Egg Bound questions

[Slizards]

Hello all.

I have a recently purchased female ,shes obviously gravid but spends almost of of her time simply basking on a favorite branch.
Shes not losing weight at this point and is very round .But nearly unresponsive and very lethargic compared to any of my other crested geckos.

I have been unable to find much information on egg binding in cresteds .This is the first time I have suspected egg binding in any of my geckos.Ive removed cage mates..and made sure a suitable egg laying box is available.

My question is what other signs should I expect and how long before this could become fatal?

[bleeding_sarcasm]

how long have you been waiting? is she still eating? does she look dehydrated and skinny? did her previous owner tell you anything about her egg laying habits? id say if she doesnt look ill, give it a bit longer and just wait it out.

[zarozinia]

If she is virtually unresponsive then you need to get her to a reptile vet asap, before its too late, no point in waiting when she is in such a state. In the meantime make sure she is getting water - maybe add some critical care to the water to give her a boost. you can always drop this onto her mouth for her to lick off - or spray her with it, it wont do her any harm.
Egg binding can occur as a result of calcium deficiency or breeding when too young.

[Slizards]

Thank you both,
Its only been a couple of days thats shes been so lethargic .Unresponsive was probally a poor choice of words.Shes simply not as active as I have come to expect.And as a general rule of thumb something different means start looking for a possible problem. Having never dealt with egg binding and not finding a trully good description of the symptoms I turned to the forum . Right now shes not losing weight and very round the oppisite of skinny and dehydrated.I will do the critical care I should have thought of that.
I wont be waiting long to see a vet .Just making sure I was on the right track.
Thanks for the input

[Crested Lady]

Hi Slizards,

I actually had a female become egg bound not too long ago and she pulled out of it just fine. Here's what happened... it may give you a sense of what you can do for your girl.

After a week of waiting for my girl to drop her eggs (I can always tell within a few days of when they're going to lay... both by my record keeping and by palpatation), I took her to the vet.

Unfortunately, in my area, we don't have any vets that are willing to work with reptiles. I called every vet in town, even the emergency vet that charges a bazillion dollars just for a Band-Aid... noone would see her until I called Banfield (at PetsMart... that was opening THAT DAY).

After examination, I was the one who had to tell the doctor what was wrong. He had no clue what kind of gecko it was or if she was eggbound. (I showed him where the problem was and how to palpate the egg... I'm the one that gave him the diagnosis.) I asked him about several treatments. I asked whether an injection of oxytocin would work, whether he knew someone who could do the surgery, whether he could do SOMETHING. He left to call another vet and then told me that the only thing he could do was subcutaneous fluids now and surgery later. However, he said that surgery would most likely kill her, that she would die from the stress of it. Since surgery was about $250-350 and he said that she would probably die anyway, that option was out.

He took her in the back and gave her subcutaneous fluids (even though I could have easily done this at home. I'm used to giving vaccinations, microchippings, and subcutaneous fluids from my previous jobs. HOWEVER, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN PROPERLY TRAINED!!!) and then sent her home. I watched her like a crazy person for any signs of stress and/or pain... and aside from being a bit lethargic, she showed none. In the meantime, I upped her calcium dosage SOMEWHAT (do not overdose your animal) by giving her liquid calcium drops every now and again.

Animals become eggbound for several reasons:

1.) lack of calcium (which probably wasn't the case with mine, her calcium sacks looked great, but anything is possible)
2.) lack of proper egg-laying site. Check your lay box.
3.) The egg is just too darned big. (This appeared to be my girl's problem... however I'm still not sure.)


What you should do:

1.) Take your animal to the vet ASAP. Get liquid calcium drops. Lack of calcium, is usually the problem.
2.) Have the vet give her sub-cutaneous fluids. My vet did this to help "lubricate her insides so the egg can pass easier". Ever tried to swallow with a dry mouth? Hydrating should help that little sucker pop out if it's going to pop out.
3.) SEPARATE HER ASAP! If she's eggbound, she doesn't need the added stress of an enthusiastic male jumping on her all the time. Keep her by herself to start the recovery.
4.) Make sure she's eating and drinking. I had to syringe feed my girl and give her water this way. Make sure she stays hydrated. If you gently pull her skin and it stays "tented"... she needs more water.

The most important one:

5.) Make sure that she's actually eggbound. Some people get really nervous if the geckos don't drop their eggs on the day that expect them too. I've observed some girls digging around for days before laying their eggs. Be sure that you aren't coming to the "eggbound" conclusion prematurely. If you're not used to palpating, sometimes a large poo can feel almost like an egg. Make sure that she's pooping normally and that she doesn't just have a "really big one" in there. Make sure she stays hydrated b/c if it is a poo, being hydrated will help lessen the monster and get it OUT.

Good luck with your female! I hope everything turns out alright.

[Crested Lady]

Oops, forgot to add, I also gave her GENTLE belly massages 2x a day. (Recommended by the veterinarian)... not sure if it helped, but it sure didn't hurt. Good luck!

[zarozinia]

slizards - thats a relief that she is just a bit lethargic rather than unresponsive.
crestylady - what a great informative post, its always helpful to read of others experiences.

At present I have a cresty who has only produced one egg, last month - the previous month she experienced a calcium crash - which I think may be due to a change in diet aswell as my so called uv light not being uv after all. ( my ex fitted an aquarium light with no uv emitting from it.)
I got her through the calcium crash quickly by offering her a couple of drops of liquid calcium twice weekly - she picked up within one day of having the drops. I added a brand new reptisun uv tube immediately. All my cresties are well supplemented so I was amazed at the calcium crash. but I had tried offering my cresties small hoppers instead of crickets and all of them lost weight, within a month, so I think this had something to do with it. so now theyre all back on the old faithful crickets.
Anyway, Im assuming her producing only one egg was as a result of her calcium crash. She is not displaying any untowards symptoms at present and it has been a full month now. when she produced her first clutch, last year she only produced one too - I ended up taking her to the vets weekly at that point, just to make sure all was well. I know this does occassionally happen with cresties. As she is eating , drinking, pooing and behaving in her normal manner then im not too worried. Im just observing very closely.

My cresties are kept together for most of the year, Im thinking of seperating them for most of the year, next year though, so the females arent producing too many clutches. Im just getting another viv ready now for one of my males.