Skin issues on my female Leo - please help

Hi all - been awhile since I have been here on the forums - but that is a good thing as when I first got my Leo's years ago - this forum and community taught me so much that I had what I needed education wise for these 7? years.

Tonight I noticed 2 skin issues with my female and am asking for your help. They are not deep but they are concerning to me. My first instinct was to dab some bacitracin on the 2 spots but decided better to reach out for help here first.

She has never had any issues shedding that I have caught, her humid hide is almost never dry and if it does get dry - only last a day or so before fixed (this is going to make me be more vigilant on that note), she lives with a super male (she is the dominate in the tank), so I dont believe he has anything to do with this.

I just have never experienced this so looking to you all for help please?

In the pics - you can see one spot at the top left of her head and the other on her back just in front of her back right leg.

FYI - As of posting this I am putting new moss into the humid hide (I just replaced it 2 weeks ago) - to avoid any (further?) infection

As of now and after researching what I can - I have now added bacitracin to the 2 spots

I know you said that she lives with a male and she's the dominant one, but these marks look like bite/scratch marks and it is the beginning of the mating season. I wouldn't be surprised if the male is trying to mate with her and has grabbed her with his teeth. If you aren't planning to breed, I recommend that you separate them. If you are planning to breed, keep a careful eye on them and they may need some temporary separation if he gets too aggressive.

Aliza

acpart said:

I know you said that she lives with a male and she's the dominant one, but these marks look like bite/scratch marks and it is the beginning of the mating season. I wouldn't be surprised if the male is trying to mate with her and has grabbed her with his teeth. If you aren't planning to breed, I recommend that you separate them. If you are planning to breed, keep a careful eye on them and they may need some temporary separation if he gets too aggressive.

Aliza

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Thank you so much for replying!

I thought about that but:

1. They have been together for 8 years and this has never happened
2. Does not look like bites what so ever - it looks like receding skin
3. Dont know if this matters but it is specifically in the "black spots" of her skin?

That does change the picture a bit. I have found that sometimes there's sort of a flaky look to the skin in the very early stages of shedding. It would be interesting to see how those spots look after she sheds again.

Aliza

acpart said:

That does change the picture a bit. I have found that sometimes there's sort of a flaky look to the skin in the very early stages of shedding. It would be interesting to see how those spots look after she sheds again.

Aliza

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Thank you for your input! Much appreciated.

Its not flaky at all - it is a wound down below her main layer of skin. You can see pink there - its a receded wound - I just dont know how that would happen. She has never had any issues like this.

I have been applying ointment and you can tell it is healing now. At this point - I just want to figure out what happened so that I can avoid this in the future.

She could have had a bad shed and injured herself trying to get the skin off, or, as mentioned, the male could have grabbed her and caused the injury. I think you're doing the right thing as far as treating it. In case it was a bad shed, just make sure to keep the humid hide moist in the future.

Just wanted to post a follow up.

I reapplied the bacitracin tonight and no further skin issues have come up and the 2 original are almost completely healed.

: )