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Leo still regurgitating...

Posted By:

Miss Andrea

I had asked a while ago about my female Leo who had been regurgitating her meal worms. I have since isolated her into a smaller, private enclosure, have been monitoring exactly what she eats, how much of it and when it comes out what end. She seemed to have lost much interest in eating, so I had started to force feed her some chicken baby food. After two days she seemed to have an appetite again. So I was feeding her meal worms in small amounts and she appeared to be keeping them down. She recently went off the meal worms again, so I tried a suggestion of wax worms. She was happy to eat those (in moderation), and she seemed to be doing well. I was waiting for the wax worms to come out when she regurgitated them. I don't know what to do anymore and I don't know when to draw the line of what to put her through. She is 7 1/2 years old and looks horrible. Are there any other suggestions of what to do or try and when do I say enough is enough and put her down?


Points:	150
Topics:	Digestive , Regurge , General Health
Tags:	Digestive, Eublepharis, Feeding, Illness, Macularius, Regurge
Species:	Lizards > Geckos > Eublepharis macularius
Administrative:	Show/Hide

Member Comment

6/3/2010 4:12:25 PM

Aimee

has she seen a vet? has she had a fecal? it may be a parasitic infection that is interfering with her digestion? this may have been answered in the earlier blog, but I'd take her in

Author Comment

6/3/2010 5:12:33 PM

Miss Andrea

I have not taken her to a vet, haven't done a fecal because there really hasn't been one. She has produced urates, but no fecal matter.

Member Comment

6/3/2010 5:21:52 PM

Aimee

the vet can still check for parasites using a swab...? you say she 'looks bad'; do you have a pic? if she's still OK and just has a parasitic infection hindering digestion, this might be a relatively easy fix

Author Comment

6/3/2010 5:43:13 PM

Miss Andrea

Member Comment

6/3/2010 5:50:32 PM

Aimee

I'd get her in. I've seen geckos thinner but her loss of condition compared to prior pics is concerning. do you have a vet close to you?

Author Comment

6/3/2010 6:23:13 PM

Miss Andrea

I don't trust the vet close to me, when my boyfriend took in a ball python the vet told him that he needed UVA/UVB lights. I don't think that a vet that does exotics should be giving advice to keep nocturnal animals under UVA/UVB lights. I also don't want to take her into the vet if they are just going to say lets do some inconclusive tests to waste your money then that we should put her down. I can put her down myself if it's needed.

Accepted Answer

6/3/2010 7:35:04 PM

shellboa

7 years is an older gecko but doesn't seem to me to be so old as to be shutting down. Have you considered she may be impacted? Have you raised the temps in order to aide in digestion? Have you tried any parasite treatment? Seems to me if you are seeing urates but no feces and the food keeps coming back it could be temps or blockage. Parasites is possible but then you wouldn't know without a fecal. Could you trust that vet enough to do just a fecal? Also if it is eating baby food maybe keep it on that a while longer and add some extra calcium and some of that benebac. If the vet is really not an option and she keeps getting worse I would suggest euthansing simply in concern of quality of life.

Author Comment

6/3/2010 9:46:35 PM

Miss Andrea

I raised the temps with the smaller enclosure. I also soaked her which did release feces but that was almost two weeks ago. I have since soaked her without anything left in the water when she was done. I don't think it is parasites because she was housed with my other leo for 6 months or more and he is perfectly fine. She did eat the baby food, but it wasn't easy to get it in her which is why I tried to get off the force feeding as quick as possible. What is the benebac for, parasites?

Member Comment

6/3/2010 10:02:35 PM

AbsoluteApril

First I want to say that I totally agree a vet visit would be a great idea.
I'm not sure if you already talked about it, but how many at a time are you offering her? I ask because I had a leo adopted from a 'friend of a friend'. When she got here she was going okay and then started regurging both mealworms and waxworms. I really think she was just fed way too much (my ex was the one feeding her). So I took over and treated her like I would a snake that regurged, much smaller meals (smaller size/smaller quantity) and very spaced out. Give her a few days of no food to recover her gut flora if possible. What I did was feed her 2-3 small mealworms every 3rd or 4th day or so, every other feeding I'd give her 2 crickets. Kept this slow but steady pace up until she went 5 weeks with no regurgs. That was over a year ago. Now she's fine and will take 5-7 mid size mealworms (or 3 big ones) or anywhere from 5-8 crickets at a time, feeding every other day or every 3 days now, haven't had an issue since. So you may have already tried this, but if not, give it a shot, slow slow slow wins the race. Good luck, I hope she comes around!

Author Comment

6/4/2010 12:22:54 AM

Miss Andrea

I think I will keep trying for a little while longer. She does still have a desire to eat, so I'll keep at it. I did try the small meals method, but I would feed her a few meal worms every other day. That was when I was seeing the improvement. I think I may have just jumped the gun and fed her too much too soon. I just hate looking at how skinny she is, so I want her to eat. Patience. Got it.

Assisted Answer

6/4/2010 12:52:55 AM

shellboa

Benebac is to replace the benficial bacteria in her gut flora that she has lost regurgitating. I do wonder if over feeding could be the issue if your husbandry is good. An older animal simpy does not need as much food any more. I did not realize you were forcing her to eat the baby food. Perhaps just allowing her to have a little nibble if she wants it...also for a quick calcium and fat boost offer a brand new pink mouse as a treat like once a month. Don't feed her any thing else a few days before and after so there is plenty of room and time to digest it.

Author Comment

6/4/2010 1:21:40 AM

Miss Andrea

I had been leaving a bowl of meal worms in the cage and she was doing well. One day when I was cleaning the cage, I noticed the whole dead meal worms. It then progressed into her not wanting to eat, being excessively skinny, and she even dropped part of her tail. I have tried to feed her pinkies, but she has no desire. When she did eat, I would offer her meal worms one at a time, first with two or three worms and progressing to the point where she would eat up to five or six and she stopped wanting them. I only force fed her when she hadn't eaten anything in over a week and looked very similar to that picture. I don't like forcing any animal to eat, and only did it because she didn't want to eat on her own and I feared she would starve herself.

Member Comment

1/25/2011 10:21:57 AM

abi21491

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