FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hello everyone.

I've had a male wild-type leopard gecko for about a year and a half now (he's probably about 2 years old and roughly seven and a half inches). For some reason, for the past 3 or 4 weeks, he's been losing weight. His tail has probably half the circumferance it did 2 months ago.

His feeding has not changed -- he gets 10 large crickets every third day (always gutloaded) with every other meal getting dusted with vitamin powder. I've offered more, but he doesn't want to take it. I've started offering him waxworms once a week to try to get him a bit more fat in his diet, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Outwardly, he seems alright; eyes are clear, no nasal discharge, feces normal, and he's as active as always.

I'm thinking he might have picked up some sort of parasite, even though all the crickets he got were captive-raised. I would have expected to see a change in his droppings, but I'm not well-versed in reptile diseases.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Not Joe Potato

Odds on intestinal worms, or gastroenteric diseases like protozoa. Retiles , especially potentially wild caught ones are rarely deloused before purchase. Sometimes the poo stays the same but the liquid ejected with it is much increased, try putting him on kitchen towel for a day or two so you can see if the liquid content of the poo is increasing.

Worm the little dude first with fenbendazole, panacur puppy wormer will do, if that fails itll be down stuff like flagyl S. Temproraily raise the temps to a blanket 86 f if hes not that high already, itll give his ectothermic metabolism a bit of an immunoboost.

Do you use any reptile vitamins or gut load the crickets?

Yeah, I always gutload and I dust every other feeding. The powder contains a bit of calcium, as well as Vitamins A and D-3. He's a captive-bred specimen (I know the breeder), but a wild-type (so none of that "blizzard" or "jungle" morph nonsense).

I'll go pick up some fenbendazole today. Any idea on the dosage or should it tell me on the package?

I've actually already transferred him from his tank into a smaller plastic container with paper towels as a substrate just because that is a much easier environment to control. I change the paper towels every day, and it looks like his dropping have the usual liquid content.

Thanks for the reply.

The dosages are listed usually on the packet in doses by weight, for reptiles its usual to half the dose for a mammal of similar weight, so take the dose for the puppy, scale it down to a proportionate dose for the reptiles weight, and halve it. It often only takes a tiny amount of medication for a gecko. Might have to syringe it directly into his mouth. Presumably youll get it in powder or paste form, so make it runny with a little pre-boiled water and syringe in a couple of ml with the entire correct dosage within. Make sure the syringe goes over the tongue and well into the throat. Some can be added to drinking water, but with a leapord gecko, thats not going to be effective.

Aside from worms theres also a few dietary issues with leopard geckos that cause long term problems. First is either too much or two little vitamin E, to little and the lizard wanes , too much can result in water retention and renal damage, and either incident can cause appetite to be lost. Rather than using general reptile vitamins with leopard geckos its better to use specific vitamin formulas designed for leopard geckos and chameleons. Its a weakness both groups share. With too much vitamin E its not uncommon for there to be swollen armpits on the front limbs. Leopard geckos with swellings rather than pits are either suffering from hypervitaminosis e, or liver damage.

If its just worms and low weight causing the problems , get a few waxworms or pinky mice into him, they are very high in calories and fat, and should only be really used for pre-breeding conditioning and recovery aid, but many leopard geckos adore them. You can make them a regular part of the diet under the strict understanding that is a once monthly treat. Leopard geckos also do well with a good diet variety, and will happily take any number of insects, crickets , locusts, blanched baby roaches, (madagascan hissers and deaths heads are fine) mealworms etc, and if you happen to know people who raise insects , a lot of small spiders and mantids go down well too, as do smaller lizards, although id only recommend using other baby lizards if you breed them yourself, to wild collect or buy them for the purpose would be a horrific waste, and a serious way of introducing disease. No wild reptile should be sacrificed for a captive one. Also avoid millipedes , centipedes, scorpions, brightly coloured grasshoppers and stick insects. There is a significant toxicity risk.

Its also worth checking that you have a good thermal gradient, and that the cage is large enough to support this. Leopard geckos should have a 95 f basking spot, a general cage temp of about 79-84 f, and a cooler retreat maybe even a little damp one with soaked moss at about 75f. Keep the general cage humidity low though. Leopards dont need uvb, but a bulb with a little uva will often keep them sharp on instinct, including feeding and breeding. Nocturnal or not, a photoperiod helps mentally stabilise just about all reptiles behaviour,and most should be on a 12 hour photoperiod.

General hint, that kind of thermal gradient is very difficult to achieve in less than about 30 gallon air volume.

Hope he recovers ok.

oh dear, im sorry i didnt see this thread..
Is your leo CB?
i presume it is, but i think LHG thinks it s WC because you mentioned "wild type", meaning a 'normal' leo..
if this is the case, worming would be pointless, and just stress the gecko more, if you have had it for years already.
Sometimes geckos do go off their food. have you tried not offerin food for a week, then offering a differnt food item, ie locusts, mealworms, waxworms, or a combination of all three?
To stimulate appitite, try letting some waxworms turn into moths, and release those...
James

I wasnt assuming anything of the kind, captive raised animals may need to be wormed too, especially those on a livefood diet. I dont propose routine worming of all reptiles, but on occassion its necessary. Captive breeding is no protection from parasites , and if youve seen how many reptiles are held at distributors, and in what conditions, and the death rates of reptiles at petshops and importers you wouldnt doubt its lack of protection either. The reptile trade has all of the abuses and hygiene and quarantine problems of the fishkeeping trade and them some.

Personally I fail to see how worming it might stress it more than if its innards are being shredded by internal parasites, but then I dont expect a lot of people to know much about reptile medicine. If you were to take a random collective sample of captive bred reptiles and perform microbial reports and gastrointestinal samples, you would on average discover that 15% of all reptiles carry salmonella strains, about 70% carry internal protozoa, and around 80% carry some sort of intestinal worm. To assume otherwise would rely on the complete presumption that captive breeders worm their charges and segregate all media, insects, and parents from the young. In short, they dont. Quarantine in the herpetological world is a bit of a laughing stock.

Normally when reptiles are healthy theres no problem, but occassionally if one is on a bit of a down turn it can really help to purge internal parasites. Put it into context, if your dog started puking, or losing weight, would you just throw a bit more food into it , or would you check it out?

Outside of brumation or a breeding diapause or gravidity leopard geckos should eat regularly and not lose weight. If they do start its gonna be down to parasites, or inappropriate care and stress, often low temperatures, lack of a thermal gradient, and overhandling. It doesnt happen for no reason.

I owned a leopard gecko for 15 years, and it was at least 5 years old when I purchased it, being already a chunky 10 inches. When you break that longevity maybe then I can be told im paranoid! If reptile keepers were anything like as diligent as they needed to be a lot of reptiles would be treated for internal parasites at least at some point in their lives, and a lot less waning and debilitation chalked down to old age. Leopard geckos should not be fasting, they are not a species e to long periods of dormancy , especially when temps have been good. Plenty of reptiles do fast, but a eublepharis macularius is not a species that should be doing it with any regularity.

Be careful where you get reptile information from too, a lot of forums and stuff on the net is pure guff, with a load of amateurs talking big, probably worse even, than a lot of fishkeeping websites.

Dont take it too casually, and if website bickering and cavalier comments make you unsure of what to do, then take a fresh stool sample to the vet for testing , and be sure. Loads of people fail their reptiles by knowing knothing about reptile diseases and parasites, and after bad environmental conditions and poor diet quality, its one of the biggest causes of death.

A lot of crocodilians and freshwater turtles are pretty bulletproof, but a lot of the lizards by comparison have a very limited immune system, and a limited capacity to carry the burden of internal parasites.