Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[tafkadaz]

After popping into a local pet store to pick up some crickets my wife noticed some Leo's in a Viv she had a look and noticed a nice pale white looking one that was identified as a Blizzard (i personally don't know that much about Morph's etc so until i post a pic for someone to ID ill assume it is a blizzard).
One problem was although he is fully grown he is very very thin and weak, most probably on his last legs.
She bought him for the sake of trying to nurse this leo back, so now we have another Leo, albeit a sick one.
He did eat 3 morios that we threw in but regurgitated 2 these looked near perfect when sicked back up and not digested in anyway.
Also the feces is more like sick than any solid and it's rather smelly.
Hopefully he will slowly come round, either way he will have a better life with us than he had in the pet shop.
If anyone has any ideas feel free to post them.

[stormiemanda]

firstly take it to a vet just to see what is wrong with it. i dont no much about leo's im affriad so cannot help much but i wish you well in helping the poor little thing
manda xx

[herplover212]

Tafkadaz,

Couple things I see off the bat .... weak, vomit, smelly fecal matter and thin. I can only hope and pray my assumptions are somewhat wrong and right. The vomit could be simple or complex. Simple would be the temps are too low, but with the other complications going on I really worry it is not just that easy. I will explain ....

A number of simple parasites can cause the vomit, horrible smell of fecal matter, weakness and being thin. I highly recommend getting a fecal test done by a herp vet and request a parasite and bacteria test. If they read any parasites, you can treat with a number of things. Albon, Strongid, Panacur and Ivomec. I personally would NEVER EVER go with Ivomec. It is FAR too toxic at very thin lines for anyone other then a very experienced and trusted herp vet to deal with. Albon is the second to last option I would suggest. It is quite strong, and dehydrates rapidly which can cause other problems.

If the test reads anything like round worm or pin worm, I would use Panacur or Strongid. I personally deworm all my herps two times a year and have fecal tests done yearly. I dose them as preventative measures in spring and late fall with one or the other.

If you do have to treat for parasites, I would also get the leo on a mixture of veal baby food, pedialyte (or other mild, plain electrolyte), a dash of PLAIN calcium with NO D3 and some acidophilus. Acidophilus replaced good bacteria in the gut flora and helps them recover from parasites rapidly so they can be up and eating in a week or so. (Depending on the severity of the parasite, etc.) I have used plain yogurt in emergency cases when health stores are not open and I am out of acidophilus, but I would get the acidophilus. This will increase appetite and replace the levels of good bacteria that any dewormer will remove ... you have to use the dewormer to rid the leo of parasites, but sometimes the dewormer is as hard on the animal as the parasite. It's kind of a catch-22 situation. Anyway ...

My other thought, and what I hope is not the case, is MBD - Metabolic Bone Disease. This is a common and very tough health problem to deal with in later stages of development. It is caused when there is lack of proper supplementation and heating, or even just a lack of supplementation .... talking about calcium almost exclusively here, as well as D3. Leos need plain calcium dusted on prey at least a few times a week. Once a week, they need a helping of dusted prey in a calcium supplement that also contains D3 and vitamins. Only use that once a week, as too much of a good thing can be bad ... so they say. Overuse of this can create toxic levels of various vitamins and minerals and cause other issues. The fact that you say this leo is weak and shaky on his hind legs makes me worry about MBD. If it is not too extreme, you get a clean vet bill and get the leo on calcium mix, you should do ok with it with little to no long term effects.

If you would like other advice, or opinions from me, please PM me or post here asap. If you can get plain calcium and make a mix of veal babyfood and pedialyte with a small dash of calcium, I think we can get him going again in a week or so. Get a fecal asap and let me know what happens! I am going to be thinking about you guys and this lil leo .... and am always here to help or offer other resources if you want more sources.

Talk soon,
Shanna
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*Yes, I am the chick in the pic!" ;)