Mouth injury treatment??

[szhanng97]

Hello all!

I'm new to this forum page and just recently got a leopard gecko!!

Yesterday, my leopard gecko was shedding and by the time I arrived home, he was all shed.

HOWEVER, apparently the shed on his snoot was fairy hard to remove and he was constantly rubbing it until his flesh was visible.

How can I use medication to help him treat it?

I heard using a diluted betadine solution to kill germs is effective, but if it is on his mouth, he would probably lick it! Is it harmful to him if it is diluted? And what is the process?

I also heard about using original neosporin, but he would probably lick that off too....

Please help.... Thank you in advance!

 

[acpart]

If you just leave it alone (clean it with a q-tip and warm water if it looks dirty) it will heal. Watch him in the future to make sure that there is no crusty or inflamed area after it has time to heal. If you do see crusty or inflamed areas and it doesn't respond to being gently washed, you will need to take him to the vet to get an antibiotic. If he's on a substrate with particles (like sand or coco fiber) it would be a good idea to remove him and put him on paper towel or something non particle so he doesn't further abrade his mouth.

Aliza

 

[szhanng97]

Thanks for the fast reply! Approximately how long would it take to heal?
Because of the injury, he's unable to strike at a cricket! It's like as if he doesn't want to strike too hard, but he needs to in order to eat.
He hasn't eaten for 3 days already!

 

[PoppyDear]

My gecko had a small lip sore (My very first thread if you are interested, Aliza also helped me there) and it took approximately 2 weeks to close and heal and 3-4 more weeks (Maybe longer) for the scar to finally disappear.

It will depend on the severity of the injury, but with reptiles, they usually take longer. With each shed you will see improvement.

How old is your gecko? 3 days is a miniscule amount, they can go months without food. Though it may be of more concern that he eats if he is young or thin. Try layering a few paper towels to feed crickets on, as a cushion. You can also slow the crickets down via fridge or amputation. Give it a few days first however, 3 days is not a big deal right away. Also trying worms might bring success. If all else fails there are liquid diets and you can assist feed but I highly doubt that will ever be necessary.

Good luck!

 

[szhanng97]

He's about 5 months old, fairly young. And he doesn't eat worms .. I leave it in the bowl for him to eat whenever he is hungry. But it's usually untouched.

 

[PoppyDear]

Not all geckos take to bowl feeding, how about trying tong feeding, or drop them in front of your gecko? Maybe some roaches or hornworms, etc. would be good to bring variety to the diet.

3 days shouldn't be a huge issue. Give it a few day for the wound to heal/stablize a bit first. Crossing fingers!

 

[szhanng97]

He eats out of the bowl. Well, at least used to. I put 20 worms in there and not a single one was touched. I tired tong feeding roaches and crickets, hand feeding, close dropping, far dropping, literally everything. He ate a small roach. But that's it.

I'm just worried. He was also suddenly very lathargic for a day or so right before his shed. Then he just stopped eating.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hi ~

Please share these things:

• Photo of the injury. Is it healing well?
• Picture of enclosure
• Size of enclosure
• Substrate
• Warm end and cool end ground temps of enclosure as measured by the probe of a digital thermometer
• How you heat it? If you use a heat mat, what are the dimensions?
• If you need to use any topical, I'd not use original neosporin. He'd probably lick silvadene (silver sulfadiazine) cream too.
• Keeping the injury clean and dry is your best bet.