not a beardie but urgent leopard gecko

[Garda94]

My leopard gecko isnt eating. and its not by his choice. his bottom jaw seems to be very swollen and his mouth is always open a little bit. when he tries to grab a cricket he cant open his mouth wide enough to get the cricket in. the crickets are the smallest i can get. please help

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Do you have any pictures of his mouth?
How long has his mouth been swollen like that? Is it infected from something?
What type of setup are you using for him? Do you have an undertank heater & a low wattage basking bulb for him? Do you provide a dish of calcium in his tank for him, or dust his feeders regularly?

Tracie

 

[Garda94]

He is in a 24x12x16 tank. he has 75 watt basking bulb and no undertank heater. its been swollen for about a week and a half. but it was only bad enough to stop him from eating in the past few days. he is still shedding regularly. just a quick question. would baby food be ok for him to eat?

 

[melissadiane7]

Hello. I have Leopard Geckos too. Today I am taking my Bearded dragon to the vet for the mouth being open & tongue sticking out.

I can't tell you what is wrong with your gecko but just off the cuff; Leopard Geckos do not need basking lights. They are nocternal. You will need to get an under the tank heater. Their belly temp needs to be around 90 - 93 degrees.

I suggest taking your Leopard Gecko to the vet to be checked out. It sounds serious since it's hindering her eating. I will let you know how I make out with mine today. Also, do you give you gecko Calcium w/ d3? You should have a little dish of this powder in her cage to lick & dust her crickets. She may have the early signs of MBD. I use RepCal Calcium w/ d3. & also a multi vitamin from Rep Cal.

I hope this helps a little.

 

[melissadiane7]

Back from the vet. Turns out she has tonsilities. She has a yellow discoloration around her gums & her glands are swollen. The vet did an xray of her & turns out the kinks in her tail are from some sort of trauma & not MBD. She is now on an antibiotic & pain meds.

You should take yours to a reptile vet to have him checked out to be sure.

 

[Garda94]

Thank you for the advice. ill get out to the store tomorrow to get an under tank heater. i put a dish with repcal calcium w/ d3 in there today. ill get him in to the vet asap. once again thank you

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is your gecko today?
They can have a basking light though, even though they are nocturnal, it has been shown that they do well with a light cycle. An undertank heater doesn't always get the basking spot up to 88-90 very well. It doesn't really matter one way or another, but, I always used a basking light with success.
Let us know how he is doing. He should do well with the dish of calcium. Has he eaten anything today?
He might benefit from a low output UVB light, a lot of people use them for geckos.

Tracie

 

[Garda94]

He was able to eat 2 small crickets last night. i got him the heating pad and was wondering if he still needed the basking bulb. or should i just get him a uvb bulb? because since i got him the pad he spends more time away from it. also, should the pad be on always? or only during the day?