# What's wrong with my crestie? Stopped moving/breathing... then came back to life?



## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Hi all,

I'm really worried - I woke up this morning to find my 1-year old crestie lying on the bottom of the viv totally exposed. I thought this very strange because he never sleeps in the open and very, very rarely on the bottom of the tank.

When I looked closer I couldn't see any signs of breathing so I gently poked him and tried to pick him up and he just didn't react at all, he was just limp.

Even his eyes didn't look like he was sleeping - they were wide open and the slits were halfway between open and closed.

Then I sat back on my bed and put my head in my hands... when all of a sudden he took a massive step forward and then stopped again!

When I looked at him, there were still no visible signs of breathing. When I tried to pick him up, he was limp/unresponsive again. So I left him there thinking maybe it was a spasm after death... but he did it again a couple of minutes later!

So I rang my friend to find out the best vet to ring and whilst I was on the phone, my gecko started showing signs of breathing again - it began slowly (and hardly noticeable) then became very, very fast and very, very shallow - but still barely noticable to the eye. Then, as I was talking to my friend, he kinda reanimated and suddenly ran into his cave.

That's where he is now - it is so strange and I'm so worried, has anyone at all ever encountered this before? Or know what it could be? I'm about to ring the vet now.

I misted his viv, popped some fresh food in, turned of his light and have just left him be for a short time - not sure what else I can do at the moment myself?

Any advice/info would be SO GREATLY APPRECIATED, I don't wanna lose the lil' fellah.


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

HI Im so sorry about your gecko but it could be SO SO many things that guessing here could just cause more distress.

There is noone that can really tell you whats going on. makle sure you take it to a reptile vet though, one that has proper reptile vet qualifications and experience rather than a normal vet.

Ask for a fecal swab to be done if possible. You may also need to think about an x-ray. One of my cresties once required a scan on her abdoman too and we discovered she had cysts and thats why she had been a bit poorly.

A basic list of what the vet will need to know will be..

Temps in tank?

feeding regime and if you dust the food with any supplements?
What do you actually feed ( exactly)? baby food alone is not enough and its important to know what the little guy eats...

Have you used any deodrant or household sprays in the house recently or in the room hes in? ( as this can cause poisoning)

have you oversprayed the tank?

How old is he and what weight?

Do you keep any other animals and could he have caught something from them?

these things will help the vet work out what is wrong.

Good luck and please update the thread xxx


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks for responding so soon Sparkle, and thanks for those list of questions in preparation for the vet... 

I'm in a real pickle now, though... the recommended reptile vet in Bristol is away on holiday, and the other place I called has a regular vet with an 'interest in exotics' which doesn't fill me with too much confidence. The recommended vet had left a number for a Swindon vet in her absence but I don't have a car so I don't think I can get there. Going to keep searching for qualified reptile vets in Bristol for now.

I checked on my gecko again about 5 mins ago - he was fast asleep and unresponsive again but when I picked him up, he woke up and was breathing/moving around alot almost as normal (he even jumped). I did however notice a very tiny shake in his feet as he moved them to take a step.

I popped him back in - he jumped onto a branch and didn't moved from that spot. It was as if he was unconscious or in stasis... because he wasn't in a position to be sleeping and his eyes didn't look like they do when sleeping. Then when I touched him, it was like he suddenly awoke from a coma, lept across the tank and was still again.

Will update the thread with progress finding a vet. If anyone knows of one near Bristol, PLEASE PLEASE let me know.

Thank you, need to make sure he's ok.


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

Shock, suprise or fear response?


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Erm, not really sure how to distinguish. Probably most like a shock/surprise response, because he doesn't usually react that suddenly when I go to handle him. It's almost like he's been electrocuted and it jolts the life back into him.

I can see that he is breathing constantly now though (his neck is moving) but it's quite fast breathing and he's making no attempt to find a sleeping spot. Was so strange how fine he seemed when I handled him earlier though.

Still having a nightmare with vets - they're all on holiday or not working today. It's either the vet 'with an interest' or Great Western Referrals in Swindon (who I am going to call now for some advice).

I'm half expecting it to be simply that he was in a deeeep sleep and all this bothering of him this morning has caused this peculiar behaviour. But obviously it's important to be safe than sorry.


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

iamkeir said:


> I'm half expecting it to be simply that he was in a deeeep sleep and all this bothering of him this morning has caused this peculiar behaviour. But obviously it's important to be safe than sorry.


It is better to be safe than sorry, but as yet I can't really see any indication of ill health?
To me it sounds like circumstantial odd behaviour and not much else. I would suggest that the first time you had startled him sneaking around on the floor, he played "frozen crestie" even when touched.
Cresties and other lizards have two methods of breathing;
Gular pumping, which is the throat movement you are expecting to see and is actually the at rest and relaxed method of breathing.
or Intercostal breathing, using rib and shoulder musculature to breathe more steadily. 

Your story fits the possibility of a startled animal playing unresponsive, then as the threat fades first he sneaks a step or two, then he begins to relax again enough to come out of the "i'm not here" preservation mode and go into "must hide!" preservation mode, where he suddenly ran off to his cave.

p.s: just check your temperatures though


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

Lotte is right of course.. if it were a startle response then its nothing to worry about, but over a forum I am always very wary of saying Oh dont worry it sounds fine.. im not a professional vet or a trained herptologist ... and I am always concerned guuessing could mean problems for the animal..

if you are happy not to go to the vets thats fine.. its your decision.. 

xxx

Ps good luck


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## Fill (Nov 24, 2007)

Saedcantas said:


> It is better to be safe than sorry, but as yet I can't really see any indication of ill health?
> To me it sounds like circumstantial odd behaviour and not much else. I would suggest that the first time you had startled him sneaking around on the floor, he played "frozen crestie" even when touched.
> Cresties and other lizards have two methods of breathing;
> Gular pumping, which is the throat movement you are expecting to see and is actually the at rest and relaxed method of breathing.
> ...


I'd agree.

I had a very similar thing happen once with my adult male crestie a month or two ago. I noticed him lay on one of the horizontal branches and he looked like he was dead - his eyes weren't the way they are when he's asleep and you couldn't really tell if he was breathing. I picked him up and he was alive, but very limp and didn't really make any effort to move or climb and his feet didn't seem to want to stick to anything - just like he couldn't be bothered to hold on to anything.

After about 5 or 10 minutes I put him back in the tank, and switched off the light and left him. Went back about an hour later and it was as if nothing had happened. He was climbing around normally, his colours were bright like they always are at night and he ate when I put food in there.

Haven't seen him (or any of the others) do anything like it again. No idea what caused it but it seemed to just be a one-off thing. He's fine now Lotte, don't worry :flrt:


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Thank you so much everyone.

It's entirely possible it's been a stress-response, esp. as his diet has been erratic lately (ran out of T-Rex, moved him onto my back-up stash of Komodo whilst I waited for some Repashy to arrive). He really doesn't eat a lot of the Komodo diet (I think it sucks).

Anyway, the good news is he just guzzled a load of repashy and crept very slowly into his foliage. His breathing is in the throat area (thanks for that info Saedcantas about breathing) and he seems more normal/alert.

I'm going to leave him in peace for a good few hours in case it is stress-related. I am also waiting on a call back from the vets in Swindon too, just in case.

By the way, his name is Geronimo and I wanted to post a photo of him too:


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Forgot to add, temps seem fine. It's about 19 degrees in there, and the temp usually sits between 18 and 21 most of the time - very very occasionally it can fall to 17.


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## Geckogirl_88 (Apr 24, 2009)

I dunno about this with cresties but the only thing iv ever experienced which reminds me of this is when my gerbil was on its way out.
It was always jumpy nd bitey so when it stopped moving one day i picked it up thinking it was dead. it lay still for ages then all of a sudden jumped out of my hands. It then lay still for ages again. unfortunately it died.
Now bare in mind this was a really old gerbil and this probs has nothing to do with ur crestie, but it sounds like it was weak and had to gather up its strength for a sudden mad dash out of danger, just like my gerbil. 

Id defo get it checked out by the vet. Hopefully someone on here knows of someonw near by.
xx


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Hey all,

Just wanted to say Geronimo seems to be doing a lot better and almost entirely back to normal... very strange.

He's onto Repashy CGD regularly now, eating crickets, and jumping/climbing around as usual.

I'm still gonna send a stool sample to the vets in Swindon to check for parasites but I'm gradually becoming more confident that it was just an odd turn he had.

Thank you all so much for the support/help, I *really* appreciated it.


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Saedcantas said:


> Shock, suprise or fear response?


I once had a female which showed exactly the same symptoms as described in the first post, I really thought she was dead but an hour after she was walking in her viv just as if nothing happened.
It was due to a thermic shock, something which cresteds seem really sensitive to.
I just gave that crested babyfood from the fridge. As she had ingested some, it proved to be sufficient to create a shock state with the difference of the temperature of the food and of the viv air.
Who has not ever felt a bit dizzy while eating ice-cream during a very hot summer? That was a quite similar phenomenon, but amplified.
*If* that was the case here too, the vet will probably find nothing wrong on that animal; next time just avoid too cold food or brutal temperature changes


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## Xilas (Jul 1, 2015)

Sorry for reactivating a very old post (i couldn't find any others on the subject):

Anyway... thought i would look online if there was any info about this (couldn't find a single thing!)

yesterday my cresty (9 weeks old tomorrow 4th july) was in one spot ALL day... hadn't moved a millimeter! (i know... they sleep during the day etc) but this was just ... odd as since i got him last saturday he would occasionally move/jump/lick the leaves throught the day... But as i say... not a single movement... i had put ice blocks on top of his viv since weds (when the heat wave started)... anyway i left it to 22:30 and he still hadn't moved an inch! so i decided to risk handling him... got his fake leaves out with him attached... gently put my finger under him (which i saw online) and although he DID move onto me he stayed there for about 5 mins... still in his *curled up sleep* position... THEN he started walking around etc...

Today i woke up and checked on him... couldn't see him breathing AT ALL... made a coffee and checked again... still *no breathing*... sprayed him his water... still nothing... obviously i panicked... tapped his viv very lightly to check once more and then he just looked at me *OI! why you wake me up!?!?!* and started breathing... now he looks as if he isn't breathing again...

(It is VERY shallow/slow)

What i have done:

. checked online to see about shallow/slow breathing: Result? only found this info on this page!

. checked temps: slightly lower than yesterday (but more *safe*)

. misted at least 3x so far today: No response to misting (normally he would flinch and lick his eyes)

. called vet: was told to email and wait for response (still waiting)

Don't know if i should be worried.

Questions:

. Is this kind of breathing actually normal? (as said, no info found apart from above topic)

. approx what time are they actually normally active?

Thanks guys


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## Xilas (Jul 1, 2015)

Sorry can't see an edit button... i have done a lot of research before buying him (at least 2 months worth) just in case any one wanted to say *you should have researched the species first* no offense meant by this


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

Hey there 

Sorry to hear you are so worried. Will just give you the stuff I learned/experienced with my gecko since my original post in case it is useful.

Big thing I didn't realise back then was geckos breathe in two ways - thorax (body, usually when active/awake/higher alert/stress) and throat (like a frog, usually at rest, often very slow and sometimes hard to even spot at all). You said you have done your research so you probably already know the above 

A change in temperatures can affect gecko behaviour - so my guess is it could be related to that.

I learned from another post that cresties are crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) but this is by no means gospel - shut curtains, temperatures & lighting in your house can all meddle with their routines: see http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/lizards/1067000-crested-gecko-not-very-nocturnal.html

Finally, when it happened to my gecko, he got back to normal but I took him to see the vet anyway to be safe - they took a stool sample and tested him for any nasties. If you can, I would really recommend it - better safe than sorry.

And obviously just keep up the normal stuff - ensure temps stay in safe zones, keep 'em clean & misted, etc.

Let us know? Very best wishes to you and your little dragon.


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## Xilas (Jul 1, 2015)

iamkeir said:


> Hey there
> 
> Sorry to hear you are so worried. Will just give you the stuff I learned/experienced with my gecko since my original post in case it is useful.
> 
> ...



Thank you very much... i didn't know about the breathjing untill i read your earlier post on page one... but i was still slightly confused... vet contacted back and said virtually the same... so will keep an eye over the weekend and if no better will take to vet on monday... thanks for the assist


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## iamkeir (Dec 1, 2008)

No problem at all - there are more knowledgeable people on here than me that might chime in, too.

Either way, very best wishes


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