We have tried everything we know to do, 'know to do' is the key phrase. Having found you and read up on lots of topics I feel like the next resort is to try to deworm the gecko. I think I just need some support from you knowledgeable people to carry me through this. Louie belongs to my daughter. He/she has been losing weight and looking in poor health now for a while. We have been to the petstore multiple times and talked with everybody who will listen. We have switched to small crickets and added meal worms and calcium supplement and a water additive but he still has no appetite. One even said to try fruit. He has also lost his tail recently. We have resorted to force feeding him to keep some nutrition going. He has a light for heat and a heat pad under the sand bedding in the middle of the setup. He has a hiding rock with water above in the far cool side. I weighed him on a food scale and he is less than 10g and without the tail just about 4 inches. He is skinny.
So...get the panacur and administer it? I have dewormed the horses before but none other. For his weight it can't be much and I think I'm supposed to either put it in his mouth or coat his top lip to lick off, right?
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Help me save the gecko
Replies (14)
I dont know if this is the cause of the problem but i would get him off the sand ASAP! Sand can cause impactation (sp?) in smaller leos which can lead to death.
-Kinik
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My only leo is named Maverick. I got him from sombody who didnt want him... he has lost almost every single toe because they didn't take care of him.
I would have to agree. That is my personal opinion though. I am speaking from experience, we lost one of our leos to impaction. I would try taking the little leo to the vet. How old is the leo? 10 grams is small. Hope all goes well with your leo.
We have Tangerines, a stripe, normals, albinos, patternless,and giants. There are 23 of them....lol to many to list.
Impaction huh? I'm not certain that is the problem, since he has pooped through out this time. Any other ideas?
Unless you are skilled int he administration of meds to exotic animals, i would not advise you to give your baby leo such a harsh de wormer. It is such a strong chemical that even a tiny drop would send your leo into anphalactic shock. Please, belive me wehn i say this. It is actually a horse wormer.....so you could imagine the dammage it could do to some thing that weighs only 7 ounces. There are less harmful things that would work, and only a vet should perscribe them.
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1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
0.0.1 spotted slug
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.3 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, Blitzkreig, and Zelda
"...He has also lost his tail recently."
Has anyone tried to pick him by either by the tail or grabbed it?
"We have resorted to force feeding him to keep some nutrition going."
Probably not the best idea due to causing more stress for the poor guy than helping unfortunetly.
Would not recommend giving anything other than what a vet for Exotic Animals gives you. Take the little leo to the vet with a recent(still soft) sample of poop for parisite test. Sounds like Parasites to me based on what I've heard/read on here from other people with VERY similiar cases.
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Thanks, Jason
As I've said in the past and will continue to say.. sand is bad.. especially for a baby...With a mild impaction they may still pass stool and waste in small amounts... the impaction can be higher up in the intestinal tract, etc etc. Sand is a killer regardless of how long it takes to do it. It can take a month or it can take 10 yrs.. the end result is the same.. a dead gecko. The only difference is..most people think that a leo who dies at 10 is dieing of old age when these guys can live to 20 years. While the problem may be parasitical..you're courting other problems with the usage of sand as a substrate.
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Lucien
1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 0.0.3 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystique))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"
Is it calcium sand? play sand? medium size sand? large size sand? or bigger?
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Alright, it's not really sand afterall. I have looked at the bag and it is a substitute for sand called "Desert Blend" Lizard Litter. It says it is made from walnut shells. It came from the petstore when we bought all the stuff in January.
Walnut bedding is (in most cases) even worse than sand! mostly because when they break up the shells they become razor sharp, this can slice up your leos intestinal tract pretty badly depending on how fine the shells are crushed (if they are very fine it might not be as bad as if they were like .5 cm or bigger) Either way I would get him off of it ASAP! just take it out and line the cage with papertowel, then make sure you have warm, cool and a humid hides. think of this as a hospatol tank, keep it as clean as possible! (think of it as a human hospatol! but without harsh disenfectants) But the most important thing you can do is get him to a vet! this will up your chances of saving him by a lot!
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0.2.0. Leo
1.1.0. WTF
0.1.0. Irish Setter
2.2.0. Holland Lop Bunnies
1.1.0. House Cats
Too Many Fish!
Check out my site ~ www.freewebs.com/stephsgeckos
He's already dead. My daughter is going to come home and find him dead. Sadly she is expecting it. That doesn't help the feeling of inadequacy of not being able to have helped the lizard or my daughter. We have done everything we were told to do in the past several weeks, he continued to decline in health in spite of our attempts.
There will be changes before a replacement is made. Thankyou everyone for your advice.
I'm very sorry to hear that. From the way everybody tried to pitch in on this. The desert blend was a very dangerous substrate, and he was still a baby. Babies are rather frail. Be sure to inspect the replacement throughly and keep him on paper towels until he is old/big enough to be put on a more natural substrate, like slate.
Please keep this in mind next time you think about another pet. Lack of knowladge is one of the top killers of reptiles these days. I am sorry for your loss, but it most likelyy could have been prevented...
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1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
0.0.1 spotted slug
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.3 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, Blitzkreig, and Zelda
I feel very sorry for your daughter... the same thing happened to me when I got my first gecko, about 4 years ago. (10 years old.) I bought him from a pet store believing everything they told me was true and that he was a healthy gecko. Needless to say, he ended up being housed under a bright UV light and 150 watt bulb in a 10 gallon tank on sand without and calcium powder, being fed dried up store crickets. Only took a few months before he died, and I felt awful. I thought I had done evrything right and could not figure out what went wrong.
After that I went online and bought a couple books to do some extended research... as I learned more and more, my hatred grew for pet stores.
About a year later, I decided to get another gecko from a breeder instead. (www.pythons.com) When I received the frisky juvenile gecko, I could instantly see the difference between the health of the new one and my previous one. Using the knowledge I had acquired over the internet and through books, he became a very strong, active, 9.5 inch gecko. He brought me so much happiness after losing my first little buddy.
Then, about a month ago, I was going on vacation with my family for three weeks and I was taking him to a breeder to be taken care of while we were gone. But on the way there we needed to make a stop and I simply left him in the car... on a hot day. When I got back he was dead as a doornail and I simply could not believe I had made such a stupid mistake.
Now I am trying a third time but I probably won't get another if anything happens. Best of luck to you and your daughter on your new gecko, make sure to do plenty of research before buying one.
Gecko_LoL
I know the feeling. I lost one huge female BTS to parasites. She didn't ate for a while and died one morning. I also had a golden skink that died because she was killed by her cagemates (no idea. They were peacefull for at least half a year and it suddenly happened).
