Warning: contains graphic gecko dissection photos. N. levis

[Thyla]

I recently had another Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko die on me so I was wondering if maybe there's something wrong with how I'm keeping them. The previous one I took to Sandy the vet in ACT but died a few days after treatment. This one (from a different line) surprised me with it's death as it's only 5 months 19 days old . It's been 17 days since the last gecko died on me but that one looked malnourished and slowly deteriorated over time. This one is one of mine and it was doing better than it's sibling so it's a bit of a shock to find it dead. Anyhow I decided to dissect him/her to see if someone else with more experience may be able to shed some light as to why it died?
I've heard that eye's sunken into the head indicated dehydration?
By the way I didn't take a photo of the ventral side with the skin on. It looked normal apart from a dark colour in middle part which looked a little odd.
Here are the photos.








As hard as it was to do this on your own pet, I hope it's enough to be worth the time as I don't really know what I'm looking for.


And finally one to remember him (I think) by, a cute hatchling photo...

 

[NickGeee]

Are those big white balls his testes?
Did you figure out what killed him?
Very sorry for your loss

 

[Thyla]

Are those big white balls his testes?
Did you figure out what killed him?
Very sorry for your loss

Towards the rear the 2 big white things I think are fat deposits (correct me if I'm wrong).
No don't really know why he decided to die on me. I'm thinking many cold winter nights or maybe lack of moisture because I checked the temps and it was just above normal for hot end but room temp end has been getting very low recently, maybe 2celcius at night. But you would think he is able to move to the hot end so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Thyla]

Sry mods this was suppose to go on the other post.

Ps: someone suggested a blood clot. I agree there is dense dark blood in the centre but couldn't this have occurred after death?

 

[Stevo2]

Sandy could have helped with the necropsy.

 

[saintanger]

sorry for your loss, poor little fellow.

your best off getting an autopsy to find out what was wrong with him.

 

[mummabear]

Maybe you could share how you have them set up, including temps, food, water etc and we can see if it may have been husbandry.

 

[Thyla]

Maybe you could share how you have them set up, including temps, food, water etc and we can see if it may have been husbandry.

20 or 30 litre sistema tubs with hot end at around 33 but recently was at 36 because it was so cold here. Feed crickets every 2nd or 3rd day and vitamins 1st feed, calcium 2nd feed and nothing 3rd rotation. Every now and then I feed mealworms and try to pick freshly molted ones. I spray their hides a few times a week and more when shedding. Each tub has about 1/3 area ventilation about the hot end and a hide at both the hot and cold end. Red desert sand for substrate. Anything else I miss?

 

[mummabear]

Do you spray the actual geckos and the sides of the tub so they can drink? Having it up so hot at one end i would have sprayed them at least every second day. I would suggest getting a thermostat for your heat source and not letting it get above 32-33 degrees. Do they have a permanently damp hide in the cool end? The one that recently died has a quite skinny tail and some unshed skin on it's knee. This would be an indication that something was not quite right with the animal prior to it's death. I'm no vet so i can't tell from the pictures if it was husbandry, disease or something else.

 

[Thyla]

Sandy could have helped with the necropsy.

My last visit to Sandy cost me 80 odd dollars I just cannot afford to be making it a regular thing at the moment. Blood clot seen in photo 4 seems like a good explanation.

Do you spray the actual geckos and the sides of the tub so they can drink? Having it up so hot at one end i would have sprayed them at least every second day. I would suggest getting a thermostat for your heat source and not letting it get above 32-33 degrees. Do they have a permanently damp hide in the cool end? The one that recently died has a quite skinny tail and some unshed skin on it's knee. This would be an indication that something was not quite right with the animal prior to it's death. I'm no vet so i can't tell from the pictures if it was husbandry, disease or something else.

My spraying varies a lot. I normally spray the sand and wall where the hide sits and if the gecko is there at the time then he/she gets wet. If I think they need extra moisture, I will spray the inside of the hide too.
I have 3 different thermostats (one duel), but I have 8 tubs so it's 2 tubs per thermostat and with different brand heat mats, the temperature at the hot end varies up to 5celcius. I do have an infer red thermometer that i use to get them as close to 33 as i can.

Permanently damp no. However I do spray 2-3 times a week. They are desert species so I thought they could tolerate the dry in between these times?
When a gecko is shedding I give it more moisture and try to leave it alone for a few days adding moisture at night. If they haven't completed their shed by then I handle them and try to manually take the skin off. My fat fingers struggle to do this around their small toes and I will often leave some skin on and usually it comes free by itself otherwise its back to normal by the next shed.

Yeah he wasn't in the best of shape but remember these photos were taken up to 12 hours after death so the tail will look a little smaller. I think the issue is in either the temperature, could be high heat (36 celcius), also the night time temps are consistently low now and it got down to -5 the other night, or the moisture levels or most likely a combination of these factors.

 

[mummabear]

They are a desert creature but the smoothies are burrowing creatures. So they spend a lot of time down damp humid burrows. This will aid in shedding and also help prevent dehydration. It should be provided 2-3 inches of damp sand up the cool end. To be honest i actually don't have deep sand but have one hide moist all the time and spray often. I always get my geckos out and spray the actually animal. I do it every second day in summer and twice a week in winter.

 

[LB_Reptiles]

have you checked his repository system?

 

[Thyla]

That dark green colour seen in photo 6 I don't know if that's on the right lung (seen bottom of photo) or it's part of the digestive track. I didn't take any other photos than these. You could be right.