Sick Leo. Help!

[SDCowboy]

Hey guys. I touched upon this in my thread in general discussion but thought I wold ask here in full detail in the correct section. Okay, so I got my leo a little over two weeks ago. She has been super healthy with a major appetite, and very healthy poops. This past friday, I noticed that she didn't want to eat. Saturday she did eat like normal again and then on sunday she didn't want to eat again. She was in shed Sunday so it seemed normal. On monday, she completely shed and I noticed a ball of skin that looks to probably have been regurgitated (don't know for sure) and suddenly her poop is either watery or just white blobs.

Again this just suddenly happened. She was healthy as an ox for two weeks and then, BOOM, like a switch was flipped on monday, she won't eat, has white runny poop and is trying to regurgitate. I keep her cage clean, she gets fresh food and water and her temp on the hot side is a perfect 90-95*. Any idea what this could be and what in the world could have caused it so rapidly and suddenly? :main_huh::main_huh:

 

[SDCowboy]

Anyone? She just tried to regurgitate again. She hasn't eaten anything in a couple of days so there's nothing in her if that matters.

 

[Wowoklol]

A trip to the vet may be in order. I wouldn't even want to speculate. The regurg thing would have me worried though.

 

[SDCowboy]

Yeah it's weird because she hasn't eaten anything in a couple days so there's nothing to regurgitate and it just suddenly started happening. There's no poop to take to the vet either for obvious reasons. I seem to have hit some bad luck with these petco leos. The first one I got had bloody diarrhea within a couple of days, the second one I exchanged the first one for was trying to regurgitate from day one and wouldn't eat. This third and current one was great for 2 weeks and is now also sick. I don't get it.

 

[Stimpy]

sounds almost exactly like my leo, except instead of the help your getting i get critisism...

 

[houseb]

Did you completely disinfect the tank and everything in it between each gecko? I know I've read that water dishes can transmit a number of illnesses pretty easily. I hope she pulls through for you, but I think Wowoklol is right about a vet visit. Good luck!

 

[SDCowboy]

Did you completely disinfect the tank and everything in it between each gecko? I know I've read that water dishes can transmit a number of illnesses pretty easily. I hope she pulls through for you, but I think Wowoklol is right about a vet visit. Good luck!

Yep, I always made sure everything was soaked and cleaned in between each one. I guess that's the risk when the store keeps 10 leos in a 1 foot tank together. They probably all are sick yet they sell them anyway.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

I hope your gecko pulls thru, but if it doesn't, it would be smart to throw away all the stuff its' been in contact with and start over with a healthy gecko from a show or online reputable breeder.

I would be willing to bet that store does not disinfect the tank and furnishings between shipments. If one was sick, every future animal in that tank becomes exposed.

Good luck with your baby

 

[SDCowboy]

I hope your gecko pulls thru, but if it doesn't, it would be smart to throw away all the stuff its' been in contact with and start over with a healthy gecko from a show or online reputable breeder.

I would be willing to bet that store does not disinfect the tank and furnishings between shipments. If one was sick, every future animal in that tank becomes exposed.

Good luck with your baby

Thanks man. If this one doesn't work out, I'm definitely going with a good, healthy breeder gecko.

 

[M_surinamensis]

Cloacal swabs are sometimes a possibility when a fecal sample cannot be obtained. They're slightly more likely to result in false negatives, and fecal floats and smears aren't infallible to begin with... but they are an option when a fecal sample cannot be obtained, which may be used to identify parasite loads. Not every vet will do them and not every animal is a good candidate for one (they're much easier to do to snakes than lizards, for example... bigger animals are better candidates than smaller ones and so on), but it's worth looking into.

They probably all are sick yet they sell them anyway.

Be fair, if you were incapable of identifying symptoms or problems with these animals then the pet store employees can't really be blamed for not seeing anything either. If they look healthy enough to buy, then they look healthy enough to sell.

 

[SDCowboy]

Cloacal swabs are sometimes a possibility when a fecal sample cannot be obtained. They're slightly more likely to result in false negatives, and fecal floats and smears aren't infallible to begin with... but they are an option when a fecal sample cannot be obtained, which may be used to identify parasite loads. Not every vet will do them and not every animal is a good candidate for one (they're much easier to do to snakes than lizards, for example... bigger animals are better candidates than smaller ones and so on), but it's worth looking into.



Be fair, if you were incapable of identifying symptoms or problems with these animals then the pet store employees can't really be blamed for not seeing anything either. If they look healthy enough to buy, then they look healthy enough to sell.

That's just it, most of them are extremely sickly looking that they sell in both petcos by me. And I imagine they are cleaning after the animals and checking in on them. They should be able to tell if they are sick or not more than a customer can just by stopping in. A lot of the ones by me were so emaciated, there is no way the store could think they were OK to sell. Obviously the ones I got that looked OK weren't in good shape either though. Lesson learned on my part.

 

[M_surinamensis]

I'm gonna chop your response up and reorder it, because the first thing I have to say is the one I think is most important.

Lesson learned on my part.

Yeah, it can be a tough one. It's all well and good for people to say "Don't buy animals from anyplace that has animals that are in poor condition." but the actual interpretation of it, the subjective judgment of "poor condition" or how much is too much is something that really takes direct experience or observation. Sometimes it ends up being a personal decision related to risk anyway, with no definite right answer. Someone with more experience may see things that warn them away when someone who's still learning might not notice the same signs or symptoms. If most the animals look bad it may be an easier call to make, but what if it's one or two animals in a store containing hundreds or even thousands of animals in total? The answers aren't always so easy.

I am glad to hear that you're looking at it as a learning experience though. Crappy circumstances teaching it, but you're not letting what you have experienced and what you now know go to waste, not ignoring the lesson. So good on you.

That's just it, most of them are extremely sickly looking that they sell in both petcos by me.

My bad then. I was thinking that most of them looked okay, which is why you bought them- in which case it would have been unfair to say that someone else should have noticed something that you yourself didn't. If they're mostly sickly looking, best to avoid everything present, even if a few of them look okay. When the majority is bad it indicates either something virulent sweeping through the stock, a bad supplier or poor care in-store... or some combination of those factors. Best not to risk it.

Again though, now you know. It's a painful way to learn but it's something you'll never forget or fall prey to again.

And I imagine they are cleaning after the animals and checking in on them. They should be able to tell if they are sick or not more than a customer can just by stopping in.

Eh, maybe.

It'd be nice if they had better training than their customers (and some pet store employees are very very good at what they do), but most of them have the same kind of knowledge as an average hobbyist. So they may not notice or correctly interpret things, even if there is something which can be noticed.

They also don't usually get to spend their entire day observing the animals. There's maintenance, of course, check the temperatures, mist some enclosures, refill some water dishes; but they're often responsible for more than animal care during the course of a shift and the individual attention given to each specific animal is not exhaustive. It's best described as "adequate, most the time." So a customer who watches the animals prior to making a purchase might actually be in a better position to judge things like health, especially if coupled with a better than average knowledge or a more extensive level of experience.


You have my condolences for the situation you find yourself in, and my hope that you find a solution for the current woes. If you can still return this one, you may want to do so. If you can't, then veterinary treatment is looking like the best odds, though depending on how significant the exact difficulties are, even that may not be enough.

 

[SDCowboy]

Update: She doesn't want to eat but she's looking a lot more perky and was drinking a lot of water today. Also no regurgitation movement. Hopefully soon she'll want to at least eat a waxy or something.

 

[Stimpy]

Update: She doesn't want to eat but she's looking a lot more perky and was drinking a lot of water today. Also no regurgitation movement. Hopefully soon she'll want to at least eat a waxy or something.

Thats so wierd... mine is starting to move around alot more too, im going to the vet tomorrow to be sure, but shes lookin better. Hmm, i wonder if it had somethin to do with the weather this week? :main_laugh: lol

 

[SDCowboy]

Ok so she's still moving around well, very alert, drinking a lot, etc. She STILL won't eat though. She just turns her nose up at even waxworms. Any ideas?

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Try again tomorrow. No need to pester her by offering multiple times daily when she refuses. It's stressful for her and worrisome for you.

 

[SDCowboy]

Try again tomorrow. No need to pester her by offering multiple times daily when she refuses. It's stressful for her and worrisome for you.

Okay. She hasn't tried to regurgitate or anything the past couple of days and doesn't seem to be losing any tail weight which is good.