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HELP, please (anorexic leopard gecko)

E

edenf

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I have a female leopard gecko that is a year and a half old (I got her when she was about a month old), 8" long and 57g. She has always been a "good eater." She was the fattest baby gecko at the pet shop, which is why I chose her. Up until now she has eaten about 5 giant mealworms (in general, sometimes I throw in a waxworm, cricket, or silkworm) every day very eagerly.. then, a week and a half ago or so she suddenly stopped eating. At first I figured she was just sick of mealworms, so I went out and brought her favorite food (waxworms), and some silkworms just in case she wanted some. However she was entirely uninterested..

I then figured that she must be impacted, so I started giving her warm water soaks and added electrolytes to her water. I also made a formula of baby food, pedialyte, and mineral oil which I rubbed on her nose so she could lick it off. Nothing really happened. Although, the next day, I got her to eat two waxworms, which she promptly digested. Her stool looked okay, besides the fact that it was very small (being that she hasn't eaten) and slightly lighter in color. Anyway, the fact that she is able to defecate rules out that possibility that she is impacted. But, just to be on the safe side I changed her substrate to paper towels.

My last guess was that the cage was too cold. She is in a 20 gallon terrarium (spoiled!) which, at the time, was about 81 on the warm side and 70 on the cool side. However I was using an undertank heater so these temperatures might only reflect the air temperatures and not the temperatures of the cage floor. Anyway, I increased the bulb wattage until I was able to increase the cage temperatures to 89 and 75, which seems a lot better. I have removed the undertank heater because it seems to create too much heat. Since I've done this, a week has passed and she's eaten absolutely nothing! I don't think she's brumating because she still is very active at night.

Last Thursday I gave up and took her to a vet, but I had trouble finding one that would see her. Finally I did, but he was full of crap and gave the stupidest advice I've ever heard, like that I should raise her tank's temperatures to 95 degrees, put her cage in direct sunlight, and give her parsley (I don't understand this, if my gecko isn't eating her favorite food, why would she eat parsley?). I brought a stool sample (the one created right after eating the 2 wax worms) so that he could run some diagnostic tests on it, which he didn't even do because he said that the stool was dry.. whatever. In a nutshell it was lots of money wasted and I'm not any closer to an answer than I was before.

I want to take her to another vet which I found through ARAV, but I won't be able to until Monday because tomorrow is Easter. I hope she'll make it through the weekend. For the most part she's still been pretty active, although today it's evident that her strength is fading. I'm fortunate that her tail is ridiculously fat (same width as her head) so she's doing okay without food. In the meantime I've been giving her 1.5 cc of Repti-Aid (a supplement by Flukes for malnourished and dehydrated herps) everyday to give her the nutrients she's been missing out on.

Anyway, I guess my question is that is there anything you can suggest I do before Monday? I'm really worried, because up until now she's still seemed "normal" and very active, but today she looks like she's nearing the end of the road. I'm getting frustrated..

All help is appreciated.

P.S.
Other bits of information that might be useful??: She is captive-bred. She is the only leopard gecko I have. She has never been bred. There is a dish of calcium and multivitamin powders readily available in the tank. She has defecated since I have started giving her the Repti-Aid (she is not impacted). Her bones are quite hard (she does not have MBD or metabolic bone disease). She does not appear to have trouble breathing (no gaping or gasping for breath). She has 2 moderately-sized hides in her tank. Days are 12 hours long and nights are 12 as well. Nothing has happened that would cause her any stress. She is not about to shed. Food has always been offered in the evening or at night.
 
Here is a picture of her that was taken a month or two ago, she pretty much still looks the same:

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/_sho0tingstar/FAT.jpg" border="0" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket"></a>

The picture is called "Fat" for obvious reasons. :)
 
Eden, if shes not losign weight theres not a huge catastrophe. Mine would stop eating for months at a time, he did it to me this winter, but hes back on now. Just because theyre active doesn't rule out brumation. My male would still wander about but not eat a thing.
 
If she looks the same I'd say she's ok. Sometime they just decied they don't want to eat for a little while. Since she's a girl, I was wondering have you checked to see if she has eggs in her belly? She doesn't have to be with a male to produce them. Females will stop eating prior to laying. If you see them in there, make sure to provide her a nice moist lay box (hide) to lay them in and she will be fine. If you don't provide the lay box she may hold them, (and could become egg bound), or she may just lay anywhere she sees fit. The eggs are just a thought.

Measure your ground temps and make sure the hot side is between 85-95. It may be too hot if you've got the air temps at 89.
 
I wouldn't worry too much. I have four adult leos. The two that actually eat the least are the fattest, most robust ones I have. They never eat as much as the other two and they may go for days at a time without eating at all, but they always start up again. I think maybe when they're that big and healthy, they just don't need as much as the growing ones. All they're doing is maintaining weight.
 
A UTH is really the best type of heat for your Leo, just use a thermostat or dimmer switch to control the temps. As Balloonzforu said, you need to measure the temps directly on top of the substrate, use a digital thermometer with a probe (these are cheap at Walmart).

And like others have said, it's not really unusual for a nice fat Leo to stop eating for a period of time. If she noticably starts losing weight then you might have a problem.

Keep us updated on how she is doing !!
 
She is probably developing eggs follicles. Almost all females will not eat during this time. You can look at her tummy and see if there are two pinkinsh dots on either side of it, if so that is what is happening.
 
Thanks for the responses!

From what I can see, she is not holding eggs and is not developing egg follicles. I don't think she has lost weight (I don't have a scale) however there is an increase in folds around her neck. I think most of you didn't read the last part of my message where I said that up until now she has been active, but yesterday and today she's been very weak and looks like she's on her last leg. :bawling: I was thinking that she might have parasites. What do you think?

Also, I put last night that she is not about to shed. Well, that's changed. It's obvious to me now that she will shed in about 2 days or maybe earlier.

I put the thermometer on the bottom of the tank and it reads 88 degrees during the day and 79 at night, but I'm going to go out later and get a probe thermometer. :) I have no knowledge whatsoever about thermostats, so I think I'll wait on that.
 
Mayeb she has her seasons mixed up, a lot of leos will go off food in the winter.

Id increase the heat to 92-94 on the hot side and increase her day night cycle, light 14 hours dark 10.

She looks great in the photo so hopefully its something simple like her getting ready to shed or a temp adjustment.
 
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