. Izzy never in her life seemed to shed more than about once every 6 months or so (or at least that we could see), but this never seemed to present a problem; she never seemed sick or lethargic.
About a month and a half ago, she started to suddenly become very lethargic and she would not eat her worms (which she had always had a great appetite prior to this). Around the same time, I'd bought her a 5o-count tub of worms at ++++++++ (where we'd always gotten them), but this was the first time the worms had some kind of small, multi-colored, food kibbles in the tub (I think the lady at ++++++++ said they were reptile food). I didn't think anything of it at the time and doubt this led to her illness, but I want to mention everything I can think of. Within the first week of her illness, I didn't give it much thought as I figured she was just a little under the weather and she'd snap out of it. After about the first week I noticed her feet (especially front ones) were beginning to look swollen. I started to do some research online and came across metabolic bone disease. Since we had always dusted her worms with Repashy, I assumed MBD was not her ailment. I also noticed she was trying to shed, but her old skin was flaking off in small pieces; not the large, full-body shed she had always engaged in in the past. At this time we began to keep her moist hide very wet at all times. After she eventually shed, her toes looked better and her lethargy seemed to improve some but her front wrists remained very swollen and she still would not eat. It was about this time (2-1/2 weeks or so into her illness), I took her to an exotic animal vet in our area. The vet really didn't seem to know for sure if she had MBD or what, but did prescribe REPTILE/A calcium supplement. After giving this to her daily for a week or so, it didn't seem to help matters, she still seemed to have trouble shedding, and her joints continued to swell. At this time I bought her Fluker's Repti Boost to get food into her and started spraying her a few times a day with Zoo Med Reptile Shedding Aid (this started two or three weeks ago). About a week ago she became very unresponsive and every day we thought we were going to lose her. During this time I continued spraying her and occasionally would feed her the Reptile Boost with a dropper, but she'd give up a nasty poop. Also during this time she'd roll onto her back and we'd fear the worst until we could see she was still breathing. This led up to last night when we lost her.
Thank you for reading my post and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Jon
Kansas City, MO
Last night our pet leo, Izzy, passed away. Izzy was our beloved pet for about 6 years and we already miss her very much. We are trying to learn from this experience in order to decide if we did something wrong, or if she just became ill beyond anyone's ability to help her. We also want this information to help us correct anything for our next pet leo. To begin, we kept Izzy in a 20 gallon aquarium with a reptile carpet for her substrate. Please forgive me, but the brand of some of the items used in her habitat I cannot remember. We used an Zilla adhesive heating pad stuck to the bottom of one side of her aquarium. We never had a lot of luck getting this heater to maintain a temp much over 85 degrees Fahrenheit. We did not have a rheostat. On this side of the aquarium she had a tupperware moist hide (most times her substrate was damp paper towels, but occasionally we'd use sphagnum moss). Also on this side of the aquarium (as well as the non-heated side) she had a synthetic log she could hide in. Her diet always consisted of meal worms dusted with Repashy Calcium Plus (but we never had a little bowl of Repashy other than her worm bowl in the aquarium, but there was usually enough in the bowl she could eat some if she wanted). She also had a small water bowl. Izzy never in her life seemed to shed more than about once every 6 months or so (or at least that we could see), but this never seemed to present a problem; she never seemed sick or lethargic.
About a month and a half ago, she started to suddenly become very lethargic and she would not eat her worms (which she had always had a great appetite prior to this). Around the same time, I'd bought her a 5o-count tub of worms at ++++++++ (where we'd always gotten them), but this was the first time the worms had some kind of small, multi-colored, food kibbles in the tub (I think the lady at ++++++++ said they were reptile food). I didn't think anything of it at the time and doubt this led to her illness, but I want to mention everything I can think of. Within the first week of her illness, I didn't give it much thought as I figured she was just a little under the weather and she'd snap out of it. After about the first week I noticed her feet (especially front ones) were beginning to look swollen. I started to do some research online and came across metabolic bone disease. Since we had always dusted her worms with Repashy, I assumed MBD was not her ailment. I also noticed she was trying to shed, but her old skin was flaking off in small pieces; not the large, full-body shed she had always engaged in in the past. At this time we began to keep her moist hide very wet at all times. After she eventually shed, her toes looked better and her lethargy seemed to improve some but her front wrists remained very swollen and she still would not eat. It was about this time (2-1/2 weeks or so into her illness), I took her to an exotic animal vet in our area. The vet really didn't seem to know for sure if she had MBD or what, but did prescribe REPTILE/A calcium supplement. After giving this to her daily for a week or so, it didn't seem to help matters, she still seemed to have trouble shedding, and her joints continued to swell. At this time I bought her Fluker's Repti Boost to get food into her and started spraying her a few times a day with Zoo Med Reptile Shedding Aid (this started two or three weeks ago). About a week ago she became very unresponsive and every day we thought we were going to lose her. During this time I continued spraying her and occasionally would feed her the Reptile Boost with a dropper, but she'd give up a nasty poop. Also during this time she'd roll onto her back and we'd fear the worst until we could see she was still breathing. This led up to last night when we lost her.
Thank you for reading my post and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Jon
Kansas City, MO
