Follicular Stasis...Help!!

ChrisnLisa

ChrisnLisa

Avid Member
So our little veiled girl Munchkin has been diagnosed with follicular stasis, or pre-ovulatory stasis. Munchkin is a veiled and is 1 year 9 months old. Shewas mated at the very end of Nov. and has yet to lay eggs. This would be her second clutch. Yesterday her eyes started to look sunken in so I made an appointment and she saw a vet today. She always has access to a laying bin and has been isolated for the past 2 weeks or so. She is still eating on and off but has not become restless or shown any interest in her laying site. Well today the vet says she has follicular stasis. Her ovaries are FILLED with eggs that never developed or calcified. We are to give her oral injections of calcium twice a day and hope she reabsorbs all of this material inside of her. This would be her second clutch. Her first was 17 eggs and layed on day 28 or 29...can't remember exactly. Possible endings to this situation are surgery,or death if she does not reabsorb. Do any of you have experience with this condition or have any reading material on it?? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. We are so worried about our little girl :(

DSC_1636.jpg
 
Wow. That is rough. I hope that she gets better and I am sorry that you have to go through this. Good luck!
 
You said...."Her first was 17 eggs and layed on day 28 or 29"...of which month??
Are the "follicles" round or oval?
 
I am sorry to hear the news guys! I do not have experience with this but wish you much luck!

PS... the pick is neat, just wish it were taken under better circumstances
 
17 eggs layed on July 2nd. I'm not sure what shape they are...I'm not able to tell from the x-ray. Does the difference in follicle shape give two different scenarios in outcome?
 
Oval is eggs and round is follicles.
Usually follicular stasis is dealt with by surgery. If its eggs then if the timing is right vasetocin (sp) or oxytocin can work...if not then it might require surgery.
 
Thanks, most of the reading I have been finding has been on iguanas. I document her weight so the vet said to keep doing that as well as give her the calcium and keep an eye on her for improvements or decline in behavior. he said another x-ray won't really show us much but weight loss may prove reabsorbtion.
 
Strange - the timing isn't TOO far off. IF she mated, but egg development was slowed for some reason (temps?), now wouldnt' be and unreasonable time for her to be laying eggs.

My one female was stressed when she mated last year. The night temps got a bit too cold, and she didnt' lay her eggs for almost two months after mating.

You could try placing her into a warm, egg laying cage (I've used a trash bin filled with nestign soil). Partially dig a tunnel, and place her into it. It often works when they're tired or weak, and need to lay eggs but can't seem to muster the energy to get up and dig.
 
How long are they giving her to reabsorb?-that poor girl is full of eggs. My only dealing with this did not result in a good outome in a 9 month old Nosy girl. I hope it works out for you.
 
Well temps have been a little bit lower as of lately. They said to keep an eye on her for a few days, I'm keeping weights too. From there we may have to discuss surgery. What is odd is he said they are definitely not eggs as they are not calcified in the x-rays, must still be follicles. But from the x-ray they look oval to me.

Julirs-what was the story with your Nosy? What did she develop, howwas it developed, and my guess is death? :(
 
I'm sorry to hear about the girl! :( We lost four female leopard geckos last season from follicular stasis. Did they try giving her hormone injections? I hope you can save her. Surgury is probably what will most likely happen since the eggs aren't calcified. The injections might not work bc the eggs aren't calcified. I will keep her in my prayers.
 
Keep in mind, sometimes, when conditions are not optimal (and that doesn't mean she's unhealthy herself! Could be some illness, or some other stressor), the eggs might not fully calcify.

Just because they're not calicfied well doesn't mean they're not eggs - they could be under calcified eggs. The oval shape makes them seem to be kinda un-follicle-like, in my opinion.

IF she seems like she should be laying, try warming up her laying box and then put her in.
 
Update

Just wanted to update everyone on Munchkin. We have been without internet for a few weeks and I've been dying to share the good news. Well after being told by the first vet that she has follicular stasis we started doing a lot of reading. I felt after reading and looking at the x-rays over and over and thinking about what Eric said we thought this doctor may be incorrect. We made an appointment with our regular vet to give us a second opinion and take a look at the x-rays. Luckily she was able to squeeze us in this time. She said she wasn't sure if it was follicular stasis or not because it is hard to tell if they are eggs or not since chameleon eggs don't calcify like a lot of other reptiles, making them harder to read on an x-ray. She agreed we should keep up the calcium and we decided to try a dose of oxytocin. By the time we got home it was after her bedtime and the poor girl fell asleep in her sandbox. After a full 24 hours with no digging or sign of eggs I called the doc again.

She said I must bring her in for surgery to remove her entire reproductive system. I told her I was not comfortable yet and only wanted to do so as a last resort. She was still drinking a lot and had a normal grip. I mentioned to the doctor my idea that maybe she did not lay because she didn't receive the oxytocin until 5pm and maybe she needed a full day of light for this to be successful. She insisted that if she was going to lay it would have happened daytime or not and that she needed surgery. I also mentioned that it appeared the eggs were hardening some (from what i could feel) and that they felt fuller. I asked her for another dose but she said that if it did not work the first time that it very rarely ever works on the second try and that we might cause an egg to rupture by doing so. I am pretty persistent so she agreed and we set up a time to come in 4 days later...Sat.the 24th at 11 am. We brought her in and the doc gave her another dose of oxytocin. It takes us about 1.5 hours to get home, and by the time we arrived she had laid 38 eggs!!! Her last clutch was only 17 so we were very surprised. There was only 1 obviously bad egg, it was soft and squishy and the rest look good. Munchkin is doing fantastic and is back to being her crabby self.

Thanks to those of you that sent out kind words and thoughts for our little one.

Lisa
 
This is why I don't get female animals anymore.. goodjob sticking with your gut.
 
Good - makes me feel much better - I was worrying about her(and you guys). She wouldnt' happen to be one of the girls I hatched out, would she?
 
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