Obesity Affects All

I'm starving my gecko.

Before you call animal control and get all animal rights crazy on me, let me explain.

Esther is fat. She is a really fat gecko. I mentioned this several months ago, I know, when the boyfriend and I decided to take her to the vet to get her a check up and he made us very aware of how fat she was. We started feeding her less, we exercised her a little more, but nothing really helped. She stayed ridiculously obese.

Then, about two weeks ago, Esther stopped eating completely. I wasn't too worried at first, because adult leopard geckos don't eat all that often. However, after about a week of her refusing food and her stomach becoming unusually bloated, I decided to take her to some reptile specialists to see if we could figure out what exactly was wrong with her.

This is where her obesity comes in.

Without giving anyone too many gruesome details of the reptile visit, it turns out that Esther is so fat that her kidneys have begun to fail. She hadn't been able to go to the bathroom and her little tummy had gotten so full that she was refusing food because she couldn't fit anything else inside of her. Who knew that geckos could have the same kind of organ problems as humans do? Also, it appears that there's a little unfertilized egg in her belly as well, which means she'll probably be popping out a little egg in the next week or so.

The reptile specialists instructed me to let Esther survive off her own fat for another week and then to begin feeding her the bare minimum so that she could slim down. She also has been exercised a lot more. Poor thing... if she doesn't start slimming down now, she's going to start having even more problems. But they told me that over-feeding her is better than under-feeding her, so I shouldn't feel too bad. They said they don't usually see many fat geckos like Esther because people usually don't take that good of care of their lizards, especially college students, which really makes me frustrated because students shouldn't get a pet if they're not going to be responsible about it.

So here's Esther as of today. She's still quite chubby but we're hoping that she'll begin losing weight soon so that her organs will go back to being normal. I can guarantee that she's not supposed to be this fat... but at least she can still pick her little belly up off the ground.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. 

Momentary Discomforts

Today was Jo and my first trip to the vet with Esther.

We were as scared as two new parents could be. She's been doing this weird thing with her left eye where she will sit with the right one open and the left one closed. This also wraps into our other theory that she is partially blind. She has always been very clumsy and it tends to affect her eating habits. For example, we feed her meal worms instead of crickets because she cannot catch a cricket even if her life depended on it. She might catch two out of five/six and then just give up because the other three/four were faster than the first two. As you can probably tell, this is not good for a gecko. If she had belonged to a family who decided to let her go in the wild, she would probably die after a very short amount of time.

The vet was very kind to us. He explained that since reptile eyes are so much different from dogs or cats, it's almost impossible to tell whether or not they are blind. He suggested that, if she's always been this clumsy, then it's possible she could have always been partially blind or just have sight problems since birth. He also explained that lizards have horrible depth perception, which is why she occasionally tries to take a suicide leap when I let her run around on my bed. He weighed her, he measured her, and he checked her eyes and mouth. She became quite peeved with him at one point and opened her mouth very wide, which indicates that she's pissed, and he soon put her back down after that. (She allowed me to pet her for about 5 seconds and then turned away, as if to say, "You're responsible for this as well.") After the short check up, the vet came to a conclusion.

My poor little gecko is suffering from obesity.

We left shortly after that; I was in a bad mood because Jo was doing all he could to torment me. "Megan spoils the little girl," he taunted. "'She looks hungry, Jo. We've got to feed her!'" And, of course, I'm trying to stay away from arguments, so it was all I could do not to explode and say something like, "You fed her too!"

Thankfully, though, that's all that's wrong with her. I'm grateful for this. If she had been impacted or had something horrible such as mouth rot, we would have left with an enormous bill. All we have to worry about it that she gets more exercise and less food. Silly thing.

Also, before I end this blog, I would like to note something silly that I just did. I have been searching for my Bible for the past 3 months, since I started living here. I've looked through boxes and drawers and bookcases but I couldn't seem to find it. 3 months. I was ready to buy a new one, a nice one (which I still might do). Then, today, Jo walked in the front door of my apartment, looked over at the top of my stationary rack, and went, "Uh... Megs..." There sat my Bible, in the one, most obvious place that I had never thought to look. Yay for brunette blond moments!

Little Leo

Today's blog is brought to you by a lucky leopard lizard named Esther!


Well, she's actually a leopard gecko BUT the point of today's blog is that I was looking through some old photos of my little queen when Jo and I first got her and she has really grown BIG. I thought I'd share with you the little creature that has captured my heart. And Jo's. He adores our little fatty. So, this next picture is one that we took when we first got her. I'm pretty sure she was about 3-4 months old when we bought her. And she is VERY skinny, as well.

It's been about 7-8 months since we've had her and, already, she's grown a ton. We got a good deal on her because of her tail, which you can see is an odd orange/pink color. This is because, when she was a baby, she lost it and this humongous monstrosity of a tail grew back. That goes for a lower price because, supposedly, it makes her less attractive. I think it gives her personality. Normally, when I show her to people, that's the first thing they notice. It is supposed to be large (because they store food in their tail) but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that large. Anyway, when I was taking a picture last night, I think she noticed. The expression on her face is something like "I'm so photogenic that I will break your camera."

This is also a pretty rare moment captured. She doesn't come out in the daytime often (because she's nocturnal) so, when I came in to see her drinking from her water bowl (something I've only seen once) I had to take a picture of it. I have seen her lick things; she'll lick my finger sometimes when I pick her up and she also licks the glass of her tank after we have just cleaned it. (Mmm... glass cleaner products that can kill you.)

Yes, this little queen has captured my heart. And, yes, we did name her for Queen Esther in the Bible and she has turned into quite a picky/stubborn little queen. And a fatty. I'm looking forward to see how she looks next January, after she has officially been a year old. Geckos live up to between 15-20 years and I'm hoping to keep her for quite a long time. She probably wont live as long as she might with a house mate but, since she is my first major reptile pet (I'm allergic to cats, dogs, rabbits, ect.), I started basic.

If you have any questions about her (or leos in general), feel free to post and I will gladly answer them.

And now on to the prompt!!

Prompt#5: The Ten Commandments are discovered in an unopened chamber in Machu Picchu.

The day came and no one was prepared for it.

Historians and scientists lucky enough to be needed in the field study stared in horror, examined in wonder, and excitedly tried to date the stones.

Christians turned their eyes to the heavens, shouting, “Why?”

Atheists laughed.

Muslims were satisfied.

Buddhists didn’t care.

Israel was baffled.

The U.S. was baffled.

Peru was really baffled.

And all waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until, over the news, the reporter announced that the Ten Commandments were authentic. All the Christians died of sudden, bewildering heart attacks. And everyone else ran around, not knowing what to think.

Some called it rapture.

Others called it insanity.

Some came to faith.

Others ran from it.

Up at the pearly gates, Jesus and God watched as the people began to pour in, staring at them in amazement. And, as Saint Peter came forth to record each name into the Book of Life, God turned his gaze over the people…quieting their questions about what had taken place on Earth…

And then, with two thumbs up, he shouted, “Gotcha!” and high-fived Jesus.