HELP!

My 9 year old daughter's Leo is not well. I am new to this forum and after reading some of yours posts, I am feeling uneducated with the care we have been giving "Prince".
We purchased him from Petco in Jacksonville, Florida on June 26, 2009. He has been really thriving. We purchased a larger tank for him 1 year ago (55gal measuring 4' w x 1' 9" h x 1' 1 1/2" d).

In the last 4 weeks I have noticed significant weight loss and pooping was not frequent & lack of eating too. We ruled out parasites (not visible on under belly) and dehydration was the discovered (not by a vet/lots of research). So, he has been given warm baths to rehydrate and Fluker's Repta+Boost Insectivore/Carnivore High Amp Boost. We feed crickets (store bought) and they are fed Fluker's Cricket Quencher calcium Fortified water jell & Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet. I recently purchased Zoo Med's Leopard Gecko Food (lab raised Flies in a bottle). We also give him Waxworms (lovingly referred to as him "Chocolate"), which he has rejected for a couple of days. He last ate a cricket 3 days ago. We use Zoo Med's Vita Sand (All Natural Vitamin Fortified Calcium Carbonate Substrate). He has a dome made from branches (purchased at Petsmart) and now resides in a 10 gallon tank with heat lamp with basking bulb in the day and red light at night. This maintains the temp.

I am financially limited due to my husbands illness (brain tumor and on going chemotherapy treatments) and we've had to pull our daughter from public school to home school because we lost my mother last June and my husband had brain surgery last July and she wasn't fairing well at all.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In God's loving care,
Susan

Hi Susan, If you could fill out this health form --> http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t134-please-read-and-fill-out-with-your-health-questions sorry to be a pain but it will give us a better look at the situation and stop the faffing about with questions!

However, you may be looking at an impaction in this leo... Calcium Carbonate Sand is the worst sort of sand you can put him on. He will "lick" the sand for calcium and this can become impacted in his intestines and he won't be able to eat or pass anything. If you could provide us with a picture of his body from above and of his belly...

Hope to hear from you soon. x

Becca

Sorry, I forgot to fill in the heating part of questionnaire.

Hi there first of all welcome to the forum and i'm sorry to hear your having problems with your leo, and from your post, its sounds like it came at the wrong time, but hopefully we can get things resolved for you, so its one less thing to worry about.

I'm going to provide a quotes from your above questionnaire and then provide my feedback and advice at different sections which caught my attention.

jewelrydesignsbyfaith wrote:- How often do you handle your leo - Didn't until he got sick, now daily

First of all, i can understand your need for this, but if you think your leo is ill, the best thing to do is handle him as little as possible.
The reasons for this are, it avoids any unneccessary stress. Stress can cause him to stop eating and act differntly for longer, so we don't want it stressed out too much.
Also if you own any other leo's handling the sick one more often increases the chances of passing it on to any other leo's (or animals even).

- Describe-Do they look any different than normal- dark & wet, but still formed
- When was the last time he/she went- yesterday

Luckily nothing sounds too bad about the defecation.

[qupte]
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem/issue you are experiencing and how long it has been going on - lathargic, not eating, diarrhea with bowel movement, loose skin, sunken eyes, bright color[/quote]

"Not eating" - you said that the last cricket was 3 days ago right? So this is nothing to worry about too much, leo's can go weeks without food. So nothing to worry about too much there.

"loose skin" - there are many different possibilities why it may seem your leo has loose skin, mainly shedding, excess calcium, injuries, or just a wrinkly fella.

"bright colour" - leo's can brighten and darken depending on temp and mood, normally when they are ill they will go duller so nothing too bad here.

"diarrhea" - the fecal description above didnt sound bad.

"lethargic and sunken eyes" - these are the worrying ones, a few pictures of the eyes could maybe help out. lethargy can be caused by excess humidity, also if its too hot or too cold. And your temps seem to be cold from looking at them, they actually need to be about 92F on the hot part, and the cool end needs to be around 80.

- Size- 10 gal tank, use to house him in 55 gal tank ([/color]55gal measuring 4' w x 1' 9" h x 1' 1 1/2" d)[color=green]

If this change was very recent, leo's go through what we call a 'settling in' period. Basically it takes them a bit of timr to get used to htere new home and settle in and feel safe. If this change was recent it could be the explanantion for any change in your leos eating or behaviour.

Zoo Med's Vita Sand (All Natural Vitamin Fortified Calcium Carbonate Substrate

The sand issue has been tackled above, but please make note of the issues surrounding sand.

[color=green]- Hides (how many, location and type (hot hide, humid hide, regular hide etc.)- one now, in 55g two

Your leo needs 2 hides MINIMUM, prefferably 3. He needs a hide on the hot side, a hide on the cool side, and an additional humid hide.

- What is your main heat source (heat bulbs, under tank heat mat etc) [color=darkblue]Basking Bulb Daytime, Red for night

Bulbs are also a very strong source of stress for a leo, and could affect his behaviour and eating. Absolutely no bulbs or lighting is needed for keeping a leopard gecko. A good Under Tank Heater AKA heat mat should provide a nice hot spot on the surface of the enclosure for your leo. The bulbs could do with going.

- What are your cage temps (hot side and cool side)- 84.5 hot, he goes in his house for cool

As i mentioned above the temps are too cool. He also needs a better regulation system. He needs 1/3 of the enclosure to be at the optiimum 90-95F and the rest of the enclosure to be at standard toom temp.

I hope some of that has helped and i apologse i haven't had time to take a proper look at the last section of the questionnaire, but there are always people around quick to help.

There's not much I can say with the experience I have to elaborate on Jordan's post. However, I do know that wax worms shouldn't be used as a staple part of your gecko's diet as they are too high in fat content and can cause fatty liver disease. I'm not saying that's what your little fella has, but still, it would be a good idea to reduce the waxworms from "-4 wax worms a couple times a week, sometimes daily, 3-4 crickets daily" to one or two waxworms a week, max.

Best of luck!

I added my avatar with Prince's picture. I am having trouble adding pictures.
Thank you Gabi & Jordan for you help, but I need more ppppplease!
Since I've been doing things wrong, can you suggest what I should have him housed in?
Should I put him back in the 55 gallon glass tank?
What should I use on the bottom instead of sand?
What kind of hides do you suggest?
What should I feed him and how often?
I feel awful! Could I have caused this after switching his tank last year? It has fluorescent bulbs for Leo's. He had several hides, but I had trouble keeping temp up. I was told that 88F was the max for the hot side......

It's kind of hard to tell from your avatar, try uploading the picture to tinypic.com and then using the link they give you for forums. That should work. Then we can see it bigger.

Thanks Gabi,

I've uploaded to tinypic.com, where do I put it on this post? It doesn't give a URL?
You can go to tinypic, my username is Dragonflywings7 and view Prince Leo.
I have to get to bed. Church tomorrow. Good night.

I added my avatar with Prince's picture. I am having trouble adding pictures.

Try Imageshack.us Thats what I use for uploding pics

Since I've been doing things wrong, can you suggest what I should have him housed in?

You Haven't housed him wrong, it is perfectly fine to give him a bigger enclosure lucky fella

Should I put him back in the 55 gallon glass tank?

I sugguest keeping him in the same enclosure, moving him now would cause unecessary stress

What should I use on the bottom instead of sand?

Newpaper or kitchen roll works well and it is nice a cheap! You can start to think about maybe using slate tile which works every well and can look quite nice

What kind of hides do you suggest?

Any hide will do! You buy them or make them out of icecream tubs etc

What should I feed him and how often?

Crickets, Mealworms, Superworms, Locucts and Dubia roaches with occassional waxworms as treats! and I feed my adults every other day and the young ones get fed everyday... Are you dusting your feeds as well? Dust your livefood with calcium supplements at least 2-3 times a week with an adult

I feel awful!
Could I have caused this after switching his tank last year? It has
fluorescent bulbs for Leo's. He had several hides, but I had trouble
keeping temp up. I was told that 88F was the max for the hot side......

I don't think that the tank switching is the cause of this, but I think his temps are a little cool... leos are known not eating if temps arn't right. I suggest getting a heat matt and thermostat asap

hiya and welcome to the forum, here's a link to show you how to post pics



http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t338-adding-an-image-to-your-post

We have a really good caresheet on the forum that tells you everything about housing leopard geckos have a read of it.. it's really helpful