Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I’m hoping that someone may have seen something like this and be able to provide ideas or suggestions or their experience. I will try to provide as much information as possible, and answer questions if I’ve left anything out.

My leopard gecko is suffering from and receiving veterinary care for a relapse of neurological symptoms that first surfaced a year ago. Her present symptoms include stargazing, circling counter-clockwise, poor balance and coordination, anorexia, and what appear to be whole-body “twitches,” or sometimes just her tail, that are repeated regularly—every couple of seconds for 10-20 seconds at a stretch. She is being treated by a herp expert, who at this time is pretty much stumped too. It is apparently not usual for such symptoms to subside for a year, and then return. We are trying what worked last year, in the hope it might work again.

Background info: Age: 2-3 years, female.
Housed alone in 23 gal long aquarium, repti/calci sand and large flat rocks as substrate, humid hide with peat moss, live non-toxic plants in cage.
Heated by infrared bulb, temperatures at substrate level, 89 degrees warm side, ranging to 75 degrees at cool end. 12 hour photoperiod provided by fluorescent tube. She is very tame and is handled briefly several times a week, and in the summer spends short periods outside in the early morning sun.
There are other lizards in my house but no direct contact with gecko. She may have been in contact with other lizards/reptiles before I got her one year ago from a local reptile store.

Feeding:
Will only eat crickets since first illness. I offer as much as she will eat. Dusted with Calcium/D3 Phosphorous free, 2x a week. Herptivite once a week or two (she hates it). Insects gutloaded on variety of grains, brans, yeast flakes, flax, veggies, fruits, dry dog food. Calcium dish in cage.

Illness from one year ago:
Slight head tilt rapidly worsening, progressing over two weeks to inability to accurately strike prey, anorexia, lack of coordination, stargazing, total body weakness, tail appeared “dead” (gecko would keep walking into it). Treated by injection with antibiotics (Baytril), anti-parasitic (Ivermectin), and steroids over a period of two weeks, the rationale being that the cause is either infection or some sort of brain/nerve/muscle parasite (or a tumor which could not be treated anyway). At the end of treatment, gecko began eating and gradually regained strength in body, legs, movement of tail. Inability to sight and accurately strike prey persists, and gecko takes crickets from hand once she sees prey in cage and gets excited. Over the winter gecko ate like a pig and grew very fat and strong. Very occasional stargazing or head tilt noticed during this period. No symptoms at all for the last few months prior to onset of latest symptoms.

Illness this summer:
Gradual lessening of appetite over several weeks. Currently has not eaten for over a month (except she ate her shed two weeks ago.) No interest in prey whatsoever. She remains fat and healthy looking except for the obvious symptoms. Stools when she has had them are always normal, and have checked out negative for parasites.
The neurological symptoms showed up strongly two weeks ago, when she started stargazing constantly at night and had some sort of seizure in the garden. She fell over and totally panicked, resulting in a period of regular twitching that gradually subsided. She had similar episode today when I took her out on a towel. I am mostly letting her sleep undisturbed except for our drives to the vet for injections every 2-3 days. I take her out prior to these visits to see how she is moving and coping with terrain in order to give information to vet.

There has been no improvement in the first week of treatment. When awake, she is very irritable and jumpy, whereas she has always been very calm and gentle. She seems unable to walk in a straight line, but only circles. Going “hand over hand” with me as she has always done, seems to have become impossible for her. She seems to “try” then gets very agitated, circles madly and falls over and panics. She throws her head around almost constantly, and seems distressed. The veterinarian has added injections of fluids to her regimen since we are worried she is not getting water as she cannot seem to walk from point A to B.

She is currently undergoing a course of Baytril injections, and Ivermectin again. The vet decided to leave out the steroids this time so that the symptoms would not be masked and he could more easily assess her progress or lack thereof. She gets her last injection on Monday and will be reassessed then.

Thank you for reading through this long post. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on my gecko’s case I would appreciate them. Right now her chances do not look very good.
--Denise

This set of symptoms in Leopard Geckos is classic for cases of toxicity, especially to certain pharmaceuticals, notably Ivermectin , metronidazole and Aminoglycoside antibiotics. Other chemicals that have been known to cause this are:

various insecticides
Phenol based cleansers
Cedar
lead
nicotine
parrafin
napthalene

Other possible causes of the symptoms you describe (that I can think of right now):

Head trauma

Acanthomebic meningocephalitis

Viral agents, such as:
Poxvirus
Papilloma virus
Adenovirus

Thanks for the great information! It really helps to have things set out so clearly. The association of this cluster of symptoms with toxicity is very interesting to me. I was also concerned about the vet's use of ivermectin during the previous illness, and asked him about it. He explained why he used it, and is very careful with the dosage, diluting it etc. So I went with what he decided since I'm no expert. I will bring this and your other information to him for my gecko's reassessment anyway (and before her last injection of ivermectin). Her symptoms in both illnesses occurred prior to her being exposed to any pharmaceuticals, including the ivermectin, and in the first illness she recovered and ate the day after the last ivermectin injection (along with all the other stuff), which made me less worried when he used it this time.

I have been fanatical since the first illness regarding any chemical exposures she might have had. I tend to avoid the use of chemicals anyway, there is no cedar/phenol or the other substances you mention in her environment, but I am going to recheck everything again. Nothing as far as I know is different from the several-month period when she was thriving. For disinfecting purposes I use bleach, (5-10% "fanatically" rinsed as well) and I use an actibacterial soap (sunlight) for her water dish. I am going to recheck the ingredients on that.

No head trauma. I am all grown up and handle her very gently.

These last few:
Acanthomebic meningocephalitis
Viral agents, such as:
Poxvirus
Papilloma virus
Adenovirus

Where would they come from? I think I recognize the viral names as they are associated with humans/dogs, but the other (protozoan?) is unfamiliar. I am becoming concerned that she may have been exposed to just about anything in her previous pet store situation.

My other big concern now is that what she has may spread to my other lizards. I care for each in ways to prevent cross contamination of furnishings, dishes, foods etc. But they are in the same room with one cage within two feet of my sick gecko's aquarium. Should I move her to another room? I probably will anyway, and am probably stupid to have not done so before.

Last question: You seemed to recognize the symptoms right away as something occurring in leopard geckos. Are there any journals or other sources where I can do more research on this? I am an academic researcher among other aspects of my job (in a non-medical field) and can hopefully track down whatever you suggest.

Thanks again for your reply,
--Denise

I didn't mean to imply that you have cause injury to your Leopard Gecko. I was just listing head injury as a possible cause of the symptoms. Leopard Geckos are excavators, and have been known to burrow under rocks and things in their cages, causing things to fall on them and injure them. This is especially frequent in pet stores, where not a lot of thought or care is put into cage design, and people are allowed to hold the animals, possibly dropping them, etc.

Yes, I recognized the symptoms immediately because I remembered seeing some work on those symptoms in Leopard Geckos when I was doing some research on the effects of environmental toxins on reptiles and reproductive failures that could be attributed to them. I remember that one of the sites was www.drgecko.com (I think). Anyway, the things that cause these symptoms in Leopard Geckos can cause the same symptoms in other herps, so it's really not all that unique to Leopard Geckos.

The viral agents would most likely be picked up either at the dealer that sold the animal to the pet store or the pet store itself where it could come in contact with another infected animal. They can also be transmitted by mites, ticks, etc.

Acanthomebic meningocephalitis is a disease cause by one or another species of Trypanosome, a protozoal parasite. They cause sleeping sickness, or Encephalitis in humans and other animals. They would be aquired in much tha same manner as the viral agents, and by contact with contaminated feces, etc.

If you are taking this gecko outside, could there be pesticide residue on the lawn or other areas where the gecko is? I know where I live, even though I don't use chemicals on my lawn, the city sprays for mosquitos and other nasties on a regular basis and my neighbors spray their trees, etc . . .

could something like this cause these symptoms?

just a thought,
e

It's certainly possible, given enough exposure.

Thank you both for all the great suggestions. Outdoor pesticides are a good guess as to possible toxin. I don't think it applies in my case though because the first illness came before I started taking her outside, and we live on an acreage, no local spraying and a huge buffer area if our neighbours used pesticide which I haven't seen them do. We don't, and my gecko only goes out into our huge organic garden in the center of the property. So far as I know, there are no toxins in it, and we have had it for many years.

Don't worry, oldherper, I didn't think you were accusing me of hurting my gecko They are such fragile little things, and suggesting the possibility of head trauma is legitimate. I was just checking off the list of possibilities when I commented on it. But your explanation is important because of the possibility of her being injured before I got her. (her current cage has always been "gecko proof" in terms of the large rocks and hides being anchored or resting directly on the cage bottom) The pet store said they got her from someone who had her as a pet and couldn't keep her anymore, and the store had her for a few months. I am only guessing at her age (young adult) because she continued to grow after I got her a year ago. Do you think the effects of a head injury could come and go over such a long period?

I'll do some searches on the net tomorrow for that material you mention and see if I can gather anything more to take in to my vet.

Thanks for the information on the other disease sources. This gecko got sick the first time only 2 weeks after I purchased her, and I had no other lizards, so whether it was injury or virus/bacteria/protozoa etc. she probably arrived with it. She hasn't been able to get rid of it I guess. I am going to move her to a minimalist cage in another room, to keep her from getting reinfected if that is what it is, and from infecting my newer lizards.

The bit of good news is that today she came out of her hide and walked straight across to her calcium dish and licked up a healthy helping. No circling. Only a few "head throws" which she seemed to pause for and "deliberately" work to get under control and then continue on her path. She is still weak and wobbly and not interested in food, but this is the first postive sign in a while. We'll see...
--Denise

Yeah, I would say that she almost definitely came with her problem if you only had her for 2 weeks before she started exhibiting symptoms. Another thing to think about is that may be the very reason the original owner got rid of her. She may have suffered a trauma early on and just never really got better, so they just took her to the pet store and got rid of her.

Normally in a case resulting from trauma, though, I wouldn't really expect the symptoms to come and go. I guess anything's possible. As a matter of fact, that is the part of this whole thing that is really perplexing to me. I wouldn't expect that from toxins (unless it was something that she was being periodically exposed to) or from trauma. I've seen symptoms come and go from bacterial, parasitic, and viral infections.