Monday, September 20, 2010

Trip to Arkansas: Coming home with a new critter and nursing it back to health

On August 15th through the 18th I was in Arkansas and had a great time exploring a state that I had never seen before (the Ozarks are really beautiful!). On the 17th, I went to a Petco store and got a baby leopard gecko. The next day I had to travel back to MS and (of course) the gecko had to go also. She did really well with the trip and once I got home, I immediately got her setup in a nice terrarium with a heater, water dish, hideout, and food. She ate several crickets a day (she is only 4 inches long!) for about 4 or so days and then stopped eating completely. I tried mealworms and dead crickets (my other gecko will eat both of the latter plus live crickets too) with no luck. Finally I called a vet in town who referred me to another vet (exotic animal vet). I called the exotic animal vet and talked to her. She told me to bring the gecko in that day so I did. I was really afraid that she was going to find out that the gecko had Cryptosporidium (a deadly, non-curable disease that affects reptiles and many other animals) but she came back and told me that it just had a bacterial infection and POSSIBLY some internal parasites so she gave me some Baytril and Panacur to give the little girl for 7 days (for the Baytril) and 3 days (for the Panacur). She also gave me a can of Hills A/D Canine/Feline food to give her. I did this as well as I could (the gecko did NOT like it at ALL) and after about 4 days, she was eating again! After completing the medication she is still eating (2 crickets a night) and is gaining weight! The vet told me that the infection was likely due to Petco not keeping the cages sanitary. I won't be buying any more reptiles (or any other animal for that matter) from Petco, Petsmart or any other chain pet store. I have not named the new gecko but I am considering these names: Neyteri (Avatar), Seze (the name of Neyteri's Ikran in Avatar), Nala (The Lion King) and Sabor (the leopard in Tarzan and also means lioness or tiger in Mangani).

2 comments:

  1. I like the name Seze.

    The cats won some PetGuard catfood. I wondered what you thought of it. They seem to like it.

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  2. Thanks! I am thinking I will go with either that or Neyteri (most likely Seze).

    PetGuard looks like a great food to me. I looked it up and the ingredients are very similar in quality to Chicken Soup pet foods! :)

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