Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi,

i have a sub-adult leo that was doing well until recently. she has stopped eating on her own (i'm having to force feed her), but is drinking water... and is really thin. while scooping out her feces today, i noticed there were tiny little bugs (grayish in color, almost microscopic) crawling around the area where she uses the bathroom... i don't think they're mites because i looked on her skin and found nothing. btw, i use repti-bark as a substrate, do you think it's possible that she ingested some and is maybe sick from it?

thanks in advance,

Ian

Sounds like parasites (which can be carried by crickets or other reptiles). I'd say get a fecal done and see what kind of problems they find. I suppose it could get impacted from repti-bark if it ate some, but there shouldn't be things moving around near the area it uses the bathroom. You might want to switch it over to paper towel until it's feeling better. Also make it's living in its own enclosure until you know for sure.
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Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com

Hey there, are the bugs in the poop or on it? If they are on it and you can get a good look make sure they aren't just pinhead crickets. I had an infestation of crickets in my frog tank (I also use repti-bark in there). I totaly freaked before I found out what they really were, I bleached everything. If I had known they were all baby crickets I would have tried to keep them, there was probably 100-200 of them. However, if this is the case you should probably do some cleaing more often, the only thing you want living in your tank is your leo.

Personally I would still try to get to a vet just incase esspecially if they are anything besides crickets.

Good luck,
Lisa
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0.1 Hypo Leopard Gecko
0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko
1.0 Albino Pacman Frog
1.0 Lovebird (Tony)
1.0 Elkhound Cross (Otto)
0.1 Malamute Cross (Paris)
6.0 Bettas

Good point... I totally forgot about this as an option. Perhaps a cheap magnifying lens would help in determining since you can kind of see them now.
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Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com

thanks for the replies. the parasites (or whatever they are) were not in the poop, they were crawling around on the repti-bark. i'm going to look for a magnifying glass tomorrow so i can see what they exactly are.