Weird Poop

[GOMER113]

Good day, everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. I'll probably get yelled at, but I'm prepared for it. Here goes.

I have a colony of 6 geckos consisting of 1 male and 5 females. Each and every one is active and alert, with no apparent eating issues or other visible health issues of any kind, other than the following.

Lately, I've noticed a strong odor of poop coming from the tank every now and then. It's usually a fresh bowel movement, but once it dries up, it smells normal. This particular excrement contains a mushy-looking dark brown pellet and a mushy-looking white pellet, basically normal except that it's runny. The problem is, I don't know which gecko is making these excretions.

Yesterday, I found another excretion of some sort, but I don't know if it was vomit, diarrhea, or what. I've seen it only once before, about a month ago. It looked like mucus, as if someone coughed up phlegm and spit it out, but it was an off-white color all around. I suspect this may not have been a bowel movement for two reasons. One is that this was front and center in the tank, not in the rear right corner where they usually poop. The other is that I've never seen any of my geckos eating poop and one of them was licking this up when I discovered it. There were plenty of mealworms in the food dishes, so I moved the gecko in front of one and cleaned this up immediately.

One last note on the off-white substance. With this current setup, there have obviously been eggs laid due to mating. The first clutch that I had, I didn't know that I kept the eggs too wet until it was too late. A friend who has bred geckos in the past told me that if the egg is beginning to dent and look slightly deflated, it could be that the gecko is about to hatch. If it still looks like that after about 4 days, then I should discard the eggs because they're no good. He also said to cut it open to see if they were at least viable and fertilized. Upon opening one, a thick, whitish mucus-like substance came out of the egg. I got all the fluid out and the only thing in there that looked different was something that looked like a vein. It was about 1.5" long, black, and kind of stringy.

Anyway, this white goo looked very similar to the substance I found yesterday and one other time before that. Could a gecko have possibly popped open an egg and spilled its contents and eaten the shell? I know, it sounds far-fetched, but the substance looked very similar.

I read in one post that runny stool is fine because it might be liquid pee and not just the solid urates coming out of the gecko, and that it might be caused by stress. I'll admit that I don't have an appropriately sized tank to house all 6 geckos, but I am working on that.

I also didn't quarantine any of them as I got them. I got the male first and then a month later I added 3 females (sisters) from a breeder, that lived together their whole lives. One was being bullied, so I gave her away and then I added 3 more about a year later (8 weeks ago). One came from one source and the other 2 came from another source, but they were kept by reptile hobbyists with a good deal of experience.

This may be tough lesson to learn the hard way.

Here are additional details based on the questionnaire.

About your leo:
- Sex: 1 male, 5 females.
- Age & Weight: Male- Appx. 1.5 years, 3 females- Appx. 3 years, 2 females- Appx. 8 months.
- How long have you owned your leo: Male and 2 females: 1 year. Other 3 females: 8 weeks.
- Where was he/she obtained (ex. Pet store, breeder, wild caught, friend): Male: Reptile rescue, 2 females: breeder, 3 other females: trade on Craigslist with someone knowledgeable with reptiles.

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo: I move them by hand when necessary to do tank maintenance or for pictures, maybe once every 10 days for brief periods.
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now.: No, they are all alert and seemingly outwardly healthy.
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe.: None.
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal): Described above questionnaire.
- When was the last time he/she went: I don't believe they have issues going as there are various droppings every day.
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on: The smelly runny poops occur every other day, unless they dry up before I can tell that they stink.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size: 20 gallon long (I know it's too small for 6, but I'm working on getting a bigger one)
- Type (ex. glass tank): Glass.
- Type of substrate: Kitchen cabinet liner.
- Hides, how many, what kind: Large rock cave big enough for 5 on the warm side, medium rock cave big enough for 3 in the middle, Zoo Med Repti Shelter medium with moist moss on the cool side.
B) Heating
- Heat source: UTH and ceramic heat emitter.
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side): 88 warm, 95 basking, 75 cool.
- Method of regulating heat source: Lamp dimmer switch for CHE.
- What are you using to measure your temps: Digital and analog thermometers
- Do you have any lights (describe): None.
C) Cage mates
- How many (males, females): 1 male, 5 females.
- Describe health, or previous problems: When I had sand as substrate, some feces had grains of sand in them that were passed through.

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much): 30 crickets once a week, plus mealworms in food dishes at all times.
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect): Crickets are let loose, mealworms are placed in dishes.
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands): Zoo Med Repti Vite with D3 every 4 days. Sometimes I use Fluker's Calcium Powder, whichever one is handy.
- What are you gut loading food with: Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Feed and Zilla Gut Load Cricket Drink.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Until you seperate the geckos and monitor each one individually, anything and everything could be going on. There's no quick, easy, or cheap fix for your situation. Nor can sound advice be offered with things such as they are.

 

[GOMER113]

Duly noted. Thank you for your reply.

 

[ace bomer]

there is an easy fix. ,monitor the gecko enclosure with a video camera. that way you will know which one is sick, then take that one to a vet

 

[fl_orchidslave]

there is an easy fix. ,monitor the gecko enclosure with a video camera. that way you will know which one is sick, then take that one to a vet

How does that work? Do nothing day and night on end monitoring a potential issue via a nanny cam? Take out all hides so everything can be seen? :main_rolleyes:

 

[5HiddenLizards]

Separate a.s.a.p.! If one is sick & the others aren't, keeping them together will only make it worse. Better to have 1 sick gecko, than 6.



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[GOMER113]

Thanks for the replies. I'll monitor them more closely. Last night, I cleaned up after them yesterday and also took a peek inside their hides. It seems that the white goo I found the day before yesterday was an egg's contents. There was a small bit of dried yolk and a small piece of eggshell.

Has anyone heard about anything like this before? I check for eggs about once a week and haven't seen any in over a month. Maybe this is why...

As for the runny poop, I'm not playing it down at all, but I began to notice it after I switched from sand as the substrate, plus I doubled the number of geckos in the tank in one shot as well. I'll begin with separating them and then putting them in a larger tank when it's safe.

 

[LZRDGRL]

Separating them now is probably too late already, since they've been together for that long and "licked up" other geckos' droppings already. So don't freak out about separating them right now on the spot, if you don't have 6 tanks.

What I would do is stay calm, put alu foil instead of paper towel on the ground for a few hours (because that doesn't absorb), and then catch fresh poop (the one with the mucus; but also normal one, just to make sure).

Even if you don't know who made the suspicious excrement, take all excrement you can get to the vet and ask for a "fecal stain" under the microscope. Don't bring any geckos in yet. If the vet confirms that your geckos have parasites (if you're lucky, it's "just" pin worms, hook worms, or round worms), he will give you Panacur and explain the dosage, and then you can either administer it at home yourself to your whole colony (if you're comfortable doing this), or you bring the geckos in (more expensive) and let the vet do it.

This way, you care for your whole colony. Several breeders do this to their whole collection annually for prevention. At this point, even if you find out who the one is who makes strange poop, it probably makes no sense to treat only one, since they've all been exposed.

If the fecal example comes back negative for parasites, you're lucky, and then I would guess there were two other options: 1. thrown-up shed or 2. egg white. Females can pass broken eggs and leak liquid, or the egg can break after having been laid and leak. I've had that happen several times.

The safest way is to get a fecal stain from the vet, so you know what's going on, even if you are not sure which gecko has a problem. We cannot diagnose anything here; just speak from experience and draw analogies.

Good luck! :main_yes: Maybe it's harmless! If you had the geckos together that long, it's not very likely they got parasites all of a sudden, unless they ate bad crickets or had something "slumbering" in one of them that suddenly broke out.

Let us know what comes out of this!

Chrissy

 

[GOMER113]

Thank you very much, LZRDGIRL! Your post is very informative and comforting. I'll take your advice to heart and take some samples to a vet very soon. :-D

 

[GOMER113]

I've got some pictures in case anyone has any opinions. The first one shows how runny it is. The second is a close-up. The third is another poop in another spot.

Most droppings are looking like this now. Even those of the baby geckos in another tank. What I'm noticing is that the kitchen liner I'm using as substrate, since it's not absorbing anything, makes it look even more runny. If this were on sand, it wouldn't look as bad, but then again, the sand would be hiding how runny it is.

Anyway, I'm also noticing mealworms that are not fully digested, and I also just realized that this started around the time I started primarily feeding them mealworms. Maybe that has something to do with it?