Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Before...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

Before...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

After...

-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

I have a little girl she is not good off. She got impacted from substrate. I have gone to two vets and she is still not getting better. I have tried the turkey baby food slurry, she won't eat hardly any of it. I have gotten her to eat two crickets by holding her mouth and putting it down her. Also do you know if you can inject a dehydrated leo with water if they are having a hard time drinking, the vet did something like this but I don't know if you need a sugar solution or what? In short, was leo 2 impacted, and what did you do to make them better again?

Great job on those two..... They look awesome..... You rock baby.... Yeah!!!

Nimbus was weak and starved but I don't think he was impacted. I'm not sure -- Initially if you went to pick him up, he'd just lie there all limp and listless.

I do have one older guy that I believe was impacted as a baby. If it makes you feel any better, I syringe fed him for 3 weeks. I think all critters deserve a chance, especially if they've been mistreated, but sometimes if they're passed a return point, its probably meaner to keep them alive. Anyways, I won't start any "feeding tube" debates here! I'm usually all for natural selection but there was something about this little guy that made me persist. I can't even tell you how many courses of medicine he went on. He's now happy, healthy, and eats everything. You can see the baby food jar in Rescue 1's baby photo.

It sounds like you might need a new vet, but if your little one is tiny, there's not a ton they can do for it -- these little ones are too small for surgical interventions or enemas. There are 2 kinds of impaction: Acute Impaction is when they swallow a lot of substrate (or foreign objects) at once and it blocks the digestive tract. Chronic impaction is more deadly because it invoves the accumulation of sand or particles over a long period of time. I'm assuming if the gecko is very small, it has an acute impaction.

Is there any bowel movement at all? I'd be concerned with force feeding if there's nothing coming out the back end, however, I think this may be your only resort. Perhaps try starting off with syringing a tiny bit of mineral oil to loosen things up?

First, try 10-15 minute warm water soaks once or twice a day. If you're so inclined, you can massage her tummy after these to try and induce digestive movement to pass the impaction. Also, if there are associated infections present, you will need antibiotics or other medicines from the vet. Mine had a mystery illness and I put him on Bactrin in an Oraplus suspension. I also gave him 2 courses of meds to kill any parasites that might have been there.

You need to obtain a mini-syringe from the vet or an eye dropper from the drugstore. The gecko needs to be force fed an electrolyte mix (I like pedialyte) for rehydration. You also need to get some baby food and force-feed that. Its not as mean as it sounds...but you will need to literally "inject" the substances into the gecko's mouth and get it to swallow. I use a mini tupperware container to mix one can of meat (turkey usually) with enough veggie baby food to make the mixture watery enough to be sucked up by the syringe. Then I mix in powdered vitamins. This can be stored in the fridge and is easier than putting insects in your blender. You can do that too, but I'd borrow a friend's blender!

Pick up the gecko in one hand so he's vertical with his stomach and head facing you. He's try and wriggle free but use gentle pressure to keep him there and eventualy he'll be still. With the other hand, run the syringe/eye dropper or a fingernail down the side of his mouth. This will make him open up. If in doubt, you can poke the side of his mouth with the tip until he gets pissed off and opens his mouth to bite it. Be very careful because we can break their jaws fairly easily when they're little. "Injecting" a bit at a time, force feed as much as the gecko will take in a sitting. If he starts spitting it up, stop. I did this several times a day for 3 weeks with my last sick baby.

Again, if nothings coming out the back end after you try this once, this is probably not a good idea because it will just clog in the digestive tract. However, I'd start with pedialyte and see if you can rehydrate her and get her to pass the urates.

My force-fed baby is now a happy, healthy sub-adult. I think he's a little slow mentally but he's the friendliest gecko I have and always wants to be let out. I think he knows I helped him out big time!
-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

Great Job!!!
Ken
-----
0.5 Normal Ball Pythons (Norma, Nova, Nala, Nimeesha, Nyoka)
1.1 Argentine B/W Tegus (Draco and Drucilla)
0.1 Columbian B/W Tegu (Diablo)
1.0 Black Throat Monitor (Razor)
1.0 Desert Tortoise (Tubbs) from Tortoise Rescue
1.0 Boxer (Shadow)
0.1 Feline (CK)
1.0 Memory of my Redtail Boa (Mo) which passed away after 28 years

Well done Cherri, i am glad to see that bad things can turn out good. We need stories like this sent to the RSPCA to maybe aid our hobbie in stopping them from trying to ban exotic pets in the UK. I think the whole thing is absolutely ludacrus that they can even think of such a thing to do! Just my 2 Cents.

Gilbery's Gecko's