Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I just got my leopard gecko back from a breederfriend today..and she is very sickly looking!! No fat on her at all...her tail is scales and bones... I took her to a friends to breed with his male...that was back in May...In July she looked good, healthy, even had very pretty babies... But today she looks like she has not eaten in months.. Looks very anerexic. the friend swears that he has been taking care of her.

IS there anything I can do to get her back to life?? Is there any natural cause to this gross body?? The leopard had a very fat tail and body the last time I saw her.

Could this be worms?? What can I give her UNTIL I can get her to vet next week?? I just shoved down some "JumpStart" in her. That is said to help...

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO. THIS IS A LONG TERM PET, AND HURTS TO SEE HER THIS BAD....

THANK YOU.

HARPY

if your friend bred the geckos, then maybe she got skinny from laying out all those eggs~ either that or your friend just didn't realize that she went from healthy to very anorexic.

until you see the vet, you might want to feed your gecko a wax worm or a super worm with your bowl of mealies or separately if you're feeding crickets - hopefully that will fatten her up! you can always leave a bowl of 10-15 mealies out so when she does get hungry, she'll go eat. but i think the wax worm or the super worm might be a good idea til you see the vet...

good luck and take care!

[aimee]
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1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)

If she is as thin as you describe your best bet will be to syringe feed her a mixture of chicken baby food, gatoraide/pedialyte, and a sprinkle of vitamins and calcium.

Suck the mixture into a syringe (without the needle) or small eyedropper and let her lick her fill.

Make sure she is well hydrated, and after she puts on a bit of weight from the baby food mixture you can start to offer her some crickets/mealworms/superworms/waxworms.

Ofcourse a vet visit should also be in order... though it sounds as if your friend simply neglected her. Sorry you have to go through this, but keep your hopes up, as leos are extremely tough little buggers.

I wish you the best of luck.
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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's

Well, luckily the water part is not a problem. She is constantly at her bowl. I think I will put some vitamins in her water bowl to give her a boost.. I did notice that she threw up the bit of "jumpstart" I gave her. Maybe it was too much too soon. I will get some baby food for her in morning.

I did notice that the cage was infested with those little black beetle larve that come with crickets. Could they have caused some kind of problem??

Thanks again,

Harpy
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Have You Hugged Your Herp Today?

I can't think of any problems directly related to the beetle larve... but it is common sense that if there was a bunch of larve in the enclosure it must have been filthy.

I would just feed her the baby food mix and take it from there. Even a trip to the vet at this point probably won't be all that usefull, a cloacal flush is somewhat stressful for the gecko... and extra stress is the last thing you need at this point.
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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's