Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a few a couple days ago about my Bibron gecko that I recently lost. I bought these from RMS Aquaculture (I live in Ohio). This store does nothing w/ their reptiles but dump em in the cage, throw some food in w/ em and forget about em. At first I figured they were ok since my baby king snake seems to be doing pretty good (4 months, feeding on grown mice now, my lil baby. So i figured i'd get these bibron geckos since I thought they looked pretty good. Well, the first one i got was a female. She was obviously sick judging by her gasping for air. I made an appointment for the vet but she never made it to that day. She died in her water dish (very very shallow.. only a deli cup lid). Well recently my lil boy, the second one i purchased, went in the get checked for parasites. Along w/ my third, another female. Unfortunately, neither of them would pass feces. A week later I went in again, with success in getting feces from both. They both turned out to have internal parasites. On the last day of treatment (only 3 days according to my vet, one drop of i can't remember the name of the drug of the top of my head, it was yellowish and creamy looking, my lil boy was found in the same fashion as my girl, dead in the water. Now, every care sheet i see online says that they should have a water dish, but very shallow. What gets shallow than a deli cup lid? Mind you, this was when my boy and girl were under quarantine in a small 5 gallon tank, w/ papertowels, and a different deli cup lid. The very next day, after i made my post, my girlfriend woke me up when she went to check on my lil girl. She was like having a seizure! Then she went into complete shock. She was so cold, i thought i had lost her. Me and my girlfriend held 2 75 watt lamps about 6 inches away from her for about 10 minutes. I was so scared. She finally started to twitch her tail, and take a crap all over my hand, immediately when she came to she bit the hell out of my finger( i was so happy, even though my finger turned purple). Right now she seems to be doing fine, but she's not really eating as far as i can tell. When she moves she has some serious jitters as well. Now, if this wasn't bad enough I have another problem. My prenant leopard gecko is showing signs of MBD. My vet doesn't seem to think so but I am really worried she does. She has a lump on the underneath of her left arm, a lump on her right elbow (which is pretty new) and a new mass that just formed on her right side (she just laid last night). I have been trying to feed her meal worms since i figure w/ harder food to chew it'd be easier to see weakness in her jaw. Lately she has been only able to eat about 1 meal worm at a feeding. And she seem to struggle when she chews. She is also not readily climbing anything (i know it's not cause she's pregnant since my other female is pretty active and is very pregnant as well). I'm so worried, she use to be such a spaz, now she tremors when she moves. Help me plz... i'm really scared...

Where are you in Ohio? I just wanted to know where this store was. The Bibron's geckos were from the wild, that's why they had so many problems. Most stores don't have the means to test and treat the animals they get in, and poor care excaberates the problem. It wasn't your fault at all, and it was unfortuately a tough lesson in the school of experience. I've been there.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

sounds like u just have a case of bad luck with leos... and u need to find a better place for buying yr lepard gekos if they get wild gekos, wild gekos carry alot of parasites and alot of other bad things...

I don't think my leo has parasites. She was captive born and sold to me by a girl that was taking care of them. I'm really worried that she has MBD, and wanna know what to tell my vet if he says she doesn't.

n/p

Hi

Can you break down all that you wrote, and tell use again, why you think she has MBD (some signs you are noticing) etc., and also what reason the vet. gave you as to why he doesn't thing she has MBD.

TLB

Where are you in Ohio? I'm also in Ohio, and depending on where you are, I could try to find a good reptile vet for you.
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-Kristen

0.10 Leopard Gecko (Buttercup, Beaker, Beauty, Blaze, Bubbles, Blinkers, Squiggles, Sandy, and two new girlies who are nameless at the moment)
1.1 Fat Tail Gecko (Bell and Bowser)
0.1 Deformed Leopard Gecko (Gimpy)
0.2 Leopard Geckos that lives at my boyfriend's house, but whom I still pay for food...lol (Dexter and our blizzard, Starlight!)
0.0.1 Crested Gecko! (Piper, it's kinda unisex right?)

Proud owner and operator of a Powerbook G4! Why use windows, when I can use Panther? It even sounds better.

Ok, my female leopard, who is gravid, had a lump form shortly after she became pregnant on the inner part of her left arm. about a week later a lump formed on her right elbow. Just yesterday i noticed a large mass that formed right below her arm pit. She is alert, but not active. She hasn't moved from her spot this morning besides when the fact that she turned around. She also just laid the other night and when my other leopard laid she ate tons of mealworms and drank tons of water and was really active for a day or two. Totally opposite for this girl. She drank no water and only ate one meal worm. I think it hurts for her to chew (i kno that's a big sign). She also has tremors when she does move. Oh, and i live in parma heights, if u don't kno where that is it's a suburb off of cleveland.

How old are your female Leos and how long have you had them? If they are laying eggs, I am assuming you have bred them(?) If you suspect MBD, they are either not getting enough calcium and/or the temperatures in their enclosures are not optimum. I doubt the shaking or twitching when laying still is a sign of MBD, and you may want to consider finding a different Vet that specializes in reptiles. Here are some links for finding good herp vets:

ARAV: (Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians) www.arav.org
Tricia Powers’ website: www.icomm.ca/~dragon/vetcare.htm
Melissa Kaplan's website: www.anapsid.org/vets

BTW, are you Sandor Pacso by any chance?

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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com