Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi -

Had a bit of a scare over the weekend with my lineatus female.

She has been doing great (laid a clutch of eggs months ago that hatched and a second fertile clutch on November 26th).

She had been eating fine and appears to be gravid again. On Sunday I notices that she was slipping a bit off her bamboo perch. It was during the day so I just assumed she was asleep and just sagging a bit. That evening I misted her and her mate as I usually do and she suddenly had a convulsion. She then was dangling off the perch by one foot.

I took her out and she was stiff as a board with her eyes pushed back into her head and her mouth agape.

I first thought that she might be egg bound but the eggs are not fully formed yet.

With the holidays the only option I had was emergency vets and all of them in my area had no one available to do exotics.

So I thought I perhaps the next problem could be that she had a calcium crash. I removed her again from her enclosure and she immediately seized up on me again.

I managed to tube (I run a turtle rescue and have handfed baby parrots for years so I am well schooled in tubing food and meds into animals) some liquid calcium into her.

On Monday her condition was unchanged. I repeated the procedure (she seized up the same way again).

Last night I noticed that she actually was able to pull herself up onto her perch and even move to vertical perch.

I took her out this morning and she did not have a seizure and appeared to be acting normally again. I vave her another dose of calcium all the same.

I have been waiting for a fecal to do a floatation but she has yet to give one up.

I think she is pretty much stabilized. A vet trip can confirm that.

Has anyone ever experienced this with their geckos before?

Really scary stuff.

Stuff

I had a similiar thing happen with one of my female corkbarks. I thought it had something to do with calcium decicency but it ended up being a major infection. Luckily I have an excellent vet near me and after about a month of hand medicating and force feeding she recoved fully. From the vet told me all the calcium related problems are long term slow diseases that don't arise suddenly but the animals may be able to mask the symtoms for some time before they become noticable. She also said that once animals reach the point of crashing and not being able to move they require a series of high concentration calcium injections as the calcium can not be absorbed quickly enough orally. My dad was going to get me some liquid calcium for her since he is a Doctor but the vet cautioned me against it since she said it could be damaging if the problem was not calcium related. A simple blood test will tell you whats wrong with her. All of these problems took place right before my female was going to lay. Hope you female gets better.
-Matt
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www.madagascarherp.com

i had the same thing happen with a female Rhacodactylus ciliatus... and i attributed it to a calcium crash, she was also rolling around on the ground while seizuring and i'm amazed she didn't die. she would almost lock up, and bite down really hard and it was hard to watch.
her eggs were also undercalcified after she laid the next batch, but they still hatched.
i got her to lay off for a couple of months and supplemented her with calcium a bit more and she's laying again successfully. this was before i got her on the CGD and i haven't had any problems with my animals since.