Help with young Leopard gecko. PLEASE

[lil-blu]

Was given this little guy by a local pet store. Dropped tail 2 broken arms; 1 happened probably shortly after birth the other more recently.
Anyway
Stats:
-small, no more than 4.5 inches tip to tail
-severely malnourished; thin as a rail,tail shows virtually no signs of fat storage.
-Has not eaten in at least 3 days I'm thinking more
-not drinking
-Did excrete urea 2 nights ago nothing since
-5.5 gallon tank
-temps from ~92-97* cool and warm side (really hard to regulate in such a small tank)
-on slate with some sand. (not much I had a problem with impaction on sand before and try to use as little as possible)
-I have 2 others and they are fit as a fiddle and oh so cute
-not holding out much hope for survival unfortunately

Now where y'all come in. I've found a number of different recipes for force feeding food. what do you recommend.
sorry this is much shorter than the first post i typed. then it disappeared.
Ask me any question I'll answer to the best of my ability.
thanks an advance
justyne

 

[Big Red TJ]

A vet is your only chance, but at this point it dosen't sound good to many strikes against ya. Forcfeeding will just hasten the end...

 

[Rabid538]

Forcefeeding is definitely not recommended. I suggest offering him a few waxworms, they are often given to malnourished reptiles because of their high fat content. Don't make this the whole diet though.
With two broken arms can this gecko move at all?
I would make the enclosure dark to decrease stress.
Good luck!

 

[lil-blu]

the right arm appears to have been broken shortly after birth. and has since healed. The left arm however is broken and still is.
I have not "forced" him to eat anything. He did however eat about .25ml of food placed one drop at a time on his nose. He licked it off and went back for more.
The gruel is a mixture of turkey babyfood, pedilite, and some reptile drops.
He ate like a champ for a few minutes then walked away seemed to have had enough. will try with a diffrent meat again in a few hours.
He is pretty mobile but you can tell there is a wrongness to his gate.

 

[Rabid538]

Okay, so at least your gecko is eating. That's good. Just continue with what you're doing and your gecko should be fine.
Did your gecko lose his tail recently? If it is still an open wound you want to make sure none of the sand gets in it which could create an infection.

 

[lil-blu]

he ate again this evening I'm trying to feed him 2 times at night and he ate twice yesterday. The tail was dropped shortly after hatching i think. Probably when he broke his right arm. and is growing back into a stump.
I'm crossing my fingers. i have an appointment with a vet next week so hopefully he has some good advice.

 

[Rabid538]

Well, your doing a very good job at saving this gecko. He seems to be recovering. Did you try any live food with him yet?

 

[lil-blu]

well great news I hope. He has been eating at least a full ml of food if not even more for the past 2 nights. He had a great poop last night and he has been actually out of the cave and exploring his new pad. I'm happy to report that he is not only awake and moving but he is actually holding himself up off the ground which he was not doing before. All 4 legs are being used to support his weight. haven't seen that in months(while he was at the pet store).
I have not yet tried feeding him live that was going to be tonights experiment. I'm going to offer it on tongs. i think that he is still a little too week to be chasing after food right now but I will offer it. If not then he will get his gruel. which he really truly seems to like, I offer it to him and he bites it and will not let go as I feed him. When he is full he simply lets go and licks his lips. It is really very sweet. i will try and get some pictures up online this evening, i have to pull them off of my phone so that can be fun. Anyway, I just wanted to add an update and let you know. Oh and we do have an appointment next week with the only reptile vet here in the tri cities. he was out of town all last week or I would have been all over getting him in. I do take them in when they are sick. and I was feeling horrid that I couldn't before now.
Like I said looks like he is on the mend. Next step live food and a name.

 

[coleopteran]

Yay! This whole thing is very impressive. Its really awesome that you're not giving up. Good luck with the feeding! I also second the waxworms if you can find any around there.