Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took in a flying gecko as a rescue almost a year ago and nursed him back to health. Tonight, however, I went to check on him and couldn't find him in his normal spot. I finally found him laying on the ground behind some corkbark. When I picked him up, he was completely limp and I thought he was dead. Then, he moved very slightly. I soaked him in some warm water and dripped a little bit by his mouth. He tried to lick the water, but was too weak. It's been several hours since I originally found him and the only indication that he is alive is occasional small movements. Something similar happened a few months ago - not nearly as bad though - and I held him all night in a dark room, keeping him warm, quiet and giving him little drips of water. By morning he had a little more energy. A few days later he was fine again. Everyone told me to stop holding him and accept the fact that he was dying, but I love him way too much. The vet couldn't find any cause for what happened. Is there anything I can do for him?? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. He's such a little fighter and I don't want to lose him.

Thanks,
Lisa

PS: This is long already, so I wanted to stop, but I noticed some previous posts about flyers, so I thought I would give all the specifics, just in case I'm leaving out something important and someone has time to read all this... If you do - THANK YOU so very, very much! This info probably isn't relavent, but I'm panicking right now and don't know what to do.

I got him as a rescue from some people who dropped him off at a pet store because they didn't want to take care of him anymore. He was about 3 years old at the time and very small. He had smashed his head against something and that side of his head is pretty deformed. It doesn't seem to bother him too much though, except for occasional balance problems and problems when shedding. Sometimes when he lunges for a cricket and misses, he loses his balance,lands on his back and cannot right himself without help. I keep him in a 10 gallon tank with bed-a-beast substrate and live irish moss. He's got several branches and pieces of corkbark. I mist his tank daily and feed him 8 to 10 2 week old crickets dusted with calcium and vitamin powder every other day. About once every 2 weeks, I give him tiny, just shed mealworms as a treat. He has a UV light on from 7 am to 7 pm and a 10 watt red light at night. There are no other heat sources - he is at room temp (about 78-80 degrees). He shed about 3 days ago and it was normal (normal for him). His deformed jaw won't allow him to get all the skin off, so I soak him in warm water and use tweezers and q-tips to get off the skin that he can't. His poop from last night was normal and he has been eating and drinking normally. His last fecal was 4 months ago and it was normal too. Several months ago, a piece of shed got stuck on the tip of his tail and it died. There is still a scab like hardness at the tip of his tail, but no open wounds or sign of infection. The vet told me to soak his tail in warm water once a week and then put some neosporin on it - which I have been doing. I can't think of anything else to say about him, but if anyone has any ideas what could be happening to him, please, please help me. His vet won't be in until Tuesday and I don't think he will make it that long. I'm not sure there is anything a vet can do, but if someone thinks a vet might be able to help him, I'll find an emergency herp vet somewhere.

Thanks again!
Lisa

This unfortunately happened to my Uroplatus.. fine, fine, then BAM, very sick or dead. After some thought, I think it has to do with them being wild caught... probably a parasite load. There may not be much you can do now, but it can't hurt to try. You could give him water with a little 1 cc syringe (no needle, available at vet's), and food too if he gets a little stronger. Good luck!

I should have read your post more carefully. It's great that he's doing better! If you can get a parasite check done on him, that would be a great idea.

Thanks so much for your suggestions and I'm sorry to hear about your little critter. I guess I was in panic mode and not writing very clearly... He's not doing better. He's doing really poorly. He barely moves at all - I can tell he's alive because his pupils change size a bit, but that's about it. What I tried to say was that a similar thing happened a few months ago and he recovered from that incident. I don't think he's going to get through this one though and I am really devastated. If he makes it, I'll have another fecal done. The last one was ok, but it was a while ago and things could have changed since then.
Thanks again!
Lisa

That's the problem with such tiny animals, they go downhill so fast. If the fecal was clean I don't know what it could be... That sucks.

Here's a picture of my little guy. It's kinda blurry because I was pretty upset when I was trying to take it, but you can still see him. He's not doing very well at all. I feel so helpless!

Lisa

Sorry... I did the img thing wrong...
Here's my baby:

Try giving it some unflavored pedialyte to boost it's energy level up a bit. I'm not really sure what's wrong with it, but the best you can probably do at this time is boost its energy level.
Josh

is it possible that he's having some sort of seizer ?