Poor leo :'(

[SnowSnake]

This is angel, she is a blizzard leopard gecko. She belongs to a friend of mine and he got her as a rescue almost 3 months ago. Her previous owner neglected her A LOT (as you can see :'( )!

She is currently eating apricot (I think) baby food from a suringe and will rarely eat a cricket. He got her to eat a tiny pinky once. Do you have some tips to make her gain some weight? He has had her for 3 months and she hasnt visibly gained weight.

<img src="http://www.magazoo.com/albumsphotos/wyzza/Gecko%20leopard/Patternless/angel_310303.jpg">

later,
SnowSnake

[Leo-Land]

That thing is dangerously skinny! I would take him to a vet and see if he is sick or not. Also, they might have some good ideas on getting him fatter. I really dunno what else your friend can do that he is already not doing. Is he drinking and pooping? Have you tried Pedialite(sp?) or Pediasure(sp?)?

[Pixie]

OMG!!! That poor gecko.... :(

It needs immediate vet attention! I'm a little shocked your friend hasn't done this already...

Honestly, it doesn't look good for the gecko. If it does recover, I hope it won't have any lasting effects from this.

Pixie

[depressor86]

could you make a fattier blend for the syringe? like mix the apricots, some waxworms and crickets in a blender? definitely take the poor thing to a vet

[alex_33]

Yeah i agree, get your friend to take her to a vet as soon as possible! in the mean time, do what depressor86 said and try and put some weight on her, i feel really bad for the little thing

[geckoguy157]

if its not feading you can try takeing a meal worm wax worm or super worm cut of the end of it and drip the juices on his/her nose and then it mite eat the bug those 3 are very fatty and would probably help it out if you could get it to eat them doe's it maybe have worms that could stop it from gaining weight

[SnowSnake]

actually I don't know if he brought her to a vet, didnt ask. I'll tell him about your idea depressor, very clever!!

Thanks all!

[Sean Day]

I hope this doesn't sound to harsh, but I would put it out of its misery. Then hope whatever it has doesn't spread to the rest of your collection.

Sean

[SnowSnake]

I forgot to say that it was housed with another leo (patternless fatter than that one and who probably got all the crix).

[Alicewave]

He needs to not be feeding apricot. Have him go to www.herpnutrition.com call the number and ask for some Enteral Insectivore assist feed powder. You'll never get her weight up using fruit, it's the wrong type of nutrition for a gecko. It's not too late, I rescued a worse one. But please get this stuff, I've used it myself and have recommended it to a lot of people who have had excellent results, and she will ship to Canada, it's quick and inexpensive. When you do get the stuff I can give him some advice on force feeding. I tried the drop by drop thing for a while with no results. It will really help a lot if you can pry its mouth open to get a good amount in its stomach.

In the meantime, you are better off using Chicken baby food (with no onions) to syringe feed than the apricot. You can also use Ensure, it's a little bit better for Leos than Pediasure.

I hope it gets better soon.

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

:( I hope it does alright! Tim and Julie B told me once leaving a bowl of calcium in the cage can do some good...Doesnt hurt to try. Good luck!

[drewlowe]

snow snake i have had one of my geckos in the past get almost that bad. i noticed a slight weight drop so i keep an eye on her and within a week i noticed a huge drop called the vet. and made an appointment. He did a fecal example and found out she had worms. At that point she no longer found intrest in any food. ( We do not know exactly how she got it we think possibly from the pinkies she ate but not sure and nobody can give us a answer) She was given one type of deworming (sorry cant remember the name) after 3 treatment one every two weeks she was appearing worse so i took her back he took another fecal example and she still had worms so he gave her a differerent deworming called panacur. that seemed to help her out. took her back for another visit and fecal example and the worms were gone. but for some reason she wasn't gaining her weight back so i took a chance on over the counter stuff. It is called jumpstart it is supposed to be a appeitite enhancer. Its thick and and looks and smells a little like molasses. It also has something like 40+ crude fat. And within 2 days of taking jumpstart she started attacking crickets again. and after about 2 weeks she was finally getting her beautiful tail back.

I hope this helps. and if he hasn't taken her to the vet yet i highly suggest it and take a fecal sample for the vet to test.

[Alicewave]

I have used jumpstart also but it is not a good sustained assist feed formula. Even if this leo starts eating on it's own, it will not likely eat enough to put back what it's lost. Better to assist feed with Enteral Insectivore until you start to see a fat store in its tail, then go with the jump start to try to stimulate normal feeding again.

[wyz]

The leo snowsnake is talking about is mine.

http://www.magazoo.com/albumsphotos/wyzza/z%20ancien%
20reptile/angel/angel_310303.jpg

I read all your comments and a lot of them make sense.

But you need to know I got her when she was very weak and nervous.

We Got her to calm down and fed her every 2 days with beef baby food with and added vitamines and calcium, we added apricot sometimes cause she got tired of beef flavor. Got her to eat wax worms (twice), silk worm (twice), a tiny pinky (that she regurgitated) and criquets (3 times),, all this over a 3 moths period.

It easy to say. "GO TO A VET", but she gave us signs she was getting better. Either by being calm in ours hands, reacting to our touch or by eating live prey once in a while.

It's not by lack of care that we didn't bring her to a VET, it's simply that we thought that the care we were giving her was going to do the job. Knowing this lizard was in very bad shape in the beginning, we didn't want to spend 50 + $ on herat the VET to see her die anywayz because of the poor conditions she had to endure during 9 months from her previous owner.

I've started using this forum only days ago, usualy I visit another forum where I post and reply on a daily basis. Seems it's a beginners forum because nobody ever suggested any of the tricks I read above ! If I would of known all this, you can be sure I would of followed all your suggestions.

So don't be too judgemental.

WYZ

[MartinW]

Originally posted by drewlowe
We do not know exactly how she got it we think possibly from the pinkies she ate but not sure and nobody can give us a answer

Hi Drew, is getting worms a common problem with pinkies?

[Alicewave]

Live rodents can harbor parasites. I've only fed a pinkie once to a Leo and it was a frozen/thawed. Freezing kills all the parasites after a period of time so you don't have to worry about it so much but it's hard to get leos to take them if they aren't moving.

[Pixie]

WYZ,

No one is saying you didn't care for your leo and weren't trying to help it. But even you had to see that there wasn't any progress being made. SnowSnake mentionned you had this leo for 3 months and that it was in bad shape from the start.

I can understand wanting to try things yourself before bringing it to the vet but after a couple of weeks with no significant improvement, that should have been your sign to go.

It can be costly to bring an animal in to be checked and treated, I very well understand that. I have brought all my animals for checkups, am doing fecals on all and 3 leos are being treated for parasites. I know how high the bills can get. Sometimes, there's just no other way...

Maybe the leo couldn't be helped, even by a vet, no one will know. All I know is that I know what a healthy leo looks like and if any of mine show a sign of something not being right, I bring them in for a check up. For example 2 of my leos looked fine but their appetite had suddenly decreased. Internal parasites were found to be the cause and they are being treated. They still aren't eating properly and have lost weight since. If I had waited till I saw a weight loss before bringing them in, they would get much worse than they are now by the time they are fully treated.

I feel vet care is an essential with out pets. It's a bit of a pet peeve for me to hear stories of sick pets and to know they were never brought in once to be seen by a vet. Just like we need to provide a good safe home with all necessities met for an animal we chose to keep, we need to provide adequate medical attention. No need for an exam when nothing is wrong, but when something is not right, it's our responsability to look into it.

As for the cost, the 3 vets I've ever had to deal with for my animals furry and not have helped me out in times of need. When my animal is sick and in need of medical attention, all 3 performed the exams and prescribed treatment without immediate payment. I had been a there previously so they knew me (2 out of 3 I had seen 1 or 2 times prior) and let me pay later while still treating my animals. It never hurts to ask and I have found in my personal experience that the vets do care and put the animals before the $$$.

I really don't want to preach here, I am stating how I feel about medical attention for herps.

I'm hoping that it will be food for thought.

Pixie

[drewlowe]

Martin, I cannot fully answer that question cause i don't know where they got them from, but i can give you more information about what happend with them and the information given to me. I have talked to numerous people (vets and serious herp keepers, i have also brought this up at a herp society meeting i went to). And i have never got a completely solid answer. I was told it could be from the crix. or from the pinkies. I would think it would be more from the pinkies though. And i have battled this problem for almost 1 1/2 years. the first time they fully recovered. and about 4 months ago a they got it again. all of them have fulled recovered except 1 and she is on the road to recovery. When you get worms in a colony like i had. You have to seperate everyone, completely steralize EVERY thing several times. After all of this i will either get frozen or i will freeze the pinkies or mice (for my snakes) my self. i have also switched places where i got my Crix. from just incase it was from them. After you have worms in your colony once you do not ever want it back.

Also i noticed when they were being treated for the worms they either showed no intrest in (only) pinkes and if they did eat them they regurgated them within 12 hours. i have no clue why.

If anyone else knows more about this please let me know cause i am curious and have not found any information on worms in reptiles. I can only go on what i have dealt with and what the vet and other people have told me. They had round worms.

I do not know how common this is. I have heard other people having it but they did not know exaclty were it came from either.