Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, well my leos seemed to be eating great for awhile, like 30-40 crickets a day and some mealworms, but they've slowed down a lot, like 10-15 crickets a day, and not too many mealworms. That's for 3 leos by the way. Anyways, their poop is really runny now too, and I have yet to get them checked for parasites. I'm planning on getting a stool sample and bringing it to my vet tommorow afternoon and having him check it out. Any thoughts?
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

30-40 crickets mealworms for 3 geckos is a lot IMO, but runny stools doesn't sound good either.

Do you mean runny as in there's a lot of liquid with the stools, or is the stool actually runny like diarrhea? My leo poops a lot of liquid along with his turd.

-Lemur 6

I dunno, I've sort of seen both. Before, their poop was really hard and defined, and now its messy, sometimes diarhhrea like and other times just w/ a lot of water. I put the temps up a bit, and really, 30-40 crickets isn't that much. Think about it, that's over 24 hours. so like 10-13 crickets for one gecko over a 24 hour period really isn't that much, especially for "teenage" leos. But yeah, they've been cutting down a little, I'm gonna get them parasite tested tommorow or Wed.
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

I'd suggest getting just one fecal done, as this would be cheaper. And if one had parasites, then the others probably do. That is, if they are in the same tank/enclosure, and this would be less expensive.
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Modern Geckos
Josh Ellis
My Email
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How much does one cost?
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

depends where you go...my vet charges $12...some charge more, some less...
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

My Vet charge me $10 and it denpends where you lives and some can be $40.
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Preston Berry
www.freewebs.com/coolgeckoUnder Construction
restonberry@austin.rr.com" target="_blank">Prestonberry@austin.rr.com

Hi

If they are all in the same tank, then I agree with Byrandom about only taking one fecal in and it being cheaper that way. Also if you do that and the fecal you take in is positive for parasites, then like Byrandom said you will need to treat all the geckos in that tank, so you will need to weigh all the geckos in that tank so the vet. can give you the proper dosage for each one.

Take Care, TLB

Oh...and another word of advice...ANY vet can do a fecal for you...you don't need to go to a reptile vet. I'd just find the cheapest place you can...a fecal is pretty hard to screw up even if its not a great clinic...lol
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

Although any vet can do a fecal, not any vet can properly prescribe the right drug and the right dose (though this can easily be looked up in a handbook), and not any vet can properly identify whether a parasite came from a prey item or is actually infecting the animal.

Some vets will outright refuse to do a fecal on animals that they do not see (cat/dog vets), and rightly so. Other vets are just not educated enough to tell the difference between a Strongyloid or a pinworm, but will tell you that your gecko has worms, and although this is not all that important, it is nice to know what kind.

A lot of vets don't do their fecals at the clinic either, and prefer to send their samples out to labs. Some parasites are very "ethereal", and don't stick around long enough for the parasitologist at the lab to catch them and make note of them as samples can be well over 24 hours old by the time it reaches them.

-Lemur 6

All that is very true...although I only know of one vet that actually sends fecals out...most vets have thier techs or assistants do them and it only takes about 15 minutes to do the float and "read" the results. I have a friend who works at a clinic where he does the fecals, and sometimes they get bored and they'll put all kinds of wierd stuff on slides just to look at...lol Fecals are very easy to do. I just would never pay something like $40 to get a fecal done, hell I'd never pay half that...that's absolutely absurd...the things used to do fecals (not counting the microscope) are a little plastic jar thing, a slide and coverslip, and possibly oil or dyes...It probably costs a vet a grand total of about $1-2 to do a fecal...lol Vets that charge $40 do it because they know they can get away with it...they in no way need to charge that much.
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)