First off let me say that I know you are very worried about your leopard geckos and that you are trying to get them healthy again. With that said:
1.) Why are you treating with flagyl and panacur if fecals came back negative? What are you treating them FOR? Yes, panacur is extremely safe -if administered correctly- but flagyl on the other hand can kill your geckos if you are dosing them improperly.
My vet has specifically directed to continue treating the animals I had started treating with panacur, and to begin treatment on affected animals I hadn't treated yet that night. While the fecal was negative there are some worms which can be more difficult to detect in fecals, strongio-somethings...
In an earlier post you said (regarding flagyl):
"I may be being too conservative with her dosage though, as it is hard to be exact. I am crushing tablets and mixing with water, and dosing daily"
That statement proves that you have no idea what stregnth the tablet/water mixture is, and you have no idea how much of it to administer to your geckos. You said you are following your vets instructions to a T but surely he/she was more specific than that?! Your vet should be able to prescribe flagyl in its liquid form, and also give you the correct dosage.
As for the Flagyl, my vet said there is a possibility it could be flagellate protozoans which also can be missed on a fecal. He said if the baytril shot did not seem to work, we would try Flagyl. I didn't particularly like the idea of waiting 5 days doing nothing, so I seperated one of my afffected geckos (who had not recieved the Baytril shot) from the group. I have Flagyl on hand, and looked up the dosage, and decided to start that protocol myself in another gecko to see if it helped. My statement does not "prove that you have no idea what stregnth the tablet/water mixture is, and you have no idea how much of it to administer to your geckos." I said it is hard to be exact, and in light of that I am dosing on the conservative end of the scale, but I am certainly not just "guessing". The recommended daily dose for flagyl is 25-50mg/kg for 5-7 days according to Understanding Reptile Parasites, though some use dosages much higher up to 175 mg/kg, the autor says that this is uneccessary as much lower dosages have been found to be effective. I have 250 mg tablets and a pill cutter. The gecko I am treating is 47 grams. 250/2= 125/2=62.5/2= 31.25/2= 16.25>this is what I mix with a small amount of water. The gecko I am treating is 47 grams. Therefore the safe and effective dose is ~12-23 grams. So after all the splitting the dose is ~16.25. I realize splitting is not totally exact, and there may be some powder residue left in glass and on syringe, so yes it cannot be expected to be totally exact down to the miligram. Because of this I am dosing on the lower end of the scale, as an underdose on a given day is better than too much. It is probably just right, though there is a possibility I may underdose on a given day, missing my target dose (of around 13 mg accounting for lost residue). But by using the conservative end of the spectrum I am certainly in no danger of harming of killing my gecko, and am in fact using the same meds my vet has said we would try next if the Baytril shot didn't work. So yes, it was a judgement call not to wait and try the flagyl on another affected gecko, and it might not be the one someone else would make, but I do not think it can possibly be called dangerous or irresponsible. Flagyl tablets dissolved in water and injections are the preferred and recommeded forms of dosage (though yes the author prefers the liquid, he recommends both), and says sprinkling of food is "acceptable"- which I would not be comfortable with at all in an animal eating live insects, though it may be okay for herbivores if monitored.
2.) Robin had advised you to try, among other places, contacting the herpetarium at your local zoo for medication/dosing info and you made this statement:
"and forgive me if I choose to contact other breeders in the area for recommdation rather than take your naive advice to take my leo to the ZOO"
Starling, are you implying that people seeking advice from professional herpetologists in the zoo field are NAIVE? Zoo herpetologists are some of the most knowlegable folks you could seek out if you have questions regarding herp disease and medicine! My husband happenes to be a zoo herpetologist of almost 20 years and he knows more about herp health, husbandry, medication etc. etc. than anyone I have ever met. Please don't discount zoos when it comes to knowlege, they know WAY WAY more than you or I do, and it is because of these zoo herpers that many of the reptiles that are commonly these days are, well, so common! Where do you think hobbiests got their information?! I could go on and on about it but I think you get my drift here. LOL
I certainly don't think herpetologists at the zoo are naive. What I think is naive is pestering someone at a zoo, who is not in the business of treating peoples pets, for advice when I could be trying to track down a qualified herpetogist who can treat my animals, which is what I have been doing. I have been trying to find one in SF. I emailed Jonathan of SF geckos and heard from him yesterday that there really are no herp specialists in SF anymore and the closest one is in Berkeley, but he takes his geckos there and the slight stress of extra travel on the geckos is well worth it, and he has 20-30 years experience working with herps. I am not seeing dramatic results in my gecko treated with baytril, and so I have a call into my vet (who is an exotics vet, and sees all the reptiles for a local pet store, but is more of a bird specialist that a herp specialist) to discuss this. If he tells me that I should be seeing better results by now if that was an effective treatment, ( and have not seen dramatic changes in the gecko treated with flagyl either, which was this vet's next course of action) I am going to tell my vet that I don't want to go ahead and try flagyl on the gecko who has already gotten the baytril shot as he was going to do, and call the herp specialist in Berkeley and make an appointment with him, to see if he knows of some tests my vet doesn't that can be done to identify the problem and find the solution.
3.) I do agree with this statement you made: "The problem is when people don't see a vet when they really need to, or treat without knowing what the heck they are doing." I wish you good luck in finding the help your animals need.
Oh, and just FWI, Batril can be extremely damaging to the renal system/kidneys if overdosed. I have never heard of anyone treating a leopard gecko with baytril, and I am not the be all-end all when it comes to leopard geckos but I would discontinue its use until you find a real herp vet to diagnose your geckos.
Of course, any antibiotic can be if OVERDOSED. My gecko was weighed and dosed by injection, by a vet that certainly does treat herps and not infrequently, but he doesn't have the depth of expertise that would be ideal. Baytril is listed as one of the standard broad-spectrum antibiotics prescribed for leos on the Dr. Gecko site, so I have no reason to believe there was anything wrong with administering that particular drug. I can't discontinue treatment as it was an injection. And even if I could, as much as I respect your opinion Kelli, I would not discontinue an antibiotic prescribed by my vet who does see herps based on unsubstiantied advice from a layperson. Even in humans we are told it is dangerous to stop antibiotics once treatment is begun, because it can create antibiotic-resistant bacteria (the weak ones are killed off, the strong resistant ones multiply). So I think that would be a very dangerous thing to do.
