What should I do?

[TryToForget]

Okay, I've posted about this a long time ago but it hasn't gotten any better. I'll try and explain the whole story while not trying to write a whole lot and bore you guys. I have a little over a year old female leopard gecko that I got last year on August 22nd. She ate (not tons but still a lot more than now) up until September 5th. I brought her to the vet on the 22nd and found out that she had coccidia. I had to give her medicine every other day for I think it was a couple of weeks and then she was supposed to start eating again. Well, it never happened. So I had to bring her back to the vet and I was told that I had to start force feeding her prescription dog/cat wet/soft food every other day. This went on until the 1st of December and then she started eating a little. She would normally eat 1-3 crickets every 2-3 days. Well, now it's March 27th and she's still only eating the same amount. I just don't know what to do anymore. She just seems like she keeps getting skinnier and skinnier. I don't know if it's just me who's thinking she is because I'm so worried or because she really is. I don't have a scale to weigh her and I don't really know where to get one because I'd get one if I did. When I first brought her to the vet she weighed 20.5 grams and the second time she weighed 20.4 grams. I'm kind of scared to find out what she weighs now. I've spent almost 100 dollars on vet bills and I just don't know what to do anymore. If anyone has an suggestions at all please tell me it would be greatly appreciated.

-Jamie

[DragnDrop]

Coccidia is notoriously difficult to get rid of completely. There's even evidence that they can be carriers all their lives even though they've gotten the meds and don't show symptoms. During the treatment you have to be extremely careful to remove all fecal matter and keep the cage clean and disinfected otherwise they can reinfect themselves. It wouldn't surprise me if she still has an active coccidia infection. Even if she's been 'cured', there's a chance the infection did enough damage to her intestines that she has trouble digesting her food.

My suggestion is to get her checked out again. By now she should have recovered, but it sounds like she's just barely hanging on. Only a vet can tell what's wrong, hands on checking is way better than any advice we can give on a forum.

[TryToForget]

Any other suggestions? I want to at least try something before I bring her to the vets..

-Jamie

[striko_69]

I think this is what ur sposed to do... I'm remembering this from three years ago.. I think this is what it says to do in the leopard gecko manual.

Use two tanks which are easy to clean, use newspaper as the substrate. Make sure all temps are perfect. Have enough hides, try to reduce stress as much as possible for her. As long as her husbandry is correct it should work with the medication.

Every evening when you get home, move her into the other viv. Then clean out and disinfect the one you've moved her from. You need to do this every day until with the medication working she starts eating and the seems perfect again. Keep this routine up for at least another week after she seems fine, then move her into her permanent enclosure and keep an extremely close eye on her.

The reason for all this fuss is because your female probably has a superinfection if you are not doing this. Like DragnDrop said above she will keep reinfecting herself if kept in the same enclosure constantly.

Tell us how shes doing...

[striko_69]

Whats happening man? Any good/bad news?

[TryToForget]

There wasn't anything I could do. I had another fecal done and they said that she didn't have coccidia again. They said that she most likely had something wrong with her kidneys and that it would cost 150 dollars to do blood work. And there was a good chance that they wouldn't be able to draw enough blood. 1. I didn't have that kind of money to spend on blood work and then there be a chance that she wouldn't make it anyways and 2. I didn't want to put here through something like that. I had her euthanized on the 1st of this month. I tried as hard as I could. I only had her for a little over half a year and I spent about 300 dollars on her. It's been a huge struggle since I've had her..

If you want to find out anymore I also posted this on another forum.
http://www.reptileforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=99155#post99155

Thanks for trying to help. I appreciate it.

-Jamie

[striko_69]

I'm really sorry man that sucks. After reading whats on the other forum you were posting to, I can see that you tried hard to keep her alive, I hope theres more passionate people like you around.

Much respect to you.

Alex

[TryToForget]

Thanks :).
I'm glad she's in a better place now.
People probably thought I was crazy for getting her cremated but I'd rather have done that than bury her.

-Jamie