Hello everyone. I wanted to post the story of my 2 year old leopard gecko, Jose, to encourage anyone dealing with a sick gecko (or any type of pet).
In December 2005, Jose lost her tail after meeting one of my cats. I took the necessary precautions but, it wasn't enough. Jose stopped eating. At first I thought it was due to trauma, then the season, then her environment, etc. I tried many different things to encourage her to eat and nothing worked. A few months down the road, she developed an eye infection. At that point I decided it was time to bring her to the vet. (She still had bowel movements so I thought she was still eating something.) The vet prescribed eye drops and antibiotics but said she was a pretty healthy gecko. I followed the prescriptions and waited a week or two but Jose still wouldn't eat and her eyes were getting worse. At this point, she would rarely open either of them. I brought her back to the vet. This time, the prognosis wasn't good. The vet told me to swab her eyes daily, try force feeding, and prescribed a much stronger antibiotic. He told me that she would probably lose one eye permanently and the other didn't look good. He also mentioned a lesion in her mouth and said that if the antibiotic didn't work, she would have to be put down because she was starving. That was brutal. I brought her home and did exactly as the doctor ordered. She hated every minute of it. A week after finishing the antibiotic, she still wouldn't eat, her eyes didn't show much of an improvement, and I prepared myself emotionally to call the vet. One morning, when I was looking into her terrarium with tears in my eyes, she crawled out of her moist hide and I knew I couldn't give up on her yet. There was one thing I hadn't tried. I came onto the internet, found Marcia's slurry recipe, and went shopping that day. A week of feeding and I started to notice dramatic changes. It's been about a month now and, amazingly, Jose has made a complete recovery! Both of her eyes are clear, her tail is growing back, and she has a tonne of energy!
I'm not saying that the slurry is a miracle cure. I'm sure the antibiotics had a role in Jose's recovery but I think the nutrition she got from it and my persistance really made a difference. I'm also not saying that there isn't a time when the only humane thing to do is to put your pet down. I just feel we should exercise all our options when treating sick pets before making that decision.
To anyone going through what I went through, good luck and I hope your story turns out like mine did.
Shari
In December 2005, Jose lost her tail after meeting one of my cats. I took the necessary precautions but, it wasn't enough. Jose stopped eating. At first I thought it was due to trauma, then the season, then her environment, etc. I tried many different things to encourage her to eat and nothing worked. A few months down the road, she developed an eye infection. At that point I decided it was time to bring her to the vet. (She still had bowel movements so I thought she was still eating something.) The vet prescribed eye drops and antibiotics but said she was a pretty healthy gecko. I followed the prescriptions and waited a week or two but Jose still wouldn't eat and her eyes were getting worse. At this point, she would rarely open either of them. I brought her back to the vet. This time, the prognosis wasn't good. The vet told me to swab her eyes daily, try force feeding, and prescribed a much stronger antibiotic. He told me that she would probably lose one eye permanently and the other didn't look good. He also mentioned a lesion in her mouth and said that if the antibiotic didn't work, she would have to be put down because she was starving. That was brutal. I brought her home and did exactly as the doctor ordered. She hated every minute of it. A week after finishing the antibiotic, she still wouldn't eat, her eyes didn't show much of an improvement, and I prepared myself emotionally to call the vet. One morning, when I was looking into her terrarium with tears in my eyes, she crawled out of her moist hide and I knew I couldn't give up on her yet. There was one thing I hadn't tried. I came onto the internet, found Marcia's slurry recipe, and went shopping that day. A week of feeding and I started to notice dramatic changes. It's been about a month now and, amazingly, Jose has made a complete recovery! Both of her eyes are clear, her tail is growing back, and she has a tonne of energy!
I'm not saying that the slurry is a miracle cure. I'm sure the antibiotics had a role in Jose's recovery but I think the nutrition she got from it and my persistance really made a difference. I'm also not saying that there isn't a time when the only humane thing to do is to put your pet down. I just feel we should exercise all our options when treating sick pets before making that decision.
To anyone going through what I went through, good luck and I hope your story turns out like mine did.
Shari