Fatal Disease...

[lisab_83]

I would like to bring to everyone's attention a sickness that has claimed one of my leo's lives and is about to kill another. When the first leo got sick and died I thought it was just a bad coincidence (she was always a bad eater) and ignored it. Her back legs appeared stiff and she stopped eating. Within days she was losing noticable weight and her back feet were really swelled and not functioning at all. White bulges appeared on her leg joints. She died within two weeks. I had introduced her to my male about a week before she showed the stiff legs, but did not think anything of it as he has always been healthy.

The second gecko showed the exact symptoms the day after I introduced her to my male. That was about a month ago and now she is not moving at all. Her legs are solid with huge white bulges on her joints. I brought her to a vet within days of seeing her stiff back legs (a reptile vet in Edmonton) and she had never seen anything like it. We tried her on some antibiotics but they had no effect. She does not appear in pain but will likely die within a few days. The vet will perform an autopsie to determine anything she can about the illness. I will update with any findings.

I just want to stress to everyone how important it is to quarantine your new geckos for a safe period. It appears my male may be a carrier of this disease as both my females who were introduced to him attained this disease and he has never showed any symptoms. I will not be buying any more leos as he is my last leo and I certainly do not want to spread this devastating disease around.

If anyone has ever heard of or dealt with an illness like this please inform me so I can hopefully get some closure.

Thanks,
Lisa

[KyleK]

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. How long is a good quarantine time?

[Gregg M]

Sounds alot like calcium not being absorbed..... Instead of the calcium being distributed throughout the body and absorbed, it is being deposited into the joints.... This is more common in reptiles that need the sun to help process the calcium.... When it happens in nocturnal reptiles, this means there is a lack of proper supplementation.....

I highly doubt this is a contractable disease you are dealing with.... Lisa, I realy feel you should look into your husbandry a bit more and find a new vet..... Find a vet that specializes in reptiles..... If this vet knew anything about reptiles, the first thing she would have checked for were calcium issues going by the symptoms you have infront of you and provided..... If it is something as easily reversable as calcium not being absorbed, I am sorry to say that your one leo died for nothing.... On the flip side, with the right treatment and supplementation the one that is sick now, can still be saved....

Kyle,
A good quarentine period would be no less than 90 days.....

[lisab_83]

Well it sure says a lot about a vet recommended by other vets to be a reptile specialist...

I have her under a UVB light right now to see if she can be saved. I had been supplementing their food 1-2 times weekly with two different calcium and mineral supplements. Should I be doing more? Why has my 3 yr old male never shown any signs of calcium deficiency? These two young females have never laid eggs and had never been bred.

Thanks for the advice,
Lisa

[Gregg M]

Well what I do is I always keep a little dish of straight calcium in the encloser with the leos at all times..... I dust insects with calcium with D3 one to two times a month..... The D3 is what helps your leo to process and absorb the calcium...... I dust insects with regular herp vitamins every other feeding.....

Why is your male not having a problem??? Well every leo is different and some might be better suited to process calcium with very little help...... Also, you females might have been stressed out..... There can be a bunch of reasons why your male is fine and your females were not...... Like I said, I am almost 100% sure your male leo does not have a contractable disease that you females caught from him.... And I am sure that a contactable disease would not show in as little as one week after being introduced to your male.....

I am very certain, it is a calcium based problem.....

[DragnDrop]

I'll get on the calcium bandwagon too.
Your male might be getting enough Ca, he won't need much since he's not producing eggs. The females probably got enough to do them as well, but once mated, the egg production started. That changes the whole body chemistry, the needed levels of calcium weren't being supplied by the diet. Their bodies would take Ca from their bones to provide what's needed for the eggs, leaving mom dangerously low on Ca. That leads to a lot of things including muscle tremors and paralysis.
If she were my leo, I'd give her Ca by mouth for a few weeks. Mix with water to form a paste and touch it to her lips, get her to lick it off, as much as she'll take twice a day, three times if she'll co-operate. Make sure it's got Vitamin D3 in it once a day so she can absorb the Ca. If calcium is the reason, she should show signs of improvement in a few days.

[lisab_83]

Hummm... it might have just been stress that caused them to deteriorate so quickly then. I introduced them to the male but only while watching them and no mating occured (they lived in seperate tanks). I am giving her some calcium with D3 paste but she is looking even worse today and is hardly moving at all.