Arm/Shed/Circulation

[frost1375]

I just took my friend's gecko home for the night to see if I can help with the stuck shed. His two front legs, all the way up the arm, has shed stuck on it and it's pretty tight. He seems to be using the legs, but not very well. I just gave him a break from trying to get the shed off of him. One of his arms is a reddish/purple color. My friend said she will take him to the vet if he needs to go. I'm just wondering if once I get the shed off, or even if I can get the shed off... would he need his leg amputated? I know when this happens to toes, the toes can fall off... could this happen to the arms as well? If someone can please respond to this, it would be great. I'm gonna try to work on the shed periodically through the night. But, some advice would be great! Thanks in advance!

(I have six gecks of my own and a few have shedding problems too, so I know what I'm doing for the most part. I've just never had problems with the arms like this.)

 

[BioWorkZ]

I'm a novice, but my advice is to leave the gecko in a humid hide for a couple of hours. Remove some shed and back into the humid hide. Just keep doing this to help hydrate the dead skin that you're trying to peel off. I would also mist my leos when I notice that they're shedding. It's kind of overboard because they don't have any shedding issues, but it's better to be safe than sorry IMO.

As for the reddish/purple...that sounds pretty severe. I can only assume that it's a good idea to take the leo to the vet ASAP.

 

[frost1375]

Thanks for the response. I was able to get the tight "rubber band" shed off the top of the two legs. The purple leg looks pretty bad. I think she'll definitely have to take him to the vet. What I'm extremely grossed out and confused by was that once I was able to get that shed piece off and relieve the pressure, he bit his leg really hard and held onto it. I couldn't get his mouth away for like a minute. Then it looked like it was oozing, then started bleeding. I put him back in his cage. Now I'm afraid he's going to try to eat his leg off. Do they do that? And why would he do that? I'm very nervous that when I call my friend in the morning, I'll have to tell her that he ate his foot off.

 

[mainelygeckos]

aww thats sad..the poor t hing..keep soaking and tryng best you can and hopefully he doesn't chew his leg off. I know animals in the wild will chew off injured lombs sometimes. Hopefully this isn't the case. Maybe he bit it because it hurts so muc? IDK but good luck getting the shed off and yes def take it to the vet to look at the injured leg to be sure. Hopefully he doesn't lose his leg