[Amaya]

Hello,
thanks for being here, sorry for my bad english, english isnt my mothertounge but i try my best.

I need help with my Geckos.
Since 5 days we bought Geckos. The Seller told us the Group are 3 Females and all healthy.

we have seen an ad where a nice lady sells 3 females plus terrarium and accessories,
because she moves and can not take the little ones with her. The 3 would be 3 years old and would have come from the breeder to her.
Now we were there and wanted to take the 3.
we were told on the spot this are 2 females and 1 male. The son who kept these geckos, told us the 3 lived there for 9 months and now he has 8 pups with the removal of the "own breeding" (Of the 3 we have acquired).

Now the mother told us that the 3 had been sitting in a much too small terra in a smoke-filled flat and she had to save them. So we know nothing about there past.

we sat in the car and I had the 3 in 3 boxes on my lap and watched the 3.
The male kept turning in circles and falling and so on. It seemed strange to us, but we did not know anything about an Enigma syndrome, so we thought it would be the stress.
Once home, we put the 3 back together in their familiar Terra and the little man (We call him Tweak) ran as if he had swell,
I felt Tweaks behave just strange and I started to Google and eventually came across the Enigma syndrome and first notify the former owner, since she had 8 babies of him probably.
Now we have you fed first in the new home. the girls chase quite understandable and Tweak just watched.
So we then fed him tweezers, he grabs now and then, but once he has caught a leg or something similar, he manages to capture the animal without tweezers even at close range.
We left the 3 alone for the time being and today we moved the terrarium because it was so chaotic and we screwed in a stronger lamp
and a 2nd wetbox. He barely got out of his old wetbox today and also had seizures, probably because of the rearranging. Today it looked really hard & we are sorry.

Now my 1000 questions about Tweak:
1. Does he have pain during seizures?
2. How can we help him effectively?
3. Should we drive to the Vet or do we make it worse then?
4. What is the situation with Engima Syndrome animals at this stage, are they still mating? (In terms of he is simply too stupid by his defect?
Sorry for those words but I do not know how to put it another way.)
5. When should you put the animal to sleep?
6. Should we separate the 3 then or does it make it worse for him? (For the girls it would be better if he is still ready to mate)
7. How much does he suffer?
8. How do you deal with such animals?
9. Can he die from these attacks?
10. What might happen to us in the future?

Unfortunately, our financial resources are pretty exhausted this month as we did not expect to get 1 "sick" animal
but to give back to these people we do not want the 3 anymore, we want to do everything in our power to allow Tweak to have a nice life.

We are a total beginner in this field and it is quite a shock for us, I hope someone can help us, most German forums can hardly say anything to us

Thanks a lot for help

 

[Azastral]

This site explains enigma syndrome quite well:
Enigma Syndrome in Leopard Geckos: An Autosomal Dominant Disorder - Gecko Time - Gecko Time


The biggest thing to be aware of is that enigma syndrome can be at different levels and it can be triggered by stress (so moving and stuff is pretty difficult and its not surprising you are seeing some of the worst symptoms). In a way, its closest approximation to a human condition would be down's syndrome. A wide range of how bad it can be, cognitive malfunction (effectively, stupid... apologies if that upsets anyone, buts its the easiest/clearest way of saying it) and severe cases having fits and seizures.



Its completely down to judgement if its too severe and putting it to sleep will be kinder. I would give it a week or two, allow it to settle in.
You may find without all the stress of moving and a new home, he is mostly ok. If there are still fits/seizures even when settled, i personally would look at putting it down.


I would also strongly, strongly recommend you never allow him to breed. Separate him from the females (not just to prevent breeding, but in case its not enigma and its something else thats causing it).


Its good you told the previous owner, the chances are that they will also have it, the enigma "gene" seems to be a dominant trait rather than recessive, so its very readily passed onto offspring.
Any leo with enigma should not be used to breed, its something that needs to be prevented from staying part of the gene pool.

 

[Amaya]

Thanks first for your answer, I'll take a look at the link. We do not want to breed with him anymore. That would be irresponsible. Tomorrow we get a new terrarium and then the girls come away from him, so that he can stay in his usual environment. He is now getting better. He has just balance problems but that's ok. I currently see no reason why I should euthanize him and I / we will fight until the end with him. We have already noticed that he is a little stupider than the others. Sadly, we have only had the geckos for a few days and are now trying to do everything according to species. The previous owners unfortunately only lied to us from the beginning so they get rid of Tweak. The previous owners have little idea and have done a lot wrong, it takes unfortunately until we get everything right because we do not have the big financial resources. But we are confident that it works.

 

[Debbie1962]

You are doing right by separating him from the girls. And I agree that there is no need to euthanise him if the symptoms are mild and he has a good quality of life.