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Advise Please?? Leo with bad eyes...

Heart4Dragonz

Heart4Dragonz

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I recently rescued a Leopard Gecko with 2 bad eyes..I have eye drops to treat her eyes, and she'll open them up for a short period of time after I treat them, but then they'll close again until the next treatment. Only real problem is that I'm worried about how much she's eating or really not eating...
I'm trying to get her pumped back up with calcium, and I'm gutloading crickets, I'm not dusting them because I handle them so much before she finally finds them, that most the dust is gone by the time she gets it. I am injecting them with a small amount for coral calcium however.
She's only eating 2 crickets a day right now, which has me a bit worried. Does anyone have ANY suggestions on how I can get her more interested in her food? Her eyes are so badly infected that she can't see what she's eating. I tear all the legs off the crickets so she can get them, but she then has a hard time finding them since they can't really move and she can't really sense them. I've been using tweezers to rub on the cage near the crickets to try and help her find them, but she's still having trouble..
This poor Leo has lost all but one of her finger tips, and now has this horrible infection in both her eyes, but she's still as sweet as can be.

Thanks for the words of wisdom, and your help!
-Amanda
 
Hi Amanda,
Two crickets a day is still something. You could try tong feeding her.
Is there hope her eyes will get better?
Her appetite may get better as her eye sight does. I wish you the best of luck with her.
 
I've been trying to get her with Tweezers, i don't have tongs on hand :(
Her eyes actually do see to be getting better, when I treated them after work today she kept them oped for a good while, and they don't seem as cloudy, she's also in a shed apparently, so I'm hoping that may help... I'm really trying to get her eyes healed up so she CAN see to eat...I've only had her since saturday night, and she seems to be doing okay, so I'm hopeful, she's a fighter! :)
Thanks !
 
What kind of eye drops are you using? I have the same problem babysitting a sick leo for this lady I know and his eyes are terrible and do not seem to be getting better.
 
They're from a vet, I'll get the name off the bottle when i get home later today. Her eyes looked really good after she shed, but she closed them again a couple of hours later and now it looks like she has another shed stuck on them....idk what's going on...:confused:
I got some skin out of them after much coaxing with a damp q-tip last night, and she's keeping it slightly cracked open, but not muuch. :shrug01:She did eat 2 juicey crickets lastnight after 45minutes of me dancing legless crickets around her with tweezers!:thumbsup:
 
You can ask the vet you got the drops from if it's okay to use artificial tears ointment (you can get it OTC, just ask a pharmacist) sometimes this helps moisten the eye enough to remove the stuck shed...if that's what it is, anyway.

Leopard gecko eye stuff is really hard to treat, and it's a long road to recovery, so be patient.

Also, you can try mealworms, or waxworms just for some variety. I see you are here in S. Florida as am I, so getting hold of roaches is next to impossible. If you're brave, you could even try a pinkie mouse...not as a staple, of course. At least it's something though. Good luck!
 
The drops are NeoPolymyxin, I would ask, but he's not a real reptile vet so he probably wouldn't know, the drops and constant treatment do seem to be helping though.
Supposedly there's a guy in Tampa who does roach colonies, but I don't think I would try them for her, just cuz I don't like to handle roaches, and she's never had them. She won't even try the silkworms I offer her cuz she's not familiar with them and can't see what they are... :-[ And I don't think she's big enough for a pinky...
She's also got a cyst under her left eye, I'm not sure what it's from...
P3110365.jpg

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I'll try to get some pictures of her with her eyes Open when I treat them tonight..
 
At least her tail is fat. That's good.
You can always flush her eyes with sterile saline solution (preservative free). That's all I can use for my little one because the eye ointment I was given seems to be making them worse.

Good luck though. I'm sure she'll pull through it. =]
 
I'm running low on my drops, so I may give the saline solution a try, a breeder I know down here also told me I should use it. She hasn't been wanting to eat the last 2nights, but she's having some luck getting her right eye open. *crosses fingers*
 
I don't know if the "infection" in your gecko is the same, but I rescued a baby leo recently who had really bad stuck shed in her eye so she was keeping it closed just like yours. I've been rescuing leos for over 4 years now, so I felt very comfortable trying to coax the stuck shed out of her eye. I got most of it out and applied terramycin to the bad eye twice a day for 7 days (you can get terramycin from a vet, its not that pricey) and after the terramycin I applied saline drops (The Flukers Repta Rinse Reptile Eye Rinse, you can get it and the terramycin from lllreptile.com) and after doing that for a week she looked a lot better. I don't think she was eating very well during that period, but now she is doing really well, she has grown huge and her eyes seem to be doing fine, but I'm still checking on them every few days.
So don't give up hope yet on your gecko, because mine looked like that when I first got her. Just keep trying and maybe use different meds if the ones you got from your vet aren't working.
Also, soaking my leo helped a LOT when I was trying to get the shed out of her eye.
GOOD LUCK!!
 
Hey, thanks for the suggestions and encouragement everyone! She's starting to look a loooot better, she's up to a new record of 5 legless crickets in one night, and starting to chase down her food on her own! She still seems to have a little trouble seeing well, so her aim is a little off, but she's getting better with each night!
She can open her eyes now, and I've knocked her treatment down to 2times a day just water and saline solution, she's looking great and her tail is getting fatter every day! I'm pretty sure she's getting ready to shed again soon, so we'll see how it goes, and I'll post a final picture then :)

Thanks Again
 
Glad to hear some good news! I just wanted to add that my gecko does still tend to miss crickets and mealworms when she strikes them, but she doesnt give up and eventually catches them. Now she's a little fatty! Also, make sure you soak your girl before she sheds, it will really help :)
 
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