Eye Infection :(

[sworntotheblack]

My female has recently had some eye problems with her right eye. At first it seemed to just look like she was squinting but that soon went to being closed shut. Then within a day or so she began to favor the other eye. I promptly called a local vet and scheduled an appointment. I took her to the vet and they did a rinse, vitamin A boost, and a eye cleaning. They also prescribed some eye drops, one for infection and the other for pain/inflammation. Its been 2 days and though she will open her eyes after i apply the drops she still closes her right eye and squints out the left shortly after the drops are applied. Also she is looking like shes about ready to shed , any advice as to what i can do to avoid her getting skin in her eye's and how long it should take for her eyes start to clear up? Vet said to do the treatment for 10 days and bring her in for a follow up. Unfortunately i just lost my job and unemployment doesn't cover these vet visits to well.

 

[sworntotheblack]

::UPDATE::

::UPDATE::

Well last night she began to shed, however she did not go into her moist hide *though my male was all about it even though hes not shedding* and i could see that her eyes looked like they had a thin film over it. I waited until this morning and when i lifted up her hide i was startled to see her completely un-shed and her eyes looked really bad. I made her a warm bath and got her eye drops ready. She started splashing around and showing lots of energy which has been unusual the last few weeks. I helped her with her shed throughout the soak and when we removed the skin around her eyes the right eye had a callas like piece of skin (eyecap?) come out of her right eye, she immediately opened her eye to my amazement. I removed the rest of the skin from her left eye however there was no callas piece of skin to come out of this eye, however she did open her left eye as well. I can see a little bit of skin on her left eye however I am unsure of how to remove it, I am going to rinse her eyes before applying her medication in hopes to maybe flush some of the skin out. After reading Saphira's ordeal with her gecko I learned that for the most part I am doing what i can to help her, i got some emergency food for her and hopefully with the medications from the vet and some care she will be through this ordeal and back to her happy self again.

I'm linking Saphira's post in here in case anyone else is going through this problem http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=40416. The one thing i have noticed about most of the cases is most of the geckos end up developing an eye infection and need some sort of drops/antibiotics so a vet visit is more than likely in order for your LEO.

 

[Saphira]

I am glad you found my post. when I went looking there was nothing online...that is one reason I documented our ordeal. We are dealing with it again with two other lizards..sigh.
when i talked to me vet last she said at their last conference that a lot of vets were seeing this problem and weren't sure what what causing it.

Scully is slowly regaining her weight and it happy and lively again and her color has totally gotten vibrant again. It took me 9 months.. but we did it!

 

[sworntotheblack]

Common Issue Indeed

Yah, my vet also said that the problem seems to be common down here *southwest* probably due to the lack of humidity. She said that they see this problem a lot with a certain pet store right down the street as they are there primary vet for all there animals. It is really tough going through this because no matter how much i want to help her there's only a few things i can do. I've been giving her bath's but I've noticed that she has got a few scrapes on her from possibly rubbing up against her log after the bath's. I'm thinking about taking her out of the main cage and putting her in a smaller tank with just a small hide and moist hide to ensure she doesn't hurt herself at all. My vet prescribed the same drops you got for your Leo that worked, hopefully it does the trick however after checking her this evening i think that there is yet another piece of skin in her eye . I'm willing to tough this out for the long run hopefully it doesn't last very long I can tell how unhappy she is. G/L with your other two lizi's..

 

[Saphira]

i had to use tweezers(and q-tips) to get the skin out of her eyes. Good Luck... and yes it is really dry here too.... kids are getting bloody noses it is so dry.

 

[sworntotheblack]

I took some pictures of her eye this morning they were about the same, looked okay opened up for me in the water, then after the drops and a quick dry off she was already starting to want to close em again. I am gonna have to find some small plastic tweezers of some kind, don't wanna damage her eye if it isn't already damaged from what shes gone through..

 

[sworntotheblack]

My vet called me to do a follow up to see how my girl was doing and when i told her that her eyes are still not opening on her own without a soak and that they close up she recommended i bring her back in. Only problem is i don't have a the 150 dollars that it costs to get her checked out and treated and they don't take care credit, I am still gonna take her in to have a check up done but i don't know what else i can really have them do for her after that point maybe they'll take payments or something..

 

[Ballistic_Balls]

I had a problem with shed in the eye I could not bring myself to try tweezers so I bought one of the squeeze balls for flushing babies ears it has a real small tip. I flushed her eye with warm sterile water and skin came out on second flush.

 

[sworntotheblack]

Well i took her to the vet today, fortunately the vet comped the eye cleaning ($35) and took a little off the exam/diagnosis. I was giving some ointment to try for another ten days, however they said that there still was a little bit of skin in her eye's that they flushed out but now it looks like its completely cleaned out. As for the skin removal this morning i again managed to pull out another piece of skin, fortunately she isn't going blind or having any major issues seeing as she can maneuver around OK even with her eyes squinting like that. I'll probably look into getting a squeeze ball style flusher as well to hopefully work out any skin that occurs from future shed's. Im gonna give her a bath and then apply the ointment tonight and hopefully she'll start to get better in the next week or so.

 

[sworntotheblack]

::UPDATE::

Well today was a good day, after the ointment was applied she kept her eyes open most of the day, and after her bath this evening i could actually see the colour in her eyes again. I am happy to see her doing better, wish she would eat on her own but shes probably still stressed out from all the handling and trips to her tub. I am so glad shes finally doing a bit better. :main_thumbsup:

 

[sworntotheblack]

She's still doing a bit better, eyes are open quite a bit more however i can still see that her right eye is bothering her a little bit, she ate a meal worm or two that i fed her and i was a little re-leaved to see her eat she still however is not back to her normal self yet though she has regained some of her energy. I am thinking about removing her from the cage with the male, i don't want her to get fertilized while she is going through this. I have stopped using the drops completely and am now only using the triple antibiotic ointment.