Retained eye caps? Gargoyle Gecko
 

Hi guys,

I've never owned a Garg before and can't find any photos of retained caps to compare. This little guy shed about 3 days ago and his eyes started looking like this last night. We've tried a gecko sauna and using a Qtip but they dont seem to be coming off. Just hoping someone has seen this before and can give a encouraging line of "those are just eye caps"

Thanks as always

Admittedly, I do not know a lot about gargoyle geckos, but I work for a veterinary ophthalmologist and therefore know a lot about eyes.

If money is of no concern to you, I would take him to the vet and have him evaluated, regardless of what's causing the issue. Everyone here can look at those pictures and tell you what they think is going on, but everyone may be wrong, and then that doesn't help you or your little guy out at all. There is NO substitute for an exam by a qualified veterinarian.

I imagine, however, that for whatever reason you are not quite on board with a vet visit just yet, which is why you are asking for advice here. I think I am in a unique position to give you some good advice concerning eye care in general, but please be aware I am a vet tech and I work for an ophthalmologist. I am not a vet, and am not attempting to diagnose your issue. Also, all of the following advise may help him, but it absolutely will not harm him, no matter what is wrong. If you have any questions or are confused about anything, please get in touch with me before trying to sort it out on your own.

Sometimes when reptiles have retained eye caps they will get a secondary infection under the scale which makes their eyes look cloudy like that. Also, as the eye cap is no longer viable tissue, it loses nutrients and dries out and can look cloudy on its own, even if no infection is present. You can also have a build up of white blood cells (pus) in the eye as the eye reacts to the foreign material (dead skin/eye cap) without bacterial overgrowth, which is not a true infection (doesn't need antibiotics). Those are the most common scenarios for cloudy eyes a few days post shed.

If you are dealing with retained eye caps, my opinion is that you don't have a lot to worry about, as they generally come off with the next shed provided your husbandry is good. However, as I said these guys can develop a secondary infection related to the eye caps which needs to be treated. Watch out for discharge from the eyes and anything that looks green in particular.

Whether you hare retained eye caps or not, I strongly recommend you stop trying to manually remove them. You can seriously injure their eyes ESPECIALLY if your little guy has something going on besides retained eye caps. Either way, rubbing an abrasive substance across the eye (and to a sensitive structure like an eye, q-tips are extremely abrasive) can and will cause corneal ulcers (the cornea is the clear part of your eye...the part that gets really irritated if you get an eyelash in your eye). If corneal ulcers become infected, the bacteria can destroy the corneal cells and the eye can rupture. This happens frequently with dogs and they often require surgery in order to save the eye, which is not an option for a little guy like yours. That's kinda a worst case scenario, but I have seen that exact scenario play out once with a leopard gecko whose owner was trying to clean discharge from his eye with a q-tip (that was me......waaayyy back when I first started keeping leos) and once with a boa with retained eye caps that ended up losing one eye and is severely visually impaired in the other due to enthusiastic q-tipping. It also hurts a lot if you don't put drops in to numb the eyes first. So please, no more q-tips.

If you want to help him out, a gentle flushing of his eyes with sterile eye wash (available over-the-counter at any human pharmacy) will make him feel better. This will help remove any debris and discharge that has accumulated because of the retained eye caps and may help to loosen and remove the eye caps as well. You can do this 2-3 times daily. I don't think this next suggestion is necessary, but if you simply MUST do something more than flushing, you can put some artificial tears in his eyes (not to be confused with eye drops, like Clear Eyes, etc which are full of needless medications). I like GenTeal Tear Gel a lot. A drop in each eye a couple times a day will help maintain moisture and comfort. If you cannot find this brand, please get in touch with me before putting anything else in there instead. But, to reiterate, this is more to make YOU feel better. As long as your humidity is appropriate, he should do just fine all by himself with his little tongue.

If his eyes get cloudier, if you notice discharge of any color but especially green, and if he seems lethargic or unwilling to eat, he needs to be seen by a vet ASAP so they can put him on antibiotics for his eyes. Also, if he doesn't get any worse but this does not clear up with his next shed, he also needs to be seen by a vet.

Now, let's talk for a minute about this not being retained eye caps. Possibilities include corneal ulcers, bacterial or fungal infection, some sort of immune-mediated condition (his own body is attacking his corneas for some reason), a few other rare conditions, or a combination of any of those things mentioned above. Again, I'm not diagnosing, but I will say that the chance that he has developed any of these uncommon conditions in BOTH eyes and it just so happens to be a few days after a shed is.....well, the chances are incredibly small.

Bottom line: The vet if possible. If not, the advice above is advice I give out every day to clients with animals with various eye issues. If he doesn't get better, then the vet is really a must.

Try a piece of scotch tape. Place it on the eye and peel off. I did it to an albino boa a couple years ago. All is well to the day.
Not sure it works well with your species. but in the boa community it has been suggested and it worked for my albino boa.
Vet is always best. Good luck

I know the Scotch tape thing is suggested by a lot of people. Again, I strongly recommend against manually trying to remove eye caps by any method other than gentle flushing with a balanced saline solution.

Tape is essentially plastic coated with glue. It's full of chemicals and the chemical components vary greatly from brand to brand and batch to batch. Also, the amount of "stickiness" can vary greatly. Putting a glue-covered piece of plastic over a sensitive structure like an eye could possibly do a lot of damage, either from whatever chemicals you are depositing there or from the actual process itself. I'm sure it works a lot of the time with no issues, but I wouldn't recommend this.

At the same time though,the eye cap is usually a bit hard and wont soak up much if any chemicals from the tape. Its also not left on for more then a couple seconds.
saline wont flush it off. I tried everything except the vet. The tape worked perfectly.
I do agree with using the vet if possible,for some its not.

I'm not concerned about a dead piece of skin being exposed to chemicals. I'm worried about the eye and the skin around the eye being exposed to chemicals and trauma. There is no reason to put tape on an animals eyes and expose them to the kind of trauma that could cause. If the eye caps NEED to come off (and most are just fine to wait until the next shed cycle), it should be done by a professional.

Also, think about all of the micrscopic crap that is stuck to tape (because again, it is glue) that you are then directly exposing what are otherwise healthy eyes to.

I guess in a tender animal you are right. I am not looking to argue by any means.I am just stating my experience and what others also have said worked for them.
I hope whatever they do,it doesnt harm the Gecko in any way.
But a good saline rinse afterwords would help remove some debris left from the tape,if any.
Scotch tape by any means is not a strong glue tape.Especially if you use the $ store brand.

I know, and I certainly wasn't trying to argue either. I know a lot of people have used this method successfully. I would bet 9 times out of 10 it works. But the 10th time is always the one I'm worried about.

A lot of people I don't think realize all of the implications of doing something like using tape on an eye. I mean, would you want someone to put tape on your eye to get an eyelash out? I wouldn't, for sure.