New gecko sick - help please

[serpentor]

I just bought a leopard gecko last saturday, and it has been doing fine, I noticed for the last few days he has been drinking alot and hanging around the water dish. I took him out last night and held him and he was fine, later that night he was sitting in his water dish with his legs raised up like he was pooping in the water, but didn't. This morning it was sitting in it's water dish and when I came home from work today and picked it up it was real weak, and even let me lay it on it's back and stayed tha way till I rolled it back over. I have seen it eat about 2-3 mealies since I've had it, I thought it might have just been shy and waited till the lights were off??

[sketchy4]

he may be laying in his water dish because its too hot in the enclosure. see what the temp is and make sure it isnt. about the weakness part he may be playing possum. my male does that sometimes when he want to be put back in his tank.

[spidergecko]

Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is to see a vet ASAP. It is not normal for a gecko to lie upside down in your hand without moving. Sometimes they will do this if they are tired but it only takes few seconds for them to flip back over again. Has he been passing stool?

[crazyboy]

what are you temps? how often are you feeding it? what are you feeding it? what quanities? Where did you aquire it from? we need more details

[serpentor]

I got it at the K.C. repshow. I have it in a 20gal long, with 2 females the same size. one side if the tanks is 80degrees and the other side is about 93. I feed them about 2 dozen crix everyother day, and keep a dish of mealworms in all times. I have had the 2 females in the same setup for about 6 months now and they are fat, one blizzard feamle and one albino female and the male I just bought is a jungle albino. This is the first time I have bought from this guy. HIs name is Anthony all his geckos seemed healthy everytime I have looked at his booth. Right now I have it at a local petstore In the owners quarintine room, he said it felt a little cold. I opened a window in the room the geckos are kept in this after noon, it was about 60 today could this be the problem? All this just happened over night?

[sketchy4]

60 is way too cold for a leo. did you leave the window open overnight? he could have a case of pneumonia.

[Slannesh]

First off putting in a new gecko with established ones is a bad idea... 30 days minimum quarentine.

Have you actually watched him eat? do you know if the other geckos are intimidating him into not eating? The temps seem ok to me. How many hides do you have in the tank? For three geckos i'd suggest several hides. 2-3 humid and 3-4 normal hides at a variety of teps.

[crazyboy]

you definetly shouldn't have put it with the females. you are supposed to quarentine. but anyway do you know what the tank got down to when the window was open. how long was the window open for. i dont really think this is the cause but you never know. also did you physically watch,with your eyes, the new gecko eat. The other gkeckos may be eating all the food and not leaving any for the new gecko. also how big is the basking spot? is it big enough to have all 3 geckos be basking privatly? also i would turn the temps in the tank down a little.

[serpentor]

Well I just went back to the petstore to see how it was doing and It was dead within a 2 hour period. They owner looked at it ( he is a leo breeder) and said he didn't see anything wrong with it and that it looked healthy. He said it looked like toxitity(sp) He said it didn't sound like I did anything wrong, it might have been already sick. I have only seen it eat twice and that was a few mealworms and waxworms. I've watched the leo's at night and never seen any aggressiveness towards each other. during the day he slept by his self on the hot side under a 1/2 log. I had 2 hides on the hot side and 2 on the warm side and one in the middle. I just had the window open for 3hrs this afternoon, He was fine last night, but he drank and hung around the water dish alot for the last 2 days.

[serpentor]

Well there wasn't enough room for all the gecko's to bask privatly, and there was always crix left the next morning plenty, I think the leo's preferred mealies over crix, the guy that sold me this leo said that he was feeding him crix. My females where doing great in this setup, heat and feeding schedual.

[Drew S]

That's very strange. I don't think that the window being open would have killed your gecko over night. And gecko's can go quite a long time without food, even if it hadn't eaten in a week it wouldn't cause immediate death. How was it's tail when you got it? Was it somewhat fat? How old was he? I assume he was an adult, or at least a juvenile if you put him in with 6 month old females.

Also, I would totally clean out your entire enclosure. Scrub it out, change the substrate, sterilize the hides and water dishes etc. Since you didn't quarantine him, keep a close one on your other two geckos to make sure they don't exhibit the same signs of illness.

[drewlowe]

People dont' suggest quarentine just for the reason of them getting along (even though you need to watch for that). It's suggest because of possible parasites that could be in the "new" animal. Nobody can tell you why the leo died only specutlation. You should take the leo to the vet to have a necropsy done to know the TRUE cause of death. THere is no way he knows it was toxcicity just by looking at the animal test have to be run.

I hope your new aquire didn't have any parasites because in the short amount of time he was with the girls he could have passed it on to them (if it was a parasite). I recomend get a fecal done for the girls just to make sure they didn't get anything. I would get one now then another in a month. Get the necropsy for a piece of mind and do proper quarentine next time at least 30 days 90 would be better though, before introducing.

[serpentor]

I am not sure how old it was, it was 6" the same size as my females. His tail was average, not skinny and not fat. He didn't say it was toxcicity, he said it might be. He also looked at the belly and said there was no signs of impaction, I am not sure what the breeder kept them him on. He didn't show signs of illness till the day he died, so I can watch my other leo's but I probably won't see anything till it's to late. I contacted the breeder and told him what happened and sent him pics, and he said that was wierd and that he has never lost a gecko, also that he was sorry and would give me my money back or replace the geko. Maybe this might help on finding out what happened to my gecko. This was a male jungle albino, That had " darker" spots than most albino's, The breeder told me that it was dark because he was incubated at a lower temp 80-83 degress? The petstore owner told me that it looked like it was incubated and kept at low temps seeing how dark it was and and at first glance he didn't think it was an albino. also if it was raised at lower temps and then when I got it put it in higher temps could that have harmed it? I also drove about 2hrs with him in the care comming form the repshow?

[Icefire]

gecko dont die like that normaly
you could have asked an "autopsy" at a vet just to look
if there was inner bleeding.
I had 15 gecko shipped at low temperature in september and
they are all fine and some are breeding now.
so Temperature wouldn't have killed him that fast
something could have jammed his intestine or opened them.
was the belly really big? like it would explose?

I would recommand take the money and get one from a trusted
source and QUARANTINE. get a Sterilite/Tupperware for a month
disinfect the other tank as other said.

hope it help.

and make fecal exam to all new gecko...

[serpentor]

His belly was normal, looked the same as the day I got him. I already got rid of him. I kept him for a day to see if the breeder wanted to take a look at him, and took a few pics.