sick impacted leo

Question
QUESTION: I contacted your experts last week as I was having problems with my Leo not passing any toilet and a very swollen tummy, the breeder I had him from gave me all sorts of instruction to do ie warm bath starve for a week even the liklyhood that the leo (junior) was probably eating his own toilet. never once was the possibility of impaction mentioned. I asked what the signs would be and was told that its tummy would be hard and he would not eat Well i'm afraid this was not the case as he had a healthy appetite so being a novice and thinking that this breeder knew what he was doing I continued the experts  out of desperation I asked the question of one of your experts who told me that it did sound like impaction and get him to the vets straight away which I did the same day but sadly Junior was too impacted, the vet tried medication and warm baths but it was hopeless. I would like to point this out to any new gekko keepers to beware the fact of keeping gekkos on sand, mine was bought from the shop with the recommendation to use sand but I did read horror stories of the sand problem and put him on kitchen paper only to find I was too late. thank you any any for your help and I am now without my little junior thanks to learning the hard way my advice would be now if in doubt see the vet not the useless info of some breeders
thank you Ros

ANSWER: Hi Ros,

Sorry for your loss...I wish you would have asked me about your gecko, or checked some of my past leo answers as you would have seen that I have mentioned impactions and the big dangers of sand as a substrate....I have also mentioned many times not to take the word of a pet store as most times they really have no clue what they are talking about.  We are not vets here....and when you have a medical problem we can only offer some advice and the recommendation to get to a vet.

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

QUESTION: thank you for your reply.I was not fortunate to have access to your site untill now which is very sad, I have been reading your answers to many questions and have been very well informed of some of the issues such as lighting heating etc. This wasn,t really a pet shop as such but a breeder of reptiles that only specialised in reptiles but now I have been learning about the care of gekkos I can quite see that he is not the best. He told me I only need a heat mat for heat and an energy saving bulb for light and that there was no hidi-holes in his tanks or heating as such. I have since learned that this is not the norm or good for gekkos but now I have been reading your site I can get more reliable info. I never keep an animal just for the sake of it I always hope to give them the best of care, I have 5 parrots,a rabbit, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog several fish and now the gekkos. I have since bought another baby gekko as I have the set up and he did not come from the same place so I am keeping in touch with your site so I am doing right for them
thank you once again
Ros

Answer
Hi Ros,
Sorry for your bad experience with a not so informed breeder....I know we assume we can trust people that say they are breeders, and/or sell reptiles...unfortunately we find out that is not always the case.  again, sorry for your loss.  I'm glad that my answers to others questions is helping you.  Do feel free to print out the care sheet I've sent to many people.