Wiggles passed about a month ago.
He'd been having trouble shedding for a few months, even with upped humidity, supplements (topical and vitamin) provided by his vet, and manual help and it was clear by his behavior and appetite that his body was slowing down. He was having trouble moving around, which told us he probably had developed some pretty bad arthritis in his legs and possibly spine, all of which were crooked and bent due to MBD, though his spine did eventually straighten out. His vet checked him for infections, we did poop and blood cultures to check for those and for parasites (all came back clear), we did an some imaging to make sure he wasn't impacted with anything (he wasn't), and he just was slowing down. Given how poor his health was when I got him, he wasn't expected to live even 5 more years let alone the nearly 10 he got, and his vet fully expected him to not make it anywhere close to the average lifespan for a Leopard Gecko regardless of care because his body had been so badly, badly damaged by his first owners nearly starving him to death over the course of a couple of years. When he didn't come out for a feeding, I gave it another couple of days because sometimes he's in shed or just not hungry and stays in the burrows he'd dug. After two days and no signs of him, I went digging and found he'd passed, likely asleep as he was curled up, in one of his burrows. I've left him there in the burrow under the log because I fully intend to keep his skull once it's been cleaned by time and the other critters in his bioactive enclosure. His enclosure is now a garden for sweet basil, Thai basil, rosemary, and green onions; once his skull is clean, the big cork bark will be removed so I can put more plants in there.
Forgot to reblog this over here.
















