Reptile & Amphibian Forums

first off i'll start with the symptoms.
clumsy
eyes sunken in slightly
tail withered
base of tail and legs slightly malnurished looking
as you know i recieved the female about 3 weeks ago which is still doing great, next week i ordered 3 more and got 3 males. i decided to keep the best looking male for my female and decided to keep the other two males for awhile before selling them to make sure they were doing okay. so 4 days ago i walk in and see one of the males had a withered tail and just looked like crap, sudden change from the day before. i tried getting it to drink and eat which it wouldn't and all of the sudden it started contorting itself ( like sometimes geckos do ( or atleast my cresteds do) when their trying to work some food down)) then it dropped it's tail without being touched by anyone, it's feet clenched and it died... wow, this was wierd.
So today i check on my other mail ( the one that's not with the female) and it looks the same way as the other one did right before it died, but not quite as bad. this is why i'm asking now to see if anyone can help.
here's info on eating/husbandry
6-8 large crickets are dusted and put in every 2 days
cage sprayed liberally 2-3 times a day ( which you can see the gecko drinking)
i'm keeping it on peat moss right now with vines and limbs around the cage ( plenty of hiding spots)
temp. is about 65 at night and 72 during the day.

the only thing i can think of to do is change the substrate ( to ecoearth?)and clean the enclosure which it has been in for not even 2 weeks.

PLEASE ANY INFO WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Sounds bad. I'm no expert on Uroplatus but it sounds to me like you have severly dehydrated animals. Sunken eyes are a sign of dehydration in most reptiles. There are also probably other things contributing to the bad condition of your uros, possibly parasites and the combination of stress from shipping. Keep the humidity very high in their terrarium and seek the assitance of a veterinarian that has experience with reptiles and amphibians. They will be able to do a fecal examination to determine if parasites could be a problem. To locate one have a look at www.arav.org or www.herpvetconnection.com You might also want to consider taking your apparently healthy pair to the vet as well, it wouldn't hurt. Good luck,
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
0.0.2 Mantella madagascariensis
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.0 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

i thought it was dehydration as well from the look of the eyes. this happened despite the fact that i would spray each one directly and watch it drink every single day. anyways, after spraying it twice this morning, and after school today spraying it nonstop until the entire spray bottle was empty, it started moving around much more and it's eyes almost instantly looks better. it also regained a lot of it's color. looks like i'll be spraying 4-5 times a day now. i'll let you know how it goes. thanks for the input.

I would also cover 80% or more of the top of the cage if it's screen. They may be drying out during the day. Get a dripper and set it on a slow steady drip over a live plant - this keeps mine hydrated very well. What you are seeing are classic dehydration symptoms. Best of luck.
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?.?.? Leopard Geckos (eggs incubating)
1.1.1 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
2.5 Paroedura picta(eggsincubating)
1.1 Paroedura picta (Xanthic/Amel)
1.1 Paroedura bastardi(eggs incubating)
1.1 Paroedura androyensis
1.1 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus
1.1 Cyrtodactylus irianjayensis
1.1 Gekko gecko
1.1 Pachydactylus turneri
1.1 Uroplatus henkeli
0.0.1 Hemidactylus turcicus turcicus
1.2 Teratolepis fasciata

Snakes
1.0 Blizzard Corn
1.0 Christmas corn
1.2 Reverse Okeetee corn (1 tang)
1.0 Ball Python

it was definately a dehydration problem, it's acting almost normal now and is drastically improving. i thought watching them all drink would have been fine but maybe they were just now reacting to being dehydrated from the previous owners. oh well, i'll just water them even longer everyday. thanks for your help
andrew

i would take them to the vet and have him run a fecal on him. my u henkeli male acted like that till i got himm checked out for coccidia. not losing the tail but his tail was all curled up. and he was very sick. cocidia wrecks their ability to keep moisture in their body. im not a vet bt it could be the problem.