Leopard Not Eating

Question
QUESTION: We have 3 leopard geckos. We have had problems with our first since we got her roughly 8 months ago. We have taken her to the vet who has put her on 2 types of anti parasite/fungal with not much prevaile. She is now in a small exo-terra tank on her own quarantined because she has lost so much weight we don't want the other two picking on her. Temperature is 82 with a hot spot of 91. She just sleeps, although since the anti fungal medicine she has perked up when handling her a lot. We are having to force feed her on recommendation from the vet with flaked baby food mixed up, she is also on critical care twice a week to boost her up a bit. We have tried meal worms on recommendation with no prevaile and small and medium crickets. She shows a tiny animal instinct interest when not fed for a day as the food moves but is terrified of crickets no matter what size it is and still doesn't eat. She is not loosing anymore weight thanks to the baby food, but it would be great to know where to go next. Because I've now spent a lot of money at the vet with no avail and have lost faith slightly.

Many Thanks in advance.

ANSWER: Hello Owen,

Did the vet do a fecal before medicating them?  If not, then they probably did not give the correct medication.  
Which medications was she on & for how long has she been on it for?  What was the dosage?  
Did she have a fungal issue, or just worms or parasites?
One thing you could try is bee pollen & brewer's yeast to help with appetite stimulation.  Can you post a picture of her?
It sounds like your feeding regime is great, so continue with that on a daily basis to help keep weight on her.
What do her stools look like?  Maybe we could try a different medication perhaps?  I just need symptoms to help determine what could be going on.  
She could have had an infection too, which alot of them tend to have from petstores.  Did you get her from a petstore or a breeder?

Tracie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Dekobou   QUESTION: Hi Tracie,
Information on the Gecko:

Thanks for the quick response, We had two of them from pet stores and one from a breeder. She was from a pet store. We had her from 8 months, she was a good weight but she deteriorated and it took us quite a while to recover her the first time, we used just critical care and she picked up. The second one was quite happy with her in a tank and she seemed fine and still is. Then we bought our last one from a breeder, after about a month we noticed that she was loosing a lot of weight again, but so was the new gecko. Again we went to the vet (4th  time) and he concentrated on the new one we had more than her. They both were given a course of flagyl for 3 days at 0.1ml after 3 days she showed a slight improvement but the newest one didn't (back to the vet again.). We were then given a course of Marbocyl for the newest for 7 days , but nothing for her. The newest gecko has since recovered fully. But she hasn't we have brought her out of the main tank and are just watching her deteriorate no matter what we do.

We were told it was most likely to be worms.

The only thing I can think to do would be to give her the same course of Marbocyl and see if she picks up.


Her fecal matter is baby food coloured and comes out as a form of diarrhea rather than a lumped fecal matter that normally is produced.

We have noticed in the last 3 days she has been licking her rectal area, we didn't know if this is normal?

I will upload a photo and add it now while she is asleep on me after feeding.

Answer
Hello Owen,

So no fecal was done then?  
I am glad you have them separated, that is for the best.
The Marbocyl will not treat worms but maybe the parasites but since you do not know exactly what she has that is hard to know for sure whether it will be effective or not.  However, if she has parasites & they go untreated at this point, she is not going to make it.  She could benefit from a dewormer, but if you have the Marbocyl, go ahead & treat her for a 5-7 day cycle.  You can dose her at the .1ml that will be fine.  Let's see how she does on that.
Can you get some non dairy soy yogurt at the store?  She needs some type of probiotic to help her system out with the normal gut flora that is destroyed due to harsh medications.  Continue to feed her daily, with the critical care.  That is the best thing you can do to keep her from losing anymore weight.  How many ml's are you giving, daily for her?
Please let me know how she is doing.

Tracie