Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found some undigested mealworm in the feces of my newly aquired baby geckos. They are both painfully thin, and I've only seen one of them eat. At the store I purchased them from they were kept on sand. I'm not ruling out other medical problems-- they're going to the vet today-- but I think they may be impacted. I know from caring for humans that impactions are very serious, and I imagine with tiny geckos the process just goes more quickly. What can I do now to start treating the impaction?

if they're pooping, I would say they aren't impacted.

It sounds to me like it might be parasites, take some of the poop to the vet with you and they can check and treat it.
good luck, it sounds like you're giving them a great home!
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4.4 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

I agree with Fritz that it's probably not an impaction.

Are you sure they're pooping out the worms and not throwing them back up? It's possible that the food is too large for them, so they have to regurgitate.

Double-check on the temperatures. You want it to be in the upper 80s on the floor of the warm side. This is important for their digestion. But if it does turn out that they have parasites, maintaining proper temperatures will become even more crucial to keep up their immune system.
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

As Fritz said, impaction is a blockage - there would be no feces. It is possible one of your new leopard geckos regurgitated the mealworms. Were they in a slimey looking mucous coated mass? Could be a) due to parasites b) due to incorrect temperatures in your enclosure c) they simply ate too much. Sometimes babies and juveniles do this, but rarely more than once.

Do take a fresh stool sample with you to the vet if you can. Dried out ones are no good. You can keep a sample in the fridge (not freezer) overnight if necessary. That's the best and easiest way to check for parasites.

You might ask your vet about giving a little dab of yogurt to the new leos too. Yogurt with live cultures can go a long ways towards restoring healthy gut bacteria. Doesn't take much, either and my vet recommends it after any round of antibiotics.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

>>I found some undigested mealworm in the feces of my newly aquired baby geckos. They are both painfully thin, and I've only seen one of them eat. At the store I purchased them from they were kept on sand. I'm not ruling out other medical problems-- they're going to the vet today-- but I think they may be impacted. I know from caring for humans that impactions are very serious, and I imagine with tiny geckos the process just goes more quickly. What can I do now to start treating the impaction?
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Andrea A.

Thanks for all the help! I don't know how I got it in my head that undigested food in feces meant impaction...I'm pretty convinved now that they do have parasites.

I'm almost certain that the matter I'm finding is feces because there's white stuff on it or around it to-- would this be urates? and the mealworms remains aren't totally whole, there's some other matter mixed in as well (or there was with the first feces I found, the one I found today seemed almost to be totally mealworm, spec. about one and a half mealworms. ( But I'm not experienced-- does this sound more like feces or vomit to you guys? Also, how long after eating would a gecko vomit or defecate?

Can I give them yogurt now, or should I wait for the vet's go ahead? Also, is there anything else I can for them to help them until they go to the vet? Thanks!

Its great that you are paying attention and following up on what your geckos need. The white stuff does sound like urates, but I'd hate to guess without actually seeing it. Bring some in so your vet can see it.

I still wonder if the temperature could be contributing to the problem - with leopard geckos its the "belly heat" or floor level temperature you want, not the temperature of the air or the temperature a few inches up on the glass. Hot end should be about 88 degrees f. Cooler end about 80.

I'd hold off on the yogurt until after you see the vet, just to be sure any fecal results reflect the potential problem and not the treatment!

My leopard geckos produce feces about every day (sometimes they skip a day or so). I'm not sure how long digestion takes start to finish, but I think its around 24 hours (with 8 hours to 48 hours not unusual). Again, that's not an answer I"m confident about.

Have you checked www.drgecko.com? The person who runs the site is not a professional, but has done so much research she might as well be.
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Andrea A.

I use two heat guages-- I've laid them both on the floor at both the hot side and cool side during the night and daytime to check the temp, and did this for several days running before I brought the babies home. I consider them to be fairly accurate because both gauges reported basically the same temp each time. My hot side now runs at about 90F; the cool side from about mid 70s- 80s. Night temps drop around 2 degrees. However, if this partial digestion persists after the vet does a fecal exam and finds no parasites, I'm going to get a digital probe or temp gun to get even more accurate results.

However, the first day that they were here the temp varied from 86-88F-- is that too low? It dropped to about 84F that night. Could this alone cause poor digestion?

Thanks for the advice. (: I want everything to be perfect for them, so keep me on my toes!

From what you're saying it doesn't sound like a temperature problem. That's kind of a shame since that's really cheap and easy to fix. If you have the option, I'd suggest a temp gun since they're down to about $30 now and a digital temp guages with probes run at least $15. My temp gun has paid for itself several times over. Please post with what the vet turns up.

>>I use two heat guages-- I've laid them both on the floor at both the hot side and cool side during the night and daytime to check the temp, and did this for several days running before I brought the babies home. I consider them to be fairly accurate because both gauges reported basically the same temp each time. My hot side now runs at about 90F; the cool side from about mid 70s- 80s. Night temps drop around 2 degrees. However, if this partial digestion persists after the vet does a fecal exam and finds no parasites, I'm going to get a digital probe or temp gun to get even more accurate results.
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>>However, the first day that they were here the temp varied from 86-88F-- is that too low? It dropped to about 84F that night. Could this alone cause poor digestion?
>>
>>Thanks for the advice. (: I want everything to be perfect for them, so keep me on my toes!
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Andrea A.