Bloody discharge from eye?

[chachasushi]

Hello!
I haven't been posting much lately, but I have been lurking *waves to old friends*

Okay, so I have an adult male that recently had some shedding issues. He got lazy it seems and didn't get all the shed off his face on his own. He didn't want to be fooled with, so I gave him minimal assistance and made sure his moist hide stayed moist. I gave him too much credit that he would take care of it himself and one day I noticed his eye was gunked up with shed. I wasn't worried since this does happen sometimes with my crew and I carefully removed the stuck shed. He immediately opened his eye and grunted to be put back down. I obliged him. This was about a week ago now. I'll admit I haven't been very attentive lately due to work and Christmas stuff so I have been on autopilot with my geckos. I checked the racks for food and water, but I didn't pay attention to what was going on with my geckos and their personal lives. Today, I took the afternoon to clean all the tubs and inspect everyone for any health concerns. I am very paranoid and like to count toes and check for boo-boos especially since Oscar had his prolapse. I noticed that the gecko that had the stuck shed had a whitish film over his eye. I thought it was stuck shed again and I gently swabbed at it with a moist q-tip. Turns out the film was some sort of discharge. I was told to dab a small amount of Vetropolycin on the damaged eye which would clear up his apparent infection. When I did this, the q-tip I used to apply the ointment came back with a bloody clot on it. There was a tiny white granule of some sort (maybe puss?) and the clotted blood. His discharge is now bloody, but not bleeding freely. Anyone experience this before? Should I continue with the Vetropolycin and see what happens?

 

[Mel&Keith]

I'm not a vet so I can't really give medical advise but if it were my gecko, I would call the vet and ask if this is part of the healing process or if he needs an antibiotic? It looks like the Vetropolicin is an antibacterial ointment (more for preventing infection). He may need something like NeoPolyBac which is similar but contains an antibiotic to fight the infection as well as the antibacterial ingredient.

 

[chachasushi]

Looks like my boy is headed to the vet. I am waiting until after Christmas because the vet considers anything that happens over the holiday to be an emergency and thus charges twice as much for their time... even though they were still operating on a normal schedule when I called. *sigh*

I've been treating his eye with Vetrpolycin to little avail. It seems like the infection is staying put. I will have to get him on something more geared for fighting infection. He's a trooper about the whole thing. Since this has become a daily routine for him to be inspected and treated, he has started to get increasingly frustrated with my prodding. He grunts and does a little gator death roll in my hand. He eventually gives up and holds still for me though. I'm surprised I haven't been nipped at yet. I've been extra careful, but he still could have gotten me good many times.

I'll keep you posted!

 

[chachasushi]

A side note... what are your thoughts on Albon for something like this? I have some for the beardies and have a dosing chart by weight. Would Albon help him out you think?

 

[robin]

albon i believe is used to treat crypto (or is it coccidia?). if i am wrong on this someone please correct me

 

[chachasushi]

It is used to treat Coccidia, but it is still an antibiotic. I'm unsure if it would still help his eye or not. Also, it seems that neopolybac and vetropolycin are one in the same ointment... at least according to this http://www.rrvp.com/butleranimalhealthsupply/neopolybacwhydrocortisoneophthalmicointment.htm