# Leopard gecko gagging... HELP!



## TobyBrody (Mar 22, 2018)

Hi, I have had my gecko AJ for around 4 years now and she has been perfectly healthy but all of a sudden she has gone off her food and keeps making a gagging reflex even though I haven't fed her anything to throw back up (because she hasn't eaten), I put a cricket in front her yesterday and she didn't even acknowledge it was there, her tongue was very pale which can mean shedding or dehydration so I got a pipet with water in and kept putting drops on her nose which she licked up and made her tongue go back to normal (yay) I also put a wet paper towel in her cold hide to help her rehydrate, I am going to call shop where I got her from when it opens at 10 as they are reptiles specialists, is there anything I can do/does anyone know what's wrong?!?

All replies are greatly appreciated

Thanks

Toby


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## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

Sounds like something may have got stuck. If it doesn't stop you may need a vet to look at her.


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## TobyBrody (Mar 22, 2018)

Thanks so much for your advice Debbie, I did take her to the vet and she had an x-ray and has a secondary chest infection and a shallow lung, they gave me anti bionics and told me 2 force feed her and 2 baths a day and increase temperature of warm hide in viv to increase metabolism and the vet said that she was struggling to breathe and she would rather breath than eat so her gagging was gasping for air, if we hadn't gone to the vet it could have been fatal! On a positive note though she said AJ has some of the strongest bones she has ever seen in a leopard gecko lol!

Thanks again

Toby


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## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

Oh bless her. Well done for taking her to the vets. Just one point though, and I don't know if your vets are reptile experts, but unless she is underweight I wouldn't have thought force feeding necessary at this stage. It can be stressfull and I would wait until she feels better which shouldn't take too long on antibiotics. Then I would use a probiotic to counteract the affect the antibiotics can have on the gut flora.


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## TobyBrody (Mar 22, 2018)

Yes I agree and she is spitting the food out anyway, we only managed to feed her 3 little mealworms today bless her! The vet said she wants her to eat to get her metabolism going so I'm torn between and she also said she is a bit overweight and she wants me to excersize her more lol!

If you don't mind me asking, do you work in the exotic pet industry or are you a vet/vet nurse as you seem very knowledgable!

Thanks

Toby


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## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

I don't mind you asking at all but no I don't work in the vet industry or exotic animals industry. I am just someone who has a lot of experience with reptiles healthy and not so healthy ones. I also have a vet that I ask lots of questions of and thankfully he is happy to put up with me lol. I have been keeping reptiles for around 18 years now and learned a heck of a lot in that time. Of course I am just one of many here that have experience and you will probably get more responses soon. I would say through that as she sounds a good weight I wouldn't worry about the feeding for now, give her time to recover first. Vets can be very good at what they do but most don't keep these animals themselves so probably don't realise the amount of stress involved in force feeding both for the animal and for you. But of course wait for more opinions and see what others have to say.


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