Blind? Eye problem???

[geckogirls]

Okay I have a female leo, that has one eye that dialates normaly, and one eye that honestly doesn't even look like she has a pupil, she is a little skitish sometimes, but when I pick her up, she seems to feel with the tip of her nose rather than to look where she is walking, is it possible that she is blind? Or is there something wrong with her, that fact that her one eye looks like there is no pupil worries me, should I not breed her? Should I just take her to the vet for him to check her to see if there is something wrong? She seems to be fine as far as living in her cage, and eating well, and everything, but she seems like she feels her way around my hands and arms when I hold her, and as I said her eye looks wierd. Would it help if I tried to get pics?

Thanks guys!!

 

[efx*]

Yea, Can you try to get some pics?

 

[Ccrashca069]

Maybe it is from an injury. If it is you should be able to breed her if you want. A pic would be good.

 

[geckogirls]

Maybe it is from an injury. If it is you should be able to breed her if you want. A pic would be good.

I dont see how it could be an injury, I mean it doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it at all except that there doesn't look like ANY pupil is there, here are a few pics I just took...


Here are ones of her eye that looks like there is no pupil...

Now here are two of her good eye...

Now I did notice today she was laying up close to the side of her cage, and her "good" eye was open, and laying flat against the container like it didn't even bother her, that also made me wonder if there is something wrong with that eye, it was really wierd looking.. Any help on her would be great guys!

Thanks

 

[Alusdra]

A trip to the vet would probably be a good idea. What you have sounds a lot like my blind gecko. Some tests my vet and I came up with are an obstacle test (put things on a big open space like a hide, a couple rocks, something made of glass- see if she goes straight, circles, or heads right to a hide- also good to compare results with normal geckos so you can judge what you are looking at) and we also did the pupil reflex (but geckos don't have the cross-over light reflex thingie that makes their pupils dilate evenly- they dilate independently) and also good is the prey test (mealies in a bowl or crickets- a blind gecko will literally stumble upon the mealies/crickets then start lunging at nothing in particular versus a normal gecko doing the cocked-head "look" and the tail wiggle, etc.).

So try those 3 and write down your results and go to a good reptile/gecko specialist vet with any other records you have (weights, age, etc) that kind of stuff might help out diagnosis. Since you are looking at something so subtle, probably a general practitioner won't have a good idea how to test for it. It's really hard either way to test for gecko blindness as normal cat/dog/mammal tests like the menace and pupillary light reflexes are very different or absent.

But it could be an infection, or some sort of disease process or even trauma that is the cause, not genetics (as yours doesn't look albino, which is where it's more common) so that would the vet visit is in order- to confirm the blindness and see if there is anything that needs treatment.

If she is confirmed blind, even if it is from trauma (especially if not fixable) I would say don't breed her. Because you can't be 100% sure there isn't a genetic component- plus if some male comes up to her and she can't read his cues (visually) it's going to be really scary and stressful for her. But your vet can probably make better and more specific recommendations for that, too (as to degree of sight, etc.)

EDIT: To me, the second (left) eye you showed looks more strange- with a flash going off in their face it should be constricted down ~ as small as the one you were concerned about (right) eye is.

 

[malt_geckos]

You should probably take her to the vet...but try this too: move your finger at her eye. If she moves away then she can see you. She does look blind in that eye however.

 

[geckogirls]

You should probably take her to the vet...but try this too: move your finger at her eye. If she moves away then she can see you. She does look blind in that eye however.

I actually have tried that, and she never moved at all, but I thought maybe she was just relaxed, and I didn't want to scare her so I stoped, I will be taking her to the vet this week hopefully, and I will let you guys know what he says, if anything. If she is blind I will not be breeding her at all. I might put her up for adoption, but she is such a sweet girl, I might just keep her as a pet...

 

[Alusdra]

Good that she's going to the vet.

My gecko's don't respond to the "menace reflex" which is the finger in front of the eye thing- which is why it's tricky to tell if they can see or not. It really cinches it on my Zatoichi watching her feed. It's pretty pathetic. Hard to film, though, as she literally falls into the food dish to discover there's mealies in there. So the timing is tricky... almost got her falling into the water dish and freaking out the other day. (Honestly, though- she's in a 10g- how hard is it to remember where stuff is?)

 

[geckogirls]

Good that she's going to the vet.

My gecko's don't respond to the "menace reflex" which is the finger in front of the eye thing- which is why it's tricky to tell if they can see or not. It really cinches it on my Zatoichi watching her feed. It's pretty pathetic. Hard to film, though, as she literally falls into the food dish to discover there's mealies in there. So the timing is tricky... almost got her falling into the water dish and freaking out the other day. (Honestly, though- she's in a 10g- how hard is it to remember where stuff is?)

Yeah she never seemed to run into anything that I noticed, but I just recently moved her into a different container, and she is running into everything, so my guess is that she remembered where everything was before, and now that I moved her she doesn't know where stuff is yet. I will try to watch her eating tomorrow. I wont be able to get her into the vet for a week cause of cash flow, but I am defiantely going to take her to see whats up. But I just can't part with her, so even if she is blind she is going to spend the rest of her days at my house as a pet only. This way I know that she will never be bred, and she will stay in her cage she is in now, and I wont re-arrange anything so she will know where her food, water hides, and calci are at all times. I just wouldn't feel safe selling her to somebody, cause I wouldn't know for sure how she was being taken care of.

 

[Alusdra]

That's great you'll keep her, even if she is special needs. I've been putting mine in different cages to find which on is ideal- like how big is too big and she can't find her food? I think the 10g might be too small as she seems to do a lot of stereotypic pacing behavior and seems to enjoy climbing... but on the other hand, like you said- you feel really bad changing their cages or taking them out because they have no idea where they are. :main_no:

 

[FelanMoira]

Hope the vet trip works out for you.

I wonder if she has some retained shed on there? My one did and it kinda looked that way.