Baskden a warm den for reptile folk

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your African Fat-Tailed Gecko Vet-Prep Sheet

Reptile vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. This helps you prepare for a visit — it is not a way to treat at home. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Try the Is this normal? triage first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com
African Fat-Tailed Gecko — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one

  • Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My reptile vet
My african fat-tailed gecko
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Weak or bent limbs, tremors, or a soft/rubbery jaw (signs pointing to metabolic bone disease).
  • A rapidly thinning tail with weight loss — fat-tails are notably prone to “stick tail” (often cryptosporidiosis): chronic runny stool and wasting despite eating warrant a vet.
  • Stuck shed on the toes or tail tip (can cut off circulation) or over the eyes.
  • A firm, swollen belly with no droppings (possible impaction).
  • Any tissue protruding from the vent (prolapse).

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
  • Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.

⛔ Don't

  • Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
  • Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
  • Don’t handle it more than you must.

🎒 What to bring

  • A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
A warm basking surface of 90–94°F (32–34°C) in the warm season, from overhead heat (with a warm hide under it) so the gut gets the heat it needs to digest — not a dangerous belly heat-rock. Cool side 72–77°F (22–25°C). Night can fall to ~72–77°F in the warm season. Keepers who run an optional cooler “dry season” drop the basking area to ~79°F and nights to ~63–64°F — but keep any gecko under 6 months in warm-season conditions.
UVB & lighting
Low-level UVB is recommended (they’re nocturnal — Ferguson Zone 1): UVI ~1.0–2.0 at the basking spot. They can survive on a high-D3 calcium supplement without UVB, but they do best with it.
Humidity
Higher than a leopard gecko, and ideally cycled: a rainy/warm season around 70–80% by day, and a drier season around 50% by day. Whatever the season, give a humid hide (moist substrate, kept ~70%+) on the cool end at all times so they shed cleanly — retained shed on the toes and tail tip is the classic fat-tail problem.
Enclosure
Adult minimum 36×18×18 in (a 3×1.5 ft floor); bigger is better. They’re terrestrial, so floor space beats height. Provide three hides — a warm hide, a cool hide, and a humid hide.
Substrate
A naturalistic, well-drained semi-arid mix packed ≥4″ deep for burrowing — e.g. ~40% topsoil / 40% play sand / 20% excavator clay. Use paper towel for quarantine and for geckos under ~6 months. Avoid dusty calci-sand.
Diet
Strict insectivore — no fruit, veg, or meat. A varied, gut-loaded insect menu (crickets, dubia roaches, etc.): juveniles daily; adults every other day, or every few days for one whose tail is nicely plump. Feeders no larger than the space between the eyes; don’t leave loose insects in overnight.
Supplements
Dust insects with calcium at nearly every feeding (with D3 if UVB is minimal) and a multivitamin on a rotation. A plump tail = healthy fat stores; a thin, shrinking tail is a warning sign.

⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?