Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had no choice. I bought a juvenile leucistic leo from a nationwide pet chain this weekend. It was grossly malnourished...I could see the spine, hip bones and the tail was incredibly thin.

She went in with another leo. I have a subadult female leo in there...she was a little curious at first, but after 2 days there has been no fighting or attempted nipping.

Anyway, the little leucistic has eaten 2 calcium dusted mealworms...she only takes one a day and then shows no interest. Her first "movement" was wet, but didnt look abnormal to me.

Any other advice on what I can do to help the chances of this little one would be great. There is a 2 week guarantee on the little leucistic so I want to make sure than in the next 10 days I begin to fatten her up and get her healthy.

Anything else besides clean water, rep-cal dusted mealies and some TLC?

Thanks so much

Why did you put her in with your other leo? Even if the animal looked healthy yous hould still always quarentine any newcomer for at least one month. If they look sickly then there isnt even any question, unfortunately you have now expossed your leo to whatever the sick one has. Also, the sick leo will probably not get better while housed with another.

I have rescued a good many leos in that same condition over the past few years and this is what i would do personally:

1. Set the leo up in a tank with paper towels, a warm hide, a humid hide, and a cool hide. Water dish, calcium dish etc. Use an UTH to heat the warm side of the tank to 90degrees and the cool side should be around 80-85.

2. Call the vet and schedual an appoint within the next few days.

3. If she gives you a fecal sample, take it to the vet immediately to be read. Her symptoms sound like parasites, probably from the stress of being shipped and at the petstore. If their are any parasites present, have both leos dewormed as the chances are high your leo might have been exposed. Better safe than sorry! The deworming usually has to be done at least twice, depending on the parasites and the dewormer. Some are a series of dosages 4 days in a row, and some are once and then again in two weeks. Discuss other rehab tips with the vet, as they may have some good ones. If its not parasites, your vet may want to do bloodwork to see if disease is present, or may just discuss some things you can try at home on the assumption that the lizard is just malnorished and stressed.

4. Try your best to get her eating and rehyrate her. Give her daily warm water soaks (do not allow the water to get cold!) to rehyrdate her a little and help give her a boost. Sholder depth warm water is good. Soak her for at least 15 minutes a day, longer if she will tolerate it. If she is too weak to hold her head up, make sure its propped out of the water. Try offering insects first...if she will eat on her own you have gone over a huge hurdle. Try tweezer feeding (dangling the insects with tweezers in front of her or dragging them along the cage floor) mealworms, silkworms, wax worms or crickets. If she isn't interested, try splitting a cricket open and rubbing its insides on her lips, this may interest her.

5. If you cannot get her eating on her own within a few days (maybe 3) I would think about force feeding. Generally i try to avoid force feeding if at all possible as its pretty stressfull, but this little leo doesn't sound like she has much more weight to lose..or time to spare. You can make a slurry out of warmed chicken baby food and calcium powder. For an added kick you can ask your vet for some Science Diet A/D, its a food for really sick animals that can be syringe fed, while the nutrition levels and ingredients are for dogs and cats and are not all that well suited for lizard diets, they are great to use to rehabilitate. Its packed full of "boosters". Use a small syringe and syringe feed as much as the leo will eat...go slowly so you dont choke her. and split the meals into several small meals a day. Continue to offer her live food to see if she will take interest and continue soaking as well. If your vet was waiting on a fecal sample you should be able to get one now

It is a long process, and it can sometimes run you a bit in vet bills, but it is doable. Its much harder with the smaller lizards, but if you give it your best then there is definately a chance.

My most recent rescue Louise (her pic is below) looked dead when she came to me. She was sickly and pale, every bone in her body was visable, she could barely lift her head and was loaded with parasites. She was malnourished, dehydrated and calicum deficient. She also had an eye infection. Her tongue and insides of her mouth were white. I really didn't think she would make it. But with daily warm water soaks, saline and warm water compresses on the eye and ointment several times a day, a few doses of dewormer, and a lot of feeding, she pulled through. She weighs 60grams now, and is getting(IMO) a bit pudgy!!!

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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
1.1.2 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo, Louise, Orion, Jeffrey Nothing)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)

I 100% agree with alteredmind. Its always good to hear of a leo pulling though like altered's did. Good luck with yours.

i totally agree with alteredmind..only i was told from our vet when we first got our little guy who also was very sick. instead of baby chicken food though we got a powdered reptile food from the vet that we had to mix with water and force feed our little guy for 3 weeks. we aswell as we had to feed antibiotics for 2 weeks...thankfully (only 70 dollars later) our little guy is getting better. the problem now is being able to keep enough crickets around (still won't touch the worms) and the continious shedding ever two weeks...our herp vet said that once you get the leo health they will eat continiously and shedd alot till they catch up with their normal growth cycle..i hope thats soon...its crazy watching ours eat 2-3 dozen small crickets every day
heidi

..as long as you syringe feed it slowly and make sure that you dillute it by half.
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"Brains for dinner, brains for lunch. Brains for breakfast, brains for brunch. Brains for every single meal; why can't we have some GUTS?"-Misfits

1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.0 Sunglow motley corn-Ernie
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.2 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon

Even if there is no nipping or fighting I would seperate the two leos. Your little, undernorished leo shouldn't have to compete for food with your healthy and I assume larger gecko. Make sure she is well hydrated, dust the meal worms, and I would offer crickets as well. I would pull the legs off of some so they don't move too fast as she may not be up to chasing them too much yet. I am sure others here can give more great advice. My one bit of advice and I am not sure how popular this will be is to not 'rescue' animals from large chain pet stores or any other pet stores. All it does is give them a sale and allow them to get in another gecko they will probably mistreat until another caring soul rescues it thus perpetuating the cycle.
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2.0 Leos (Spot - Normal but oh, so sexy; Jessie - hypotang)
3.2.4 Fattails (Henri, Suwannee, Valencio, Dixie, Isis, Zipper, Pheonix, Hissy, and Snickerdoodle)
0.0.1 redfoot tortoise (Sherman)
0.0.1 sulcatta tortoise (Tinacious aka Tiny)
1.1 Dogs (Zubin and Brenda)
0.1 cat (Mimi)

Even if it dies they are still going to get more in, so if you have the time and money to rescue it then go for it.

I agree, but at least they are not profiting off the one that dies, and I would like to think that if none of the sick, underfed, diseased geckos sold they would either A) start getting in quality animals they care for or B) go out of business. Perhaps that is wishful thinking.
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2.0 Leos (Spot - Normal but oh, so sexy; Jessie - hypotang)
3.2.4 Fattails (Henri, Suwannee, Valencio, Dixie, Isis, Zipper, Pheonix, Hissy, and Snickerdoodle)
0.0.1 redfoot tortoise (Sherman)
0.0.1 sulcatta tortoise (Tinacious aka Tiny)
1.1 Dogs (Zubin and Brenda)
0.1 cat (Mimi)

I doubt it, they're whole chain is making money off of it so if the one store doesn't make any money off of the leos they will still get them in because its working for the rest of the chain.

"Saving" pet store chain leos is actually supporting the store and its mistreatment and misbreeding of the animals. If you want to do some GOOD, do not support these stores. They continue to sell many reptiles to naive, uninformed buyers who do not realize they have bought a sick animal until they bring it home.

Buying a sickly animal from a pet store is NOT rescuing anything. It is supporting the corporate cycle of sick leo propagation and abuse.

90 day quarantine of new animals. No "if's" "and's" or "but's".

You've just threatened the life of your first pet by introducing a new one with a weakened immune system that sounds like it has parasites...now you have 2 leos to "rescue"...
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Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

whether you support a pet store or not they will still keep getting in animals to sell, trust me I've seen these people and how they run a business. they dont care if they lose hundreds of animals, they get them for so low a price because 90% of the time the reptiles they get are wildcaught, the large birds they get are from inexperienced breeders, and rabbits & other rodents come cheap in bulk. its never ending and letting animals die there will change nothing.

i agree totally...i so do not like chain stores..the one we have near us makes me completely sick when i go in...curiosity always kills the cat but i have to go check on those poor little leos. every time i go in there i am totally taken back but the fact that they have 20 or so leos in one cage with only one two hides and not to mention the fact that thoose little guys have so much poop in the cage that you can barely see the sand which shouldn't be used anyways...it makes me sick and if i could afford it i would buy up every single one because you know they gotta be sick.

Write a letter to the local paper and to the chain's headquarters (enclosing a copy of your letter to the editor). Get the word out there that the store is not keeping their animals correctly (list the deficiencies so you can not be said to be libeling them). That way other less experienced persons might read the letter and know to shop elsewhere and once the higher ups hear they may correct the problem. We did that with our local Petsmart a few years back, and they actually hired a reptile manager who breeds geckos and frogs. Now their reptiles are kept correctly, and are as healthy as mass imported animals can be. He also gives out correct care sheets with each animal and gives accurate advice on husbandry. It is quite amazing. I am not saying this makes chain stores perfect or even 'good' but it can help to correct a bad situation.
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2.0 Leos (Spot - Normal but oh, so sexy; Jessie - hypotang)
3.2.4 Fattails (Henri, Suwannee, Valencio, Dixie, Isis, Zipper, Pheonix, Hissy, and Snickerdoodle)
0.0.1 redfoot tortoise (Sherman)
0.0.1 sulcatta tortoise (Tinacious aka Tiny)
1.1 Dogs (Zubin and Brenda)
0.1 cat (Mimi)