Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son's beautiful juvenile leo that we've had for 2 months and was eating, pooping, growing fine is presenting with some type of illness. I happened to witness him "going" (he's on repticarpet) about 10 days ago and after the fecal part came out, clear liquid urine came out with a greatly reduced amount of the solid white uric acid. By Thanksgiving weekend he was dehydrated and eating was very decreased. Took him to exotics certified vet where he received fluid and I was given "Lactulose" (I'm to give him about 1 drop/day - that's not working too well!)and food to hand feed him. Since the fecal part of the waste is not the least bit runny, the vet suspects that he doesn't have a parasite. It seems that he is not reabsorbing water or not properly forming uric acid during nitrogen metabolism. He's perked up a little but still not eating as much as he was before becoming so dehydrated but the liquid urine is still coming out in his waste with a very reduced amount of uric acid, so he'll eventually get dehydrated again. Any help would be appreciated - he's a wonderful gecko!

and the rep vet could not dionose it at all ??
thats kind of odd ..

well a few posts below someone said to use vanilla ensure to a gecko that was not eatting has calcuim and everything in it drop it on there lips to lick it up...

when the gecko was healthy you were giving it calcuim ? ... right

not reallly sure what to tell you you could try the ensure so the geckos does not end up dehydrated again

whats the cage enviroment look like ? like paper towel ? sand ... etx.

temps ?? 88-90 ? for warm --- cool 70s ?

maybe its just they tank set up ? thats not right could be the gecko its self as well or paratises and did you give the vet a stool ? just to make sure you can just look at the poop and say theres no parasites becuase there could be.

i hope this helps ??
keep us updated

Christina

Great questions by Christina. I would like to know the temperatures and what substrate you are using as well. Are you dusting the insects? Most importantly, do you have a water dish in the enclosure.
Finally, a good reptile vet should be able to determine IF there is an issue.

PS- I am not a big fan of hand feeding geckos. This should be an absolute last resort. If your gecko is eating, I doubt you should be hand feeding.
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Wally
Web Site: Supreme Gecko
e-mail: Supreme Gecko e-mail

Sorry it's taken so long to reply. He's in a 10 gal. on repti-carpet. Temp. on cool side of tank has been 73-75, heated side has been 86-90 during day. We keep our house at about 68 during the night but whenever I've peeked at cage temps at night it's 70-75 on UTH side and 70 on unheated side. Is that too warm for the night? He always prefers the warm side of the tank. He rarely hangs out in his hide on the cool side. The humidity ranges between 55-65. We dust his crickets with T-Rex's Sandfire Super Foods Leopard Gecko Dust. The bottle says to do it each feeding - are we overdoing it? Maybe he's getting too much protein. He has calcium powder (no phosphorous/no Vita D3) in his tank but I've never seen him do anything other than step in it. He stopped trying to catch crickets and mealies, we assume, because he was so weak from being dehydrated, that's why I was hand-feeding him. The vet rehydrated him and I hand-fed him for a few days. He's now back to catching crickets and eating mealies at about his normal appetite, but his waste doesn't look right, white part is only 1/3 the size of the fecal and there's still the clear ammonia-ish liquid coming out, so he will just progress to state of dehydration again. I read up on "Lactulose" which is used to help the liver handle ammonia waste, so I think it's helping a little (He was to the point where all liquid, and only a small spot of uric acid was being excreted), but he hates it and I have no idea if he's getting enough or too much! The vet suspects a liver disorder since the liver is where the liquid urine is formed into the solid uric acid. She doesn't think it's a parasite but I'm going to ask again (and try to consult another vet who's a very experienced reptile vet) if we're approaching this right. He doesn't appear to be losing weight, not regurgitating, fecal part of waste is not the least bit runny. Unfortunately, if there's some problem with his liver, there's nothing we can do in the long run. Thanks for trying to help!