leopard gecko eye and mouth problems

[zed]

I have two leopard geckos, Fatty and Tiny, that I rescued from a friends kids. They had had them for a couple years and were not interested in having them any more so their dad asked if I would like to take them, or he was going to give them to the pet store. I, not knowing a thing about leopard geckos, figured that me taking care of them would be better than them going back to a pet store. Everything was going great at first I had gotten a 20 gal. tank a nice magnetic fake rock hide a feeding dish, water dish, half wood hide, and a heat lamp. The kids had a bark substrate in the tank and it seemed like it had not been changed for a while, so I changed it to the zoo med eco reptile terrarium carpet and everything was going well. After about a year the carpets seemed to be getting raggity so while I was in the pet store I saw the zoo med vita sand and decided to give it a try. Needless to say it wasn't very long before the smaller of the two, Tiny, started to shed and that's when things started to go down hill. Tiny shed most of its skin but not on its head nor its feet. I did not have a humid hide at this time which I do now. After a week and a half of no eating or drinking that I saw, I decided to help with the skin on Tiny's head. I soaked the loose skin with water and a qtip and peeled it off. Tiny's eyes were recessed and there was some exudate covering them. I was not able to get the skin off of Tiny's mouth, even after soaking it thoroughly. So I got online and found this site, joined, and started reading. From pictures that others had posted, Tiny definitely had eye infections and what looks like mouth rot. I quickly changed back to the terrarium carpet and ordered some terramycin for the eyes. Tiny's eyes are definitely looking better but the mouth rot is not. Tiny has actually started another shed too. As far as eating goes, Tiny had no interest in meal worms, crickets, nor superworms, its normal regimen, but I was able to get Tiny to eat some zoo med leopard gecko food(small laboratory raised flies). Occasionally getting Tiny to take a mealworm too, but not for the last couple of days.
So I have been reading about the mouth rot and I saw a post where the person talked about using betadine and one using chlorhexidine and one using baytril solution. I have betadine and chlorhexidine but have not used them because I don't want to hurt Tiny by poisoning but I want to clear up this mouth rot. Can anyone give me some direction? Sorry about being so long winded.

Zed

 

[acpart]

I don't know much about the chemicals you're thinking of using, though I imagine a small amount of betadine on a q-tip wouldn't hurt. You could also try a q-tip with hydrogen peroxide. Ideally, it would be good to take the gecko to a vet who could prescribe an appropriate antibiotic and dose. Sometimes the way to treat a lesion is with a systemic antibiotic rather than with a topical medicine for the lesion. I'm glad you switched back to carpet.

Aliza

 

[zed]

Aliza
Thanks for responding. I have located a herp vet finally. All the vets and hospitals that I have used in the past or knew of did not see reptiles. The chemicals that I talked of chlorhexidine- topical anti microbial rinse most often used in dentistry to help control gum disease , also used for a multitude of other skin disorders. Betadine- topical anti microbial used to scrub tissue prior to surgery. Baytril is one that I am not familiar with. Anyway, thanks again for responding and hopefully Tiny will do fine once I get him to the vet.
Zed