I haven't been on this board for years, but I still have my three leopard geckos and they were all doing great until recently... and now I've come crawling back for help
.
Just to get the basics out of the way, I have two females and one male, all housed separately. They are housed on tile with an under tank heat of around 90. They have a hot side, a cold side, a humid hide and a couple other hides. They are fed mostly mealworms dusted with Calcium and D3, along with a vitamin mix every few feedings or so. Once every couple weeks they get either crickets, pinkies, superworms or something else just for something different.
My one male and one female have been fine, no problems with appetite, they are both regular and good weights. One of the females laid infertile eggs last year and never fully gained back her weight, still once she got her appetite back she's been fine until this spring. She lost her appetite about a month before laying her egg, still she remained active and hydrated. She finally laid one egg last week after a few warm water baths. I thought I had seen two eggs in her belly, so I'm not sure if maybe one was reabsorbed or she laid it and ate it (if either are even possible). Then she had a good shed and I thought she'd get her appetite back, but no such luck and she has now lost most of the fat in her tail. I was just about to try force feeding her (well the putting food around her mouth and getting her to lick it off trick with Marica's slurry), when I noticed blood coming from her vent
. So today I took her in to see the vet. The vet couldn't really tell me what was wrong, but prescribed oral antibiotics and a liquid food called "Carnivore Care" to force feed her. I'm not going to lie, I have a phobia with vets and herps since I've seen quite a few give horrible advice and just not really seem to care.
So anyways, here is a picture of her underside (sorry for the bad quality, I don't really know how to use my camera yet) that seems to look much worse after a very stressful day at the vet. As well as her vent with a bit of blood/poop looking goo (she's having a warm water bath right now). I can give her the antibiotics with not much problem, but the vet recommended force feeding 2-3 times a day. She hates the food and spits most of it up, but I think I'm still going to take it slow and only do it once a day to start. Like I said, she still has a good energy level and is still hydrated, so the last thing I want to do is really stress her out and have her stop drinking on her own.
So if anyone has any ideas on what could actually be wrong, PLEASE let me know. If she doesn't start to improve, the next step is xrays and blood tests... which at the moment I REALLY can't afford, but I'm sure I'll find a way. I also plan on moving my male out of the room, in the hopes that stops her from laying infertile eggs again.
Just to get the basics out of the way, I have two females and one male, all housed separately. They are housed on tile with an under tank heat of around 90. They have a hot side, a cold side, a humid hide and a couple other hides. They are fed mostly mealworms dusted with Calcium and D3, along with a vitamin mix every few feedings or so. Once every couple weeks they get either crickets, pinkies, superworms or something else just for something different.
My one male and one female have been fine, no problems with appetite, they are both regular and good weights. One of the females laid infertile eggs last year and never fully gained back her weight, still once she got her appetite back she's been fine until this spring. She lost her appetite about a month before laying her egg, still she remained active and hydrated. She finally laid one egg last week after a few warm water baths. I thought I had seen two eggs in her belly, so I'm not sure if maybe one was reabsorbed or she laid it and ate it (if either are even possible). Then she had a good shed and I thought she'd get her appetite back, but no such luck and she has now lost most of the fat in her tail. I was just about to try force feeding her (well the putting food around her mouth and getting her to lick it off trick with Marica's slurry), when I noticed blood coming from her vent
So anyways, here is a picture of her underside (sorry for the bad quality, I don't really know how to use my camera yet) that seems to look much worse after a very stressful day at the vet. As well as her vent with a bit of blood/poop looking goo (she's having a warm water bath right now). I can give her the antibiotics with not much problem, but the vet recommended force feeding 2-3 times a day. She hates the food and spits most of it up, but I think I'm still going to take it slow and only do it once a day to start. Like I said, she still has a good energy level and is still hydrated, so the last thing I want to do is really stress her out and have her stop drinking on her own.
So if anyone has any ideas on what could actually be wrong, PLEASE let me know. If she doesn't start to improve, the next step is xrays and blood tests... which at the moment I REALLY can't afford, but I'm sure I'll find a way. I also plan on moving my male out of the room, in the hopes that stops her from laying infertile eggs again.
I just went to try and move her since it was time for her meds/feeding and she's gone. I had no idea she was so far gone, yesterday morning while I was bathing/giving her meds she was a feisty whipper snapper. She appears to have died straining to pass something, since she's in that position. I can't believe she had to suffer and die on her own, I really wasn't expecting this.