Warning: long, ranting frantic post -- not eating, acting okay

[ColorSchemer]

My gecko is about 11 years-old now. For the last year, he has had issues with his eyes, especially after shedding. He also had a mouth infection about a year back that was pretty serious and nearly did the poor little guy in. We brought him back with good vet care and oral antibiotics.

Through all this, he never had problems eating. The reason that the mouth infection progressed so far before I caught it was that he was eating up well on his own until the last couple of days before I took him to the vet. By then it was really terrible and had spread to one of his eyes, causing it to rupture.

In July I took him to the vet because I was afraid he had an eye infection. I know, I'm a little trigger happy with bringing him to the vet since the mouth infection.

So, to get to the point (sorry, I'm a little jittery right now), he hasn't been eating well for a little over a week. His eye caps were hanging around from the last shed and I thought that he was just not eating because he couldn't see. I ground up two wax worms and feed him five days ago. He took it grudgingly, but willingly. Two days ago, I did the same thing and he was very eager to eat.

So tonight, I tried to feed him a meal worm. (I am out of wax worms and so is the pet store). He wanted nothing to do with it. He usually has a worm or two per day. He has happily eaten out of my hand before when his eyes made it hard to hunt. He has eaten a total of 4 ground up wax worms in 8 or 9 days and will not eat the meal worm. I haven't tried to grind it up yet. That is the next step, but I wanted to post first because I don't want to be doing something wrong by feeding him when he doesn't really want to eat.

Basically, I am afraid that he is compacted. His little belly seems darker than normal. I just cleaned out his cage and it doesn't seem like he has pooed much in the passed two weeks, but he does his little gecko business in one of his caves so its hard for me to keep track.

Oh, and he shed again 4 days ago, which made me feel a lot better. Its not great for his eyes, since he's still trying to get the gunk out from his last shed, but its reassuring to me.

I always use paper towels for his cage liner. Yes, not very glamorous but they seem to pose the lowest risk of compaction.

Am I being paranoid? I hate to take him to the vet right now because it is SO cold outside and so stressful for him. I have been giving him the rest of the oral antibiotics from the July eye infection, originally thinking that it was another mouth infection. I got a really good look inside his mouth tonight and it look very healthy.

Also, two years ago I moved from a place with town water to a house with a well, which has a lot of calcium in the water. I never thought of it before, but would that have an effect on him? Should I be using bottled water? I know that seems silly, but there is an awful lot of calcium in the water - enough to lave calcium rings on his water dish.

I know this is a LOT of information, but I'd really like any advice. So he just shed and he is acting pretty much normal, but doesn't want to eat. Also, he has a favorite cave he's always hung out in. Lately, everytime I come into the room he is out in the open - a lot more than normal, it seems. I've been checking the temperatures in his cage pretty obsessively and they are good.

EDIT: Also, his color is good. I just picked him up from the temporary housing he was in while his caves dried from their cleaning, and he made a lot of noise. He is not usually so vocal. I would like to think he just grumpy because the big, evil monster (me) keeps giving him foul tasting antibiotics, but it may also be belly pain. Ug.

 

[ColorSchemer]

So his cage is all clean and he has a meal worm. The good news is that he is really trying to eat it. He a healthy weight and I'm not so much worried about him not eating as not WANTING to eat. Well, I'm watching him now and he's definitely trying but having a really hard time because of this stupid eye caps.

...

YAY! Two went into his cave and only one came out (unless you count what is in his belly).

 

[RepGurl]

You could try to help him with the eye caps a little. Take a q-tip and some warm water and VERY lightly rub the wet Q-tip over his eyes. I have one that I always have to do this with when he sheds, before I do it he sits around like he is depressed and then after it is done he is back to his old self running around and eating. I dont know about the calcium in the water, bottled water wont hurt though if it makes you feel better. Make sure his moist hide is good and wet too for a while and keep his temps up so he has no chance to get stressed out from being cold. Oh and as for the wax worms, they are like candy and meal worms are MUCH better. Make sure you are dusting whatever you give him well and I always also make sure my mealies have a lot of organic fruits and veggies to eat as well. I know they dont stay gut loaded long but I think every little bit helps. I hope anything I have said helps, best of luck to you and keep us updated.

 

[LZRDGRL]

If he's the one in your avatar, I think he looks great!!
Proud age, too.

Chrissy

 

[ColorSchemer]

Thanks! I think I will switch over to bottled water, since the calcium is so obscenely high. It would probably be better for the people and the cat as well. I feel so silly buying bottled for the pets when I make so much fun of my mom for cooking her dogs chicken and rice.

He use to be on an all cricket (gut loaded) diet, until his first mouth infection. The crickets were easy to keep, easy to gut load, and seemed like a lot of fun for him to hunt. He got wax worms for a little while because he had lost of much weight from fighting off the infection, then I switched over to mealworms as soon as he was up to a good weight. These days he's on a pretty much all mealworm diet, except when a bad eye shed has kept him from eating for a couple of days.

I think I will try what you suggested for the eye caps. I've been nervous about messing with his eyes, but he's so much happier when he can see and clear eyes are so much less prone to infection.