How to get my leo to open his eye for meds?

One of my leos has a recurrent problem where he gets bumps under his eye (mostly his left one, has had it on the right once). The vets do not know the cause but when needed have treated it with cleaning it out and letting it heal. Once he was on antibiotics by needle but it still comes back. This time was the first time he's had an issue with his eye as well, his upper lid area was swollen and his eye was halfway closed, then by the next day completely closed. He went to the vet yesterday and they cleaned some gunk from his eye that was coming down from his upper eyelid and lanced and cleaned the usual bump. They gave me antibiotic eye drops to use in his eye 3x/day. He has been keeping his eye shut (at the vets too, this wasn't something that developed later) and I'm having a hell of time getting him to open that eye to put the drops in, so I've been trying to put the drops on his lid area and around it in hopes some will go in. We've tried to gently pull in the top area to see if he'll open but I don't want to hurt him or injure the area so we haven't been successful. Any tips on how to get him to open his eye for the drops? I may try a warm compress tonight to see if that does anything. Thanks!

The warm compress may work. Also, you can try dipping your (clean) finger in some water and then putting a drop on the gecko's eye. Sometimes that makes them open the eye.

Aliza

acpart said:

The warm compress may work. Also, you can try dipping your (clean) finger in some water and then putting a drop on the gecko's eye. Sometimes that makes them open the eye.

Aliza

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Thanks.

I tried a warm compress unsuccessfully last night but will try again tonight. The drops of water don't work, unfortunately. He does a blinking motion but his eye stays closed. Hopefully I can get in touch with the vet today. I appreciate the tips!

Thank you both for your input on this. I talked to one of his previous vets and we put him on oral Baytril (antibiotic) as she thought the eyedrops weren't enough (she did tell me even with a closed eye a bit will seep in so I kept doing the drops even on the closed eye and it helped get in the nearby bump i think anyway). She had me update his terrarium setup as he was possibly stressed and not warm enough, so he (and my other geckos, these guys are all in separate enclosures as they don't get along haha) has a nice new 75w light and a thermometer so his setup is exactly what she recommended to keep him happy. It gets to 85 to 90ish in his cage when the light is on (10 hrs per day per vet for now to get him healthy). He started to do well, eye started to open and was mostly open (still bumpy underneath but that's not new) but then a couple days ago started to close up that eye again. No swelling on his eye anymore so it doesn't look to be closing because of that so I'm not sure what's going on. When we get him out of the cage for meds (out of Baytril as of yesterday but did the eye drop) his eye still opens about halfway or 75% of the way which is better than when we first brought him back from the vet, but I don't like this turn of events. I called and booked him a follow up, I have to wait until the 27th due to the holiday, any recommendation on anything else I can do in the meantime? I think maybe handling him every day for meds is stressing him more?

Meds will stress them out a little, but unfortunately, it is necessary to keep his medical issues from getting worse. Just try to minimize disturbances except when necessary for his medication.

One thing to be careful about with lights is that they dry out the air. Make sure you are providing him with a humid hide (in addition to the normal dry hide) and access to fresh water so he can stay hydrated.

This is one of my favorite leopard gecko care sheets because it shows the best starter setup, so maybe take a look at the info here and see if anything else in his environment is lacking.
Leopard Gecko Care Guide - Leopard Geckos For Sale - Quality Gecko Breeder - Fair Prices - Tremper - Bell - Rainwater - Giant - Mack Snow - Albino - Tangerine - Fattail

Thanks for the additional help. He has two water dishes, one small one and one larger one for soaking. I have moss and will make an additional moist area for him and see if that helps.