Anesthesia risks?

My leopard gecko of 8 years has impaction and he is not seemingly able to pass it with vet treatments - enemas, fluid shot, food mix, soaks etc. Unfortunately the cause of his impaction is from too large of crickets =(

The vet has told me that she may have to direct me to a surgeon... but not completely sure until I see her again tomorrow.

I've seen it mentioned a few times in passing that leopard geckos and reptiles in general have a high chance of not coming back from anesthesia. Is there any truth to this? I've search quite a bit and can't seem to find any concrete evidence to this or any site even talking about the risks of anesthesia for geckos.

Figured I would try my hand on a leopard gecko forum.

Thanks in advance for any feedback =)

hiya and welcome to the forum,

I have had reptiles opperated on in the past 2years from 4 leopard geckos, 1 water dragon,1 rankins dragon, 1bearded dragon and 2 pythons and i have never once lost one to anesthesia, i still have them all now apart from the water dragon who sadly died earlier this year.
There is a tread on here in the general leo disscion for my lastest gecko called Ken who was opperated on about 2months ago and he's 4yrs old, he made a quick recovery on the day and is now better than when he was given to me.

Hope this helps

8 years? wow, you've owned gecko's for longer than most of us here haha.

I've also heard this about anaeasthesia, but like you i haven't heard of anything to back it up. In fact, i keep hearing about gecko's going fine through operations and stuff... so maybe they do have a higher chance of not waking up than humans do, but i'm guessing the chances are still extremely small.

Welcome to the forum!
And wow 8 years old is impressive

I've also heard about the anaeasthesia .. but it's the same with small mammals, like hamsters. They told me about it when I was younger because my hamster had a prolapsed eye and needed surgery. He came through though and like sam mentioned, all of her reptiles made it through the anaeasthesia.

Please keep us posted about your leos process.. I wish you all the best with your operation dicisions.. and I hope your leo gets well soon =]

Unfortunately sometimes you need to look at it this way. The impaction if not fixed WILL cause him to pass . The surgery will most likely save him but there is the slim chance that there could be problems. It is a matter of weighing which is going to the worst for him and to me it sounds like the impaction is worse than the risk of the anesthetic.

That is my thought on it and the way I would look at it. I wish you the best of luck and please keep us updated!

It's never that they have a chance to "not come back", but that their bodies are so small it takes very little to do the job in the right way. You just have to put your hands in the surgeon, preferably a herp surgeon, and understand that he went to school for MANNNNNY years and paid TONNNNNS of money to be able to help you and do his job right.

(Welcome to the forum, under such sad circumstances )

Thanks so much for the support and replies!
I was also thinking of it in the way either impaction kills him if we can't get it to pass or surgery could possibly fix him completely or possibly kill him.

Either way I feel he's been suffering too long. It's been about week since I've been seeing this vet and its been way longer since he has gone potty. I need another option to help him =(

As for being 8 years.. I truly didn't even know this was considered old until the vet told me so! I thought their lifespan was 15-20 years.

I am about to leave for the vet now, thanks a ton I will post updates!

* really isn't old for an animal with a life expectancy of 20+ years. The best chance your leo has thru surgery is like Kodie said... make sure you have a herp savvy surgeon doing the proceedure, and use as little anesthetic as needed. I wouldn't let them use anything injectable (which for a herp they prob only use gas anyway) but it is the injectable anesthetic that is harder to "blow off". I'm not sure if inhaled anesthetic is useable on herps as their respratory rates are so different fromours and they can "hold" their breath for quite some time with out ill effect (which is why using a gas chamber as a euthanasia method is often a fruitless effort that causes more suffering than is needed). Talk to the surgeon, see what his plan is, how he intends to anesthatise the leo, hsi experience with doing surgery on herps and most important his SUCESS and recovery rate. This is all information he should be willing to freely give you. If he is hesitant then see if you can get a dfferent referral to a different surgeon.

It's is very odd to hear a leo getting impacted on 2 huge crickets. They would eventually break down thru the digestive enzymes in the leos digestive system and be passed. What type of substrait are you keeping him on? What are his tank's temperatures at?

Also welcome to the forum

Just got back from the vet.
She also agreed that another method needed to be done.

She gave him a warm soak and then with enemas in between she had these tongs and literally crushed and pulled out the impaction from his behind. It was definitely pretty big. She got a little over half of it out. I am to give him another enema tonight. Then 2 tomorrow.

If by thursday he has not passed any more of it by himself then she will do it again.

She is going to give me a whole new diet for him because clearly crickets alone aren't agreeing with him. She said that even smaller crickets can be just as bad because they have more shell and chitin and less fat than bigger crickets so it can still cause impaction. She wants me to mix up his diet with more worms and other things.

Right now he is on a powered food diet only per the vets instructions. I mix it with water and give to him with a syringe.

I was up all night worrying about him and the difference in his stomach is already clearly visible. I am sure he is sore and a bit upset but he is resting now =)


As for substrate I keep him on the lizard carpet from zoo-med. Temperature on the hot side is 85-90... tho right now its in low 90s per vets instruction.
Cold side sits in 75-85.

I've always fed him and my other gecko large crickets and didn't have a problem up until now =( I feel so bad knowing this is indirectly my fault!

Thanks for the welcome and again for all the support =D

Oh and for those of you that might be curious.
This is the one that is sick right now.
Rainee:


And my other one
Jasmine:

Awwww, not sure I would want to be impacted around your vet...but definitly better than surgery. I hope that things start moving for him and that he doesn't have to go any further than the enemas and soaks. I am glad that your vet was open to your opinion that you wanted to try something else.