So.......It's been a very rough couple weeks.  My pink toe tarantula has died,  my female crested gecko has died,  my whites dumpy tree frog has died,  and gonzo, my male bearded dragon is sick.  I can not express how I feel about all this.  I do the very best I can to care for each of these animals.   They come second, only to my human family.  This is very disturbing to me and has me asking myself many questions.  Do other herpetolculturists experience clusture deaths such as this?  Do others in the business of taking their reptiles out for the purpose of educational presentations experience this?  Could anything have been done to prevent the deaths and one illness?  Is what I am doing wrong?

Most of the answers I don't know.  I do not know why the tarantula died.  I do not know why the frog died.  I THINK i know why the crested gecko died.  I do not know what happend to gonzo, but I THINK I am helping him appropriately.

What do I know?  I do know that my animals are fed healthy diets.  I do know that my animals cages are cleaned regularily.  I do know that I do not have so many parties booked that the animals are over stressed.  I do know that in several cases I have more than one of a given species so that each individual animal is not taken to every presentation.

What am I going to do about it?  I am not going to get another pink toe tarantula with out further research and investigation into possible causes of death.   I will keep all future frog species separately.  Although not proven as cause of death, my whites was housed with a red eye tree frog which is generally frowned upon in the reptile hobby.  The red eye remains alive and well.    I suspect a pathogen called entamoeba invadens.  I have been reading up on it and my gecko seemed to have presented similar symptoms.   You can read about it HERE  .  And apparently I may be guilty of transfering it from my turtle to the gecko as indicated by THIS ARTICLE .   As I'm writing this,  I am now suspecting that the same pathogen may be what is wrong with Gonzo.  I so wish we had a reptile vet in the area.  As I said, the animals do come second to my human family so it will probably be next week before I can make the trip to London to a reptile vet.  As I conclude this post I will see where and how fast I can get some flagyl online.  If I can.  It is a very treatable pathogen if caught early.  I will try to save Gonzo,  he's worth it.  I will have to make a point of caring for each animal individually and making sure my hands and equipment is cleaned in between.