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Impaction how to deal help....

CCappy175598 Sep 26, 2003 09:45 PM

My leopard gecko has been impacted with ground walnut substrate. I want to take her to a vet but dont think i can tomorrow. What other things can I do to help. Im really scared that she may die. She has been eating but is constipated. Im scared I may have caught it to late. Ive been doing 15 minute warm baths but I want to know if there is anything else I can do to help her. She was my first and favourite. please help...

Replies (4)

GeckoFire Sep 26, 2003 10:47 PM

tell me you've taken her off the ground walnut substrate... other than the baths, try to give a very light massage on her belly... someone i've seen before has suggested a few licks of some vegetable oil, so possibly that also.. more importantly, try and get her to the vet tomorrow. if not, at least try to get her to an emergency vet hospital or something to get that taken care of..good luck!
-----
GeckoFire-Dale
Proud owner of 2.3.1
Questions? Drop me a line

CCappy175598 Sep 26, 2003 11:12 PM

yes I took out all of the substrate and put them in a larger tank since I was sort of upheveiling their old one. It suprised me that she had gotten impacted since this was the same substrate she was living on at the store and there was no problem until she came home with me. Im going to try to get her to the vet as soon as possible and tomorrow Im going to make a few phone calls. Thanks for the suggestions.

StarGecko Sep 27, 2003 01:42 AM

The problem may have started before you even got her. Ground walnut shells are extremely hazardous to leopard geckos. Impaction and death are a common result. The sheels have sharp edges which can cut up a gecko's insides, causing internal bleeding. The substrate then swells with blood and water, increasing the problem.

Giving her a few licks of flax seed oil may help.
-----
Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

frida Sep 27, 2003 11:08 AM

Hello

I have a very sick geko right now, he wa inpacted with sand, (quite large stones) I have now (i hope) removed all the sand from his belly! dam i hope all i gone now!
one week ago hi belly was completly full of sand,
so what have I done to make him better?
first of all i took him to the vet (unfortunally i found the inpaction late)
there i got some advice, first a lot of baths! the you can try to feed him with for example olive oil, but not too much, 0,1ml a day
then you can try to get some olive oil in his anus, that may also be good, even better than oil in the mouth.
you can also gently masage his belly trying to press down the inpaction. this is quite tricky, you shouldn't be too carefull because then nothing will happen.
and now the best (and maybe the hardest and danerous ) thing ou can do. This method is better with sand inpaction.
you may stick a hair pin in his anus, i know it sound afull bit it helped me and my geckos alot! the hair pin should be of the sort that have some sort of plastic at on end. first you massage down a poop so that you can reach it whith the hair pin, then you should thry to brake the poop in to small parts. Before you stick the hairpin into your gecko you must have it in olive oil! you don't want to hurt your baby!
unfortunally i think the last method with the hair pin works best with sand inpaction and i'm not sure it will work at all on your gecko!
last but most inportant! take him to the vet ASAP! hopefully they know what to do with this sort of inpaction!

I really hope everthing woks out wel for your gecko,
i know how terrible o see your gecko dissappear!
mine is right now... his has a very tine chance of survival, dam i fell sorry for him,
I really hope this don't happen to you!!!

GOOD LUCK!

/Frida lind

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