I just don't get it....

[kiara]

I got Nyoko about 3 weeks ago... and if you haven't seen pictures of her yet, she is super super small. To me anyway.

The last couple of days, she has decided she's just not going to eat. Literally. She's snubbed everything I could find around town to feed her. I thought maybe the first day she was just being bratty- her big sister, Ryuu, is sometimes. Yesterday, she turned really really dark and her stomach was looking like she was really stressed out. She still moved around quite a bit though, so I maybe just thought something scared her. Last night, however, she began looking like she was playing dead. She just lays there w/ her eyes closed and doesn't move. I went to the store and bought a clean dropper and some squash baby food because I have feed Ryuu squash before and she loved it... and so does Nyoko apparently. She's eaten maybe 1.5mL over the last 3 hours, and her colors have lighted just a little bit. I blended water and a small pinch of calcium into it b/c with not eating she hasn't obviously been getting any. I also bought some generic pedialyte b/c I have read about them helping (but need to find the article again on the ratio of water to it).

Is there anything else I can do? I am not going to loose this one w/o a fight.


((If you need her set up: she's in a 54 gallon corner aquarium w/ a Repti Sun 10.0 florescent tube a heat lamp keeping the basking temp around 110* and a ceramic bulb that I turn on when the house temp drops to help keep her ambient temp around 78-80. She's on reptile carpet which I'm fixing to change b/c I'm not tickled with it right now (no one else in the house has it) and she's got a log and rock to bask on, a hammock and a vine thing to climb around on, which she used to have fun with))

 

[Gail]

Keep feeding her the baby food and try to get a fecal done soon. Thats the only thing I can really think of. How big is she anyways?

 

[kiara]

Her body fits easily on my index finger, she's very small. Here's a picture from 3 weeks ago when I first got her... she hasn't grown much since then, and I am almost 100% sure she's lost weight since then.

comparing this picture and her tho, I can see a ridge on her back now... maybe from her spine?

Is there anything else I can do??

 

[bdalton]

The water pedialyte ratio is 3:1. I know mine hates, like literally HATES the unflavored, if i drip it on her nose she blows her beard up and shakes her head like a dog to get it off, so i bath her in the clear stuff with 1/2 water and add 3 parts water to the flavored and she will willingly drink that. Lol she likes strawberry & mango.

 

[kiara]

how funny! Nyoko has gotten two baths today... lol one to wash the baby food off because I was convinced after 5 minutes she was NOT done eating... and she wasn't, she just wanted to sit in a different position and the other because she had dried poo on her. I haven't actually tried the pedialyte yet. What if she doesn't drink it? Will it still help if I have to just hold her while she sits there?

 

[kiara]

These aren't the best, but you can see how skinny she is.

Or at least I can.

 

[Gail]

A couple more things to try. Take the half log out, pine can have toxic fumes and even though those logs are kiln dried, its always possible there is still pitch in it. Try replacing it with a rock or brick, something that will hold heat well.

Double check her temps, for some reason she looks cold to me but it could just be she is dark from not feeling well. Make sure she is staying warm at night, around 80* or so.

Keep her fed and hydrated, at this point she probably isn't going to recover without help. Mix some chicken baby food with the squash and add a little bit of vitamins along with the calcium.

 

[kiara]

Ok, I have a cave I can put in there for now, it holds heat on the outside well... I just don't want her hiding in it until she feels better. Maybe I'll just move stuff around so she can still bask but not hide....

I thought she might have been cold as well... I checked the temps this morning. I've even been heating up my hands before I pick her up today, just to help keep her warmer.

I do have some chicken baby food that I bought too, I just figured if I felt bad, I'd want something a little sweeter first... lol I know she's not a human, but I've not really had problems w/ my reptiles before, so I was just going w/ what I thought would work.

Can I mix pedialyte in w/ the baby food? What about bits of greens? Worms or dubia roaches?

I'm feeling a little frantic, but trying not to totally spaz out- because that doesn't help anything.

 

[kiara]

Sorry if this is gross, but I picked Nyoko up to move the pine cave thing, and she pooped in my hand, but it looks weird....

Yeah, I took a picture of it (lol)

Could she be constipated? She looks like she has a little bubble down by her back left leg but if I run my finger over it, it's not hard.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Kiara....just wondering how close she can get to the UVB bulb ? I know the corner tanks tend to be tall. If she can't get close enough to the Reptisun bulb, she can't assimilate the calcium. I hope you can help the little one.

 

[kiara]

her hammock is about 5" away, her vine comes w/in about 3" and her basking spot is about 16"-18"

 

[sweetiepie9]

If she spends alot of time on the basking spot, then she's not getting enough UVB & she needs alot more than normal because she's ill. If it's parasites, you need some panacur, for dosage you can email Tracie (Drache613) and she'll give you the correct dosage. Sometimes these little ones come home from the pet shop or breeder with parasites & the first thing that happens is babies stop eating, as they can overwhelm her digestive system. Rocco (on Jan'es thread) was so tiny, with eyes closed shut & after a few weeks of the babyfood, lots of calcium, vit/min he's now eating bugs & salad. So look into that, then you don't have to take your stressed baby to a vet.

Good luck, just keep feeding her as often as possible, she's making a great start with the squash. She needs protein more than she needs veggies, even though the veggies are great, but you have to give her the chicken 1st, that will help her agreat deal, too.

 

[kiara]

She's actually not basking that much. Before I left to do laundry, she was actually moving around looking at us... So that's a tiny improvement.

As far as protein, can I use her feeders?

 

[sweetiepie9]

If they're really small. She probably wouldn't be able to digest them yet. Keep giving her the chicken babyfoodsquash & make sure she basks at least 5 hours/day if not more. It's really important that she get enough UVB. Maybe make sure she's on her hammock a good part of the day? I'm at a loss, but I do know that her UVB light is too far away if she's at the bottom of her tank alot. That might be what's missing.

 

[kiara]

I'll move it lower when I get home then.