Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I'm new to this forum. The biggest reason I'm posting is because of a very sick gecko I have on my hands. I work at a pet store. Monday afternoon someone dumped off a leopard gecko because she didn't want it, mainly because it "looked" sick. She had no idea even what type of gecko it is, she said that she thought it was a "Geico" pronouncing the name of the insurance company not the word gecko. They NEVER fed calcium or vitamins of any kind. She had never even heard of giving a lizard calcium. I was called and asked if I wanted to try and nurse the poor gecko back to health because I love leos and already have 3. When I got into work and saw how bad this little girl was I had to take her home. Her back legs aren't bad, but her front arms are bent backward. Her spine is curved, and she is so thin. She's at least a year old, and is as thin as a hatchling. It's so sad. Our vet who will come to our store talked to me. She recommended meat based baby food because of its high digestibility and giving the gecko liquid calcium. Anyone have any other ideas? The link at the bottom is to pictures of Gigi. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!
Link

The main thing I guess is to keep it far away from your other reptiles in case there is more than just neglect going on.
It looks to have a pretty severe case of metabolic bone disease... probably since they didn't provide calcium.

I guess you could start by trying to get some nutrition into the little guy.
Getting the shed off the toes would be a good plan too.

I'm not sure if mbd can be treated when it is that bad, but feeding water with some calcium powder dissolved in it through an eyedropper might help.
best of luck!!!
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The following sentence is true.
The above sentence is false.

4.4 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

Sounds like pretty good advice from your vet. If it's just MBD she should recover, the limb deformities will probably be permanent, however. I rehabbed a couple of geckos with MBD. I was able to get them to take pre-killed crickets covered in calcium powder. Because their jaws were so weak the crickets slid out so I kind of had to hold them in while the geckos swallowed. After a couple of weeks they really perked up, but it was a month before either one of them could swallow a pre-killed cricket on their own. After a couple months they could handle live crickets if hand fed. One was eventually able to catch crickets if I removed the hoppers, the other one always had to be handfed due to the nature of its jaw deformity. The jaws on yours look like they're pretty even so hopefully she will eventually be able to eat on her own.

Good luck!
Alice

FOr my MHD, not my Geckos< was to dilute Lamb babyfood with Pedialyte and some calcium powder, and some reptivite

I took 1/4tsp of cal, and 1/2 that of Reptivite, and mixed with 1 tsp of pedialyte
Then I pulled up 0.1 cc and added 0.9cc of a mixture of 2:1 Pedialyte Lamb mixture
and fed that to my Dragon after she layed eggs
These proportions should be ok for a gek too
I M not sure they could handle a whole cc of food at one sitting (my dragon could take 3cc at a time)

this is just what I did, and I hope the idea helps
it was not done on a gecko, so I hope my reasoning is sound for a gecko also

Good Luck with her, that person should come back as a PET in someones care in the next life
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*