leopard gecko question - very important

[Herpisphere]

I took home four really thin baby leopards from a petco the other day. They were on sale and I wanted to try to see if I could help them out. I brought an adult back from starvation before. Anyway, the one that was the worst looking died the second day (they actually gave him to me for free because they'd already written him off) and I noticed he had a black spot on his stomach. I checked the others and two of them have the same spot. One of them doesn't, but has a smaller spot of the same color higher up on his chest. Do you know what this is?

I called an Animal Clinic that deals with exotics and they said it sounded like it could be parasites so I may be going to Howdershell for a stool sample soon. I was just wondering if you could maybe shed any light on this? I've done a lot of searching online and it sounded like it could also possibly be compaction. At the petco they were housed on sand.

Has this ever happened in any of your babies before? What can I do to help them right now?

[honuman]

There could be many factors that cause this. Usually when you see that blackspot it is do to advanced starvation and depletion (it is not likely that they can recover when they get to that point but never give up hope). It is also like that it is indeed a parasitic infection.  There are several types that they just don't recover from no matter how hard you try.  Also when they get that depleted sometimes forcing some food into them spells the end (of course it's worth a try since they will only die anyway).  Your best bet is to try and get a stool sample but that may be difficult since they probably have nothing in their digestive tracts at this point.  You can try to jump start them with a little bit of chicken babyfood and some vitamins. If you dot it on their noses they will lap it up.  Good luck on trying to get that stool sample.

[Herpisphere]

Thanks. At least one of them has been defecating. Actually, the one that died did too, but he definently had trouble. The poor thing...

I've been trying to feed them with a syringe some Rept-a-aid. They've been licking up a little bit of this.

So this black spot is just something that shows up with extreme starvation?

They're fairly active, despite their weight, so hopefully it's not too late for them.

Thanks so much for responding!

[honuman]

Thanks. At least one of them has been defecating. Actually, the one that died did too, but he definently had trouble. The poor thing...

I've been trying to feed them with a syringe some Rept-a-aid. They've been licking up a little bit of this.

So this black spot is just something that shows up with extreme starvation?

They're fairly active, despite their weight, so hopefully it's not too late for them.

Thanks so much for responding!

Doing turtle rehab for so long now I live by one mantra.  Never give up on them!!!  You only give up when they give up. You need to get whatever stool you can to the vet.  What one has they likely all have.

Hydration is key though. Give them a very shallow large water dish. I am sure they will crawl in and actually soak. And keep them warm too.  Don't force them into the water they will go if they really want it.

[Herpisphere]

Thank you! I live by it too. And I have a little dish like you described. One was soaking in it earlier.

I just got a response from a leopard gecko breeder who said that the black spot could be the inflamed liver, which happens when they are starving. They also said it could be impacting and they gave me some things to do, so I'm off to do them!

Thanks again!

[Herpisphere]

So, in between this post and the last I lost another gecko. That left me with two, one of which I am not too concerned about. Seems to have grown, has a nice sized belly. The other one I was concerned about.

Anyway, I took him in for my vet appointment today. The vet said that the black spot seemed to be his spleen and that it was black and swollen because it was fighting off a bacterial infection. He gave me baytril to give to it for two weeks.

He couldn't guarantee that it would survive, but this is my best shot.