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[Greyscale_Geckos]

At my workplace we have an adult bell albino named Mr. Sparkles... Mr. Sparkles has always been overly sensitive to light, and so we have kept him in one of our backrooms which we keep dim for other reptiles. Mr. Sparkles has thrived and has been very healthy until recently.

Just to give some quick background... Mr. Sparkles is in a 20 gallon long tank with reptile carpet as his substrate. He has a heating pad that is controlled by a rheostat, daytime temperatures are 90 degrees on the warm side, and drop down into the 80s at night. He has a moist hide and a dry hide. He has a dish of calcium without d3 available at all times to him. He is fed crickets, super worms, and mealworms dusted with calcium with vitamin d3 once a week, and also dusted with Herptivite once a week. We use the Rep-cal products for all supplementation.

Starting last Monday Mr. Sparkles began having trouble eating. He would miss his food, so I began hand feeding him mealworms and crickets. Shortly after (last Wednesday evening) Mr. Sparkles began twitching his head. The twitch started out as something very minor, only a slight tremble of the head as he was moving. However, by the next morning he was displaying circling behavior and his head twitching became very violent and rapid. Later on Wednesday evening his whole body began to shake and he appeared to be having a seizure. His mouth was open as his whole body began writhing and shaking.

We brought him into a reptile vet and his diagnosis was that Mr. Sparkles had a stroke, and has a neurological disorder. Being the curious being that I am, I asked if it was common for these things to manifest in adulthood, and the vet said that he had seen a few cases of neurological disorders that came about after the leopard gecko was mature. The vet could not offer us any form of treatment, but does want us to document how Mr. Sparkles is doing and bring him back for a check-up on December 3rd.

Fast forward to last Saturday... Mr. Sparkles' head stopped twitching violently, but he still was circling and having trouble catching his food (I'm continuing to hand-feed him).

Then yesterday (Sunday) Mr. Sparkles was still circling, but again, no violent head twitching. I hand fed him again, and I noticed that his aim is still very off and he moves his entire body very awkwardly. He seems almost lethargic now, only moving to eat or to go to his bathroom corner of the tank.

I'm working again tonight, so I'll be checking up on him and making sure that he's still stable. Myself and fellow employees are keeping a journal of observations next to his enclosure, as well as documenting how much he eats and how he is doing weight wise. This has been a really frightening situation, and I have to wonder if anyone has gone through the same thing.

I was hoping someone else might have some thoughts about this... Maybe some personal experience? I'm at a loss for what to do right now. Mr. Sparkles has grown on everyone at work, myself included, and I don't want to see him suffer through a seizure again.

Is there really nothing that can be done for him? Do these things ever work themselves out?

Thank you all for your time, any advice is appreciated.

 

[Geck-O]

The circling and the bad aim sound like the Enigma Disorder.

Here is a Bell Albino Enigma with the disorder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8m_aGbmKvw

 

[voretaq7]

The seizure and subsequent circling/bad aim/twitching does sound like a possible stroke (the symptoms are also similar to the Enigma Disorder that Geck-O linked to, which the consensus seems to suspect has a neurological origin).

Operating on the assumption that your vet is right and it's a stroke, Mr. Sparkles has a very variable chance of recovery (much like with people the degree of impairment after a stroke depends on what parts of the brain were damaged and how bad the damage is - he could wind up circling forever, or he could straighten out on his own).

The fact that he's eating is good (even if his aim is off) - If he's active and moving around that's also a good sign, but the circling makes me think his motor control and/or balance is probably going to be impaired to some extent.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

WOW. All I can say is that as long as Mr. Sparkles has a good feeding response, that's what matters most. This is where a bowl of mealworms comes in handy, If there are a bunch of wiggly worms in a bowl, even if he misses the worm he was after he will likely connect with something!

It has been my understanding that acute stress and excessive high temperatures can cause the parathyroid gland to over-react, and neurological damage can occur. I have never heard or seen anything published about a gecko with a stroke! I would think that if there was a stroke, there would be symptoms with only half of the gecko's body?

 

[Greyscale_Geckos]

Thank you for all of your responses! I do have a positive update... Mr. Sparkles was able to eat by himself last night. I filled (probably overfilled) his dish with mealworms, and sure enough he was able to catch and eat some. I think that we'll be going that route for feeding him now, because just like Marcia said, he did connect with some since there were a lot!

Nothing has changed with his symptoms though. He's still circling and once he finished eating he went back into his dry hide and eventually fell asleep.

 

[voretaq7]

Sounds good Hannah :main_yes:

I know a few people around the community have enigmas with mild forms of the Enigma Disorder that are still great pets, so as long as he doesn't get any worse, keeps eating and the circling doesn't make it too hard for him to get around he'll probably be fine.

I know with mammals the brain eventually re-wires itself to function around damage. There's a lot less brain to work with in reptiles, but it's possible the same thing could happen here & Mr. Sparkles may show further improvement over time.