Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have sad news to report... after beginning to eat better and poop better yesterday we found our sick leo deceased this morning. We are taking her to the herp vet for a necropsy to see if we can determine what caused her death.

Anna is very sad and upset and we feel we need to know if we missed something or if this was an unavoidable loss. Once we know what caused the loss of this dear pet we can move forward with more information and hope for better results with our next ones. Hopefully we will gain some information and knowledge that we can share as well that may help someone else avoid a loss.

Thanks again for all the help and support here over the past week during our leo's illness.

Anna's mom
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1. Leopard Gecko: Larry
3. Cats: Midnight, Tiger & Fluffy
rip. Crestie: Tuki

Oh dear! I am so sorry to hear that, with all the care and the early warning I am very shocked. I am interested as well as to if the vet finds something in addition to the infection/mouth rot because if he was beginning to eat again that is certainly a great sign. The best comfort I can offer you is that, although leos are very hardy in comparison to many reptiles (and because of that considered one of the three best "starter" reptiles: leos, bearded dragons, corn snakes.) sometimes they cannot bounce back from disease. We learned this personally, after our first gecko fought parasites with daily hand feedings for a month, we had to make the hard choice to put him to sleep. But these are exotics to our environment and therefor much more sensitive to every little thing. To find a gecko beginning to thrive again, I can't imagine how hard that must be for your family.

Your family and your lost gecko are in our thoughts. If or when you have completed your mourning period and feel you are ready for a leopard gecko again, please let us help you clean/set up and get everything perfect. Just remember, like us, you now have a gecko angel to watch over your family and the rest of your pets. (We keep Harv's picture over our gecko cages.) Please take care.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I am also shocked and saddened by this news. My heartfelt condolences for your loss. I sincerely hope that your vet is able thru the necropsy to give you some answers and hopefully a little more closure. Rest assured that your little one was in good hands, you did exactly what you should have, and that means that his/her last days were as happy and as peaceful as possible. Kudos again to anna for being such a caring and observant owner. We have all felt losses before, and I can only say, the bitter does sometimes make the sweet even sweeter. If and when you are ready, I will be happy to offer a healthy leo. Of course nothing can replace the one you lost, but I personally would be happy to place an animal in such a caring household.

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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 Leucistic rescue (Lucy?)
0.1 Tremper stripe from JMG (Delta)
0.1 SHCT hatched by me! (Blinky)
0.0.1 SHCTB hatched by me! (Sunny II)
0.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
Hatched: ~50 leos

Anna here,

i very much appreciate those very kind offers,

it was really shocking to find her like that, when just the night before she was doing mini alligator rolls in protest to hand feeding, which if you ask me is funny coming from something so little! but ill definitely feel much better when we find out the cause of her death,

the crazy thing is i was already wanting another gecko!, but now i'm all cold blooded critter less! i have this thing about always having cold blooded critters, and if i don't i feel theirs something missing! and this time their really is...i'm sure you all feel the same when theirs a lose or your away from home, just the need for them! its kinda weird hehe,

the one in that picture is beautiful! albino? or if not that what? just wondering....

also just for future references were are you located?

anyway, thank you everyone for helping us through all of this!
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1. Leopard Gecko: Larry
3. Cats: Midnight, Tiger & Fluffy
rip. Crestie: Tuki

The one in her picture is an albino strain. Tremper or Bell, I can't see the eyes.

While we are all sorry for your loss, you still amaze us by following through and finding out everything that went wrong. As for wanting another one. I do suggest taking some time to mourn the loss of your little friend, but I also have to laugh just a bit. Once you have a leopard gecko, you can't be without one. they are too funny, have great personalities, and are just all around fun to have. I didn't think I'd like them at first, but I've fallen very hard and trying to resist taking in one of our friend's males. (They moved and are pairing down from 5 to 3 because of all the work that needs to be done on the house.)

So, I guess I can also offer you a hand raised gecko as well to help out my friends. Normal pattern, adult male, very well taken care of. We are in MN. But you might have more fun raising your own.

Here is my tremper when she was young... she's always been up to something, can't you just see that smile? Take care and much comfort for this difficult time.

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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

he is a tremper- and that pic always makes me laugh. when he was younger I would always catch him staring at his own reflection and "primping". I've titled the pic "I'm so pretty" lol. I also recommend waiting at the very least until the necropsy results come back before adding ANY new criters, warm or cold blooded. And yes, ever since I was hooked on herps 15 yrs ago, I've had at least one. They do tend to become a craving. Oh, and I'm in MD.
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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 Leucistic rescue (Lucy?)
0.1 Tremper stripe from JMG (Delta)
0.1 SHCT hatched by me! (Blinky)
0.0.1 SHCTB hatched by me! (Sunny II)
0.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
Hatched: ~50 leos

yes we're definitely waiting, until we find out what happen "and then some", and before we even think about doing anything we need to clean everything down, and even then "like was said" get everything just right ,

so before the death we bought some meal worms, their in the fridge right now, we've had mealies before but as more of a project then feeding item so they just were in with oat meal, we also bought some gut load for crickets that says on the back that mealies can eat it to, anyway how often should we take then out and feed them? and how much time should they stay out of the fridge at a time?

thank you so much, you guys are great just think about how many little guys you save the lives of on a weekly basses! sure "most" of you aren't vets or anything but you really do give life saving info to many people in need of it "and for free!",

btw, we're in NC, anna.
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1. Leopard Gecko: Larry
3. Cats: Midnight, Tiger & Fluffy
rip. Crestie: Tuki

We opted to have the more in depth necropsy (our vet will send her remains to a lab to have more tissue testing etc done rather than just the in house one that only looks for very obvious causes of death)
At any rate we decided it would tell us more and insure that we do all the right things to prepare our habitat for a new pet when we are ready. We also feel we need to know if we missed something so that we don't make any mistakes with the care of any future pet.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words! We will let you all know what the report is when it comes in... it should be complete in 7-10 days.

Thanks again!
Anna's mom
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1. Leopard Gecko: Larry
3. Cats: Midnight, Tiger & Fluffy
rip. Crestie: Tuki