Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just looked in on my leo and noticed her lying on her back in her humid hide. It freaked me out because I haven't read anything about this being a normal activity, and she has never done it before. I took the lid off the hide and it looked like she was breathing rapidly, kind of like when she's frightened. I touched her and she flipped back over and is moving around and lying normally now, but I'm still worried. What's going on?

Is she completely belly-up?

Iguanas and Water Dragons can't breathe when they're on their backs - if you flip them over, you can see this by the way that they seem to "fall asleep...and I'm pretty sure this is true for geckos. Leos don't have a diaphram like we do, so any attempt at respiration while on their backs would be giving them very little to no oxygen.

I've only seen this with a rescue that was too neglected to pull through. We did everything we could but he resorted to lying prone, completely on his back. We flipped him over the first couple times, but he kept flipping over onto his back. Since they can't breathe in that position, I think this was his attempt at gecko suicide.

If it was my leo, I'd be in the car on the way to the vet.
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Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

whoa. that does not sound good at all. get them to the vet, with some of their feces (ideally fresh/wet, but anything would be better than nothing). if nothing else, they will likely put him on antibiotics. do it now, before it's too late. tomorrow at the latest.
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marla
currently: 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, {lost count} hermit crabs (of unknown species), 3.8.5 leopard geckoes, 0.0.6 korean fire-bellied toads, 0.0.6 strawberry hermit crabs, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders