Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was at the local pet store today for some vitamins for my beardies and I was looking over the lizards. They had 6 very cute baby leopard geckos. On closer inspection i was horrified to see that three had bloody holes in their heads and one poor little guy was walking on three legs with one front one dragging on its side. I called the sales woman over and she said "oh they do that"...I was getting all upset and said BUT its arm is broken. She told me that happens and she would "put it out back" I asked if they provided vet care and of course she said it was not cost efficient for a cheap lizard. basically they leave them in the back and let the leg fall off. If the lizard lives they discount it, if not oh well. She told me all this very quietly and im sure she cares a great deal about the animals, she just isnt the boss. I said well, i would take it to the vet... so she put it in a box and gave the baby to me.
They were on a black sand like substrate which was stuck to the shoulder and arm area. i pulled most of the large chunks off and there seems to be more mobility now. I took a few camera pics because thats all i have. i know its poor quality but maybe it helps.

Here is what I have done so far:
I set up a 10 gallon tank with three hides: warm side, cool side, and one with wet paper towels.
I put in a dish of calcium, a dish of mealies and wax worms
i put in a jar lid of water..about 3" in diameter
I put an under the tank heater under and one on the side. Im using a dish towel for the bottom. I did put the under the tank heater under a towels so the belly doesnt get burned by the glass.
i got tiny crickets but am going to hold off for a few days on those.
I dont have an extra casing right now but uvb is on the way....

I really like to research first then get an animal but I couldnt say no to Tripod(if s/he loses the leg) Will he lose the leg?
What else should I do, how can I help him and, what did I do wrong??

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Corinne & Jess

1.0.0 Green Iguana, Dante
2.4.0 Bearded Dragons, Lily, Mango, OC, Izzy, Warwick, Little Rhody
0.0.1 Uromastyx, Shemsy
1.2.0 Cats, Little Guy, Mattie, evielee

Poor little guy.
It looks like your doing good with the set up. However, you will not need a UVB light. They are nocturnal and do not need the light.
I have heard of some geckos recovering very well from a broken leg with good care. Best of luck!

>>Poor little guy.
>>It looks like your doing good with the set up. However, you will not need a UVB light. They are nocturnal and do not need the light.
>>I have heard of some geckos recovering very well from a broken leg with good care. Best of luck!

Yeah, setup looks good; you're certainly giving the little one the best chance for recovery.

On the UVB thing, yeah, they don't technically *need* it, but having kept them both with and without it, the ones kept with it seemed more active, so based on my admittedly anecdotal evidence, I'd say it's good for them to have it. They do get exposure to it, especially at dawn and dusk periods when they're active. Also, the one I'm keeping currently tends to get up during the middle of the day and venture out for a drink of water, so she gets some UVB then.

Just make sure you've got it set up so that it doesn't get too hot in there; I keep mine on a timer that shuts off the light at night and turns on the UTH then. That maintains good temperatures for me; you may have to do some experimentation to see what's best for you.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

You need a digital thermometer with a probe, and a thermostat, a less expensive one will do like a ZooMed 500R ($22 bought online). Or even a $10 lamp dimmer from a hardware store.

Put the probe right on the glass over the center of the UTH and make sure it doesn't go over 90. A UTH with nothing to regulate it can easily get over 120 degrees which could burn or kill the gecko.

oh no, im at work. do you think he will be okay for a couple more hours. that makes a lot of sense. thanks you

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Corinne & Jess

1.0.0 Green Iguana, Dante
2.4.0 Bearded Dragons, Lily, Mango, OC, Izzy, Warwick, Little Rhody
0.0.1 Uromastyx, Shemsy
1.2.0 Cats, Little Guy, Mattie, evielee

Just to add my two cents:

Most legs don't "fall off" so I'm not sure what she was talking about because the only thing there would be a massive infection and it would probably kill the little guy.

Great job with the setup, keep the UV light, it does wonders for recovering geckos and, like another poster said, they DO in the wild head out at times with light and I have seen sick geckos bask a bit too to help with calcium and general digestion. You can turn a gecko around in 3 days with proper lighting, of course, that is MY personal experience.

You don't need fancy expensive temperature control stuff. We've never used anything more than a lamp dimmer slide from the hardware store and a good thermometer. I do agree with the timer, we also have UTH at night and light in the day, but we just have those cheap fluker bimetal thermometers and they are accurate enough. Leos are very hardy little guys, much like beardies in that sense. We have the lamp dimmer when the nights get really warm here, just to turn down the UTH a bit, but you don't need feedback control. Sounds like you've done a great job, so I know your UTH is the proper size for the tank, your little guy will thermoregulate himself if you are off by a few degrees.

The towel is a great idea, you can also just use papertowels, an extra layer over the UTH is, in my experience, enough to prevent too high temperatures.

If the little guys were on sand, that is probably the first problem, impaction. Watch for poo, should be about 24-48 hours after a confirmed feeding. (Depends on the gutload in my experience.) Check it for evidence of sand. If you don't get a defecation in that time frame with confirmed eating, a vet trip to check for impaction and parasites, two of the most common pet store problems, will be in order ASAP. (Otherwise, you can give the little guy at least a week to settle in before stressing him out again.) The vet can also check on the arm... could be MBD and you'd want to catch that early. See if you can tell if s/he's taken any calcium. That might be easier said than done, my current girl thinks her calcium dish is her bowl of "powdered paint" just add wet feet and walk on stuff.

You can also supplement the little one with Vanilla Flavored Ensure. It is an adult vitamin and protein supplement high in calcium, shelf stable found near the vitamins or the diet drinks. Drop/drip a little on the guys nose and you can get him to start licking it up. I hate suggesting this because when I do it starts off a few months of posts stating that Ensure is a replacement for a vet trip, but you've already said you are willing to take him in, so getting a little more nutrition into him/her before the stress of the vet is great. The supplement also helps with hydration too, in my experience, when they are impacted they begin to dehydrate very quickly. Ensure will change the consistency of the poo, so tell your vet you've done that and realize the poo will be lighter in color and less firm. I would say no more than a week with the ensure, just to get his strength up if he's only lightly eating.

Hope this helps, we are pulling for Tripod to just be a funny name and not an appropriate one. Let us know how he is and what the vet finds. Good luck!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Thanks for the info
He pooped in the night, it looked ok. Im gonna feed him soon and will update. Im going to get a dimmer today, that sounds perfect.

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Corinne & Jess

1.0.0 Green Iguana, Dante
2.4.0 Bearded Dragons, Lily, Mango, OC, Izzy, Warwick, Little Rhody
0.0.1 Uromastyx, Shemsy
1.2.0 Cats, Little Guy, Mattie, evielee

holy hiss I have never heard a gecko hiss before. It is way more dramatic than others lizards. I leapt right out of my skin.
I tried to temp the enclosure. It said right about 99 on the fabric. Im not really sure its accurate though because it says my house is 79...It the kind with a probe and then a digital read,o ESU Reptile. Am I doing it right?

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Corinne & Jess

1.0.0 Green Iguana, Dante
2.4.0 Bearded Dragons, Lily, Mango, OC, Izzy, Warwick, Little Rhody
0.0.1 Uromastyx, Shemsy
1.2.0 Cats, Little Guy, Mattie, evielee

i know that this opinion is not poular, and even i have a hard time with it, but if u see any seller, including a petshop, that has geckos that look like that they are being poorly cared for, and u shouldnt support them by buying from them. i understand u got it for free, that is good, at least the employee seemed to care.
if you dont buy from them they wont make a profit, and they will quit buying them to sell. tell everyone u know not to buy from them, and i have gone as far as to warn people in the store of the poor husbandry and recomend better petshops... that pissed the owner off lol
this has worked so far for the little shop of horrors here in st laurent. they were not taking care of any of their reptiles, so a friend of mine and i would do regular "liberation" trips to ensure it was not profitable...
in my experience, i forgot to feed my comunally housed freshly hatched baby leos, and i lost one because the the others attacked it, it was missing its tail and 2 legs...the others had eaten it.( before u jump on me, i had just got my first gecko and she was gravid, and i made a mistake i will never repeat)
this is the usual reason for that kind of injuries, and i would be willing to put money on that being the cause in this case. it is bad husbandy for sure