Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just returned from the herp vet with a leopard gecko that we take care of for my son's school on the weekends and breaks.
They couldn't detect any parasites or bacterium from the stool sample, which was basically undigested crickets... They told me that cryptosporidium infection of leopard geckos is practically epidemic in leaopard geckos.
I was just wondering how common this affliction is and what can be done about it?
Any and all help is appreciated!
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God Bless!

Bonnie

It may not be parasites. You should check your temps. If the food is undigested, it might be because it can't digest. Reptiles thermoregulate to aide in digestion. So on one side of the tank it should be 90F. Have a thermomter in the tank on that side to help moniter this. It should be about 80F on the other side of the tank. Get another thermometer to monitor this temp too.
One more reason there might be cricket parts in it's poop is, bugs like crickets and mealworms have a hard shell called chitin. This is fairly hard to digest and is often passed in the poop. But if the poo is whole, formed crickets, a good place to start is with a look at husbandry.
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- Melanie

2.0.0 cats
0.0.3 crested geckos
1.2.2 leopard geckos
1.0.0 Bernese mountain dog
1.1.1 red ear sliders
0.0.1 emperor scorpion
0.0.1 chilean rose tarantula
1 south american cichlid tank
2 planted tanks with dwarf cichlids and platies

Melanie,
I don't quite follow you. Can you please elaborate on the husbandry?
It is definitely whole undigested crickets. Temps in the tank range from 80 - 90 degrees. The vet said that there was very little fecal matter in the poo. His tail is also very, very thin.
Since there was so little fecal matter the vet couldn't make a positive determination on the bacteria, parasite, or what.
We have decided to try a course of treatment of 3 meds: anitbiotic, med for bacteria, and a med for parasites.
I am just praying that he comes thru and the vet is wrong....
TIA!
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God Bless!

Bonnie