Sick male

[equinelove93]

My leopard gecko who is a 8 month old male has begun looking and acting sickly for a week now. He hasn't eaten in two weeks. He looks to have what i think is diarrhea? I'll post a picture (the picture taken two days after his tank was cleaned)

He is drinking alot of water from his dish and hides all day in his moist hide but doesn't appear to be shedding. He is still active but has no interest in food. He looks more dull than usual. Normally he poops in one corner of his tank but hes going in random places.

Heres his set up
20 gallon
Paper towel substrate
90 on the hot side 85 in the middle and 80 on the cool end one hide per section plus a moist hide on the cool end.
He normally eats mostly gutloaded and dusted mealworms and crickets. I have given him one or two small super worms.
Supplements pure calcium for 2 feedings, calcium with D 3 for 1 feeding and a multivitamin every other week
I use zoo med pure calcium, flukers with d 3 and rep-cal multi.

Any ideas? Parasites?

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[Neon Aurora]

My guess would be parasites because of how the feces look. It's probably best to get a fecal sample to the vet, and be very careful to not allow anything from this one to come into contact with your others.

Something else to consider; how long have you had him? Where do you get your feeders (home-bred, from a shop, etc)? If you've had him for a while, than I might worry that he got parasites from some store-bought feeders. If you breed your own, I might be extra concerned that your feeders are contaminated.

 

[equinelove93]

My guess would be parasites because of how the feces look. It's probably best to get a fecal sample to the vet, and be very careful to not allow anything from this one to come into contact with your others.

Something else to consider; how long have you had him? Where do you get your feeders (home-bred, from a shop, etc)? If you've had him for a while, than I might worry that he got parasites from some store-bought feeders. If you breed your own, I might be extra concerned that your feeders are contaminated.

I usually buy store bought feeders as i dont have too many reptiles to feed and I like the convince of store bought. I did however noticed he began getting sick after I fed him two very small super worms as a treat. He has never eaten them as his staple diet is crickets and mealworms.

I dont know all that much about super worms so i feed them only once in a while as i know they're fatty and low in calcium. Is it possible that a leopard gecko can get a stomach upset from eating something hes never tried? Or possibly it was too big? (I made sure that the width of the worms were smaller than the space between his eyes and they weren't very long)

Either way i will have a fecal done and get him to the vet


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[Neon Aurora]

It could be possible, and I'm not saying it definitely is parasites or anything. Although, I've never experienced something like that with food change, personally. My leopard geckos were all raised on mealworms (as I'm told by their original breeders, and I raised the ones I hatched on mealies) and none of them had any trouble with eating roaches. As for size, you would expect to see undigested parts in feces or possibly constipation if they were too big. I don't see size causing liquid-y diarrhea. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that they can handle pretty large prey items. I saw a video of one in nature eating a scorpion. I also give my larger adults fully grown dubias sometimes and their feces always look well digested and well formed. I was reluctant at first, but they really handle them just fine.

I do think the best move is to get him checked by a vet. Parasites in store-bought feeders is fairly common. You might notify the place you bought them from that this occurred if it turns out he does have parasites.