Andyrc
New Member
- Messages
- 34
- Location
- United States
This past week my wife and I have had a horrible experience after our two year old female leopard gecko suffered and died from what I suspected to be kidney failure. In a matter of days she had lost nearly all her body weight, and was almost completely unresponsive to all stimuli. One we started to see the symptoms we began our frantic search online for any type of information on what was wrong and how we could treat it. All of her symptoms seemed to point to kidney failure, although we could not take her to a reptile vet as there are none in our area. We tried everything we could to help her, but it seemed it was too late, as she died just a couple days ago. It was hard to see her go from a healthy, large leopard gecko to the skinny little corpse she was when she died.
I can't help but feel responsible for her death. Upon doing more research on kidney failure, most sources have said that these problems occur due to poor husbandry. I have always tried my best to make sure she had a good home and a healthy diet, and she seemed to thrive since we got her as a baby. Up until she got sick, that is. My wife is pushing for us to get another one to replace our loss, but I won't feel comfortable doing that until I know for sure that whatever it is I might have done to cause this problem is fixed. So this brings me to the point of this post. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me if there are any major flaws in my husbandry that could have caused kidney failure in a leopard gecko so I can work on fixing those things immediately before getting another one. Here are the details:
Terrarium:
I kept her in a pretty large Exp Terra glass terrarium, the measurements are 24 x 18 x 12 Inches. She was in there all by herself. And never had contact with other leopard geckos while in our care. There were plenty of hides for her to stay in. I used a heating mat as the primary source of heat, and kept it on the right side of the tank so she could adjust her temperature appropriately. I also had a very low wattage day bulb above her tank, but only used it during the winter to add a little extra heat when it was cold. Her warm side was consistently in the 90-95 degree range (Fahrenheit). And her cool side usually stayed in the mid 70's. I used a probe thermometer to gauge temps, as well as a laser thermometer for more accuracy. When I first got her, she was on reptile carpet. But this only lasted about a month and she has been on tile ever since. She had a warm hide, a cool hide, and plenty of hides in between. I also provided her with a humid hide using moist paper towels, but she rarely used it unless she was shedding. I sprayed the tank with a little bit of water about once a day, as she seemed to enjoy lapping up the water droplets. And it helped her with her shedding.
I have provided a few pictures of her set up attached to this post.
Diet:
Her staple was mealworms, as she seemed to like them the best. I would give her the occasional wax worm as a treat, but never in excess. She was very picky with food, and didn't seem to like anything else I offered her. Since she was a baby, I noticed that she had gone through periods of time where she refused to eat completely. These phases would go on for about a month or two, and then she would resume eating like normal. She never lost any weight when she stopped eating, and I figured maybe she was ovulating? In any case, she maintained a healthy weight, and never stopped eating for too long before continuing on her normal diet. I dusted her worms every feeding with calcium. And gave her calcium + D3 once a week, as well as a multivitamin dusting once a week. All her food was gutloaded prior to feeding using vegetables as well as a bottle of fluker's gutloading formula. I kept a small container of calcium in the tank at all times for her to eat up if she ever felt the need.
Behavior:
She never seemed to act strange before she got sick. She was very active during the night and would sleep throughout the day mostly. She was very docile and didn't ever mind being handled. I would take her out of her cage occasionally to give her a change of scenery and let her explore under my supervision. She was very adventurous and loved being out of her cage. Nothing every indicated she was sick, or was having problems until very recently when I noticed a discharge coming from her vent. Her color was off, and she was losing weight. By the time she died she was very thin, her arms and legs were red, and her body was a dark shade of purple (She wash normally a very bright yellow). And the discharge from her vent never went away. She had refused food completely while she was sick, I even tried force feeding as a last result (As well as slurry). She would spit out everything I put in her mouth.
If any of you could please revise my set up and my husbandry and let me know where I might have gone wrong, it would be much appreciated. I really enjoyed having her these past two years and I would not be able to forgive myself if I let this happen again to another leopard gecko in my care. If you require more information, please let me know and I will provide whatever you need. Thank you all!
I can't help but feel responsible for her death. Upon doing more research on kidney failure, most sources have said that these problems occur due to poor husbandry. I have always tried my best to make sure she had a good home and a healthy diet, and she seemed to thrive since we got her as a baby. Up until she got sick, that is. My wife is pushing for us to get another one to replace our loss, but I won't feel comfortable doing that until I know for sure that whatever it is I might have done to cause this problem is fixed. So this brings me to the point of this post. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me if there are any major flaws in my husbandry that could have caused kidney failure in a leopard gecko so I can work on fixing those things immediately before getting another one. Here are the details:
Terrarium:
I kept her in a pretty large Exp Terra glass terrarium, the measurements are 24 x 18 x 12 Inches. She was in there all by herself. And never had contact with other leopard geckos while in our care. There were plenty of hides for her to stay in. I used a heating mat as the primary source of heat, and kept it on the right side of the tank so she could adjust her temperature appropriately. I also had a very low wattage day bulb above her tank, but only used it during the winter to add a little extra heat when it was cold. Her warm side was consistently in the 90-95 degree range (Fahrenheit). And her cool side usually stayed in the mid 70's. I used a probe thermometer to gauge temps, as well as a laser thermometer for more accuracy. When I first got her, she was on reptile carpet. But this only lasted about a month and she has been on tile ever since. She had a warm hide, a cool hide, and plenty of hides in between. I also provided her with a humid hide using moist paper towels, but she rarely used it unless she was shedding. I sprayed the tank with a little bit of water about once a day, as she seemed to enjoy lapping up the water droplets. And it helped her with her shedding.
I have provided a few pictures of her set up attached to this post.
Diet:
Her staple was mealworms, as she seemed to like them the best. I would give her the occasional wax worm as a treat, but never in excess. She was very picky with food, and didn't seem to like anything else I offered her. Since she was a baby, I noticed that she had gone through periods of time where she refused to eat completely. These phases would go on for about a month or two, and then she would resume eating like normal. She never lost any weight when she stopped eating, and I figured maybe she was ovulating? In any case, she maintained a healthy weight, and never stopped eating for too long before continuing on her normal diet. I dusted her worms every feeding with calcium. And gave her calcium + D3 once a week, as well as a multivitamin dusting once a week. All her food was gutloaded prior to feeding using vegetables as well as a bottle of fluker's gutloading formula. I kept a small container of calcium in the tank at all times for her to eat up if she ever felt the need.
Behavior:
She never seemed to act strange before she got sick. She was very active during the night and would sleep throughout the day mostly. She was very docile and didn't ever mind being handled. I would take her out of her cage occasionally to give her a change of scenery and let her explore under my supervision. She was very adventurous and loved being out of her cage. Nothing every indicated she was sick, or was having problems until very recently when I noticed a discharge coming from her vent. Her color was off, and she was losing weight. By the time she died she was very thin, her arms and legs were red, and her body was a dark shade of purple (She wash normally a very bright yellow). And the discharge from her vent never went away. She had refused food completely while she was sick, I even tried force feeding as a last result (As well as slurry). She would spit out everything I put in her mouth.
If any of you could please revise my set up and my husbandry and let me know where I might have gone wrong, it would be much appreciated. I really enjoyed having her these past two years and I would not be able to forgive myself if I let this happen again to another leopard gecko in my care. If you require more information, please let me know and I will provide whatever you need. Thank you all!
