Gecko unable to open eyes and isn't shedding properly

[Olliek]

Hello, I'm a new member here and was hoping for some advice regarding my leopard gecko.

She is 16 years old and has obviously slowed down a bit over the past few months. Today I noticed that she hasn't shed her skin properly(loads still attached) despite her always shedding properly before. When I got her out I noticed that she was almost squinting, like she couldn't open her eyes properly. When I had a closer look it seemed that her right eye was black and she was licking it quite a lot. When I put her back in the vivarium she seemed to lose where she was before eventually finding her way back to her hide.

She is still eating locusts, probably 1-2 every few days and is still passing regularly. I was away for a few days and my mum kept an eye on her but said she wouldn't eat any waxworms which she normally loves. She's kept in a large vivarium on sand and has been for the whole time I've had her.

Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I think it may just be a result of her old age but if anyone has experienced anything similar then please let me know. I'm not sure if the vets near me are able to deal with reptiles but I will have a look,

Thanks for your time

 

[indyana]

Shedding can be more difficult as geckos get older.

If you post the little survey here, we can take a look and see if anything could be improved for her.
http://geckoforums.net/f130-health-medications/70912.htm

Some quick ideas to start with:
- Does she have a humid hide to go to when she's getting ready to shed? If not, providing one might give her a way to prepare herself better next time.
- You can give her a "gecko sauna", which is basically dampening some paper towels with warm water and keeping her in a mostly-closed container to be humidified for 15-30 minutes. (Be sure to leave some ventilation.) This can help soften up the skin and allow you to peel any spots off her toes/tail.
- For the eyes, pure saline eyedrops can be used to flush them out. You really need to wet them down and soften up the eyecaps stuck in there. Once they've had 15-30 minutes to loosen up, soak a cotton swab with the solution and very gently try to slide the eyecap. If it doesn't move by itself, don't force it. Just moisten and try again, or wait until the next day and give it another go.

It may take a few treatments to loosen up the old skin. If you can't seem to get the skin to loosen up, you'll probably have to have a vet extract the eye caps. Leaving them in isn't an option, as she will end up with an eye infection.

Sometimes, vitamin deficiencies can cause trouble shedding, so going over your feeding and supplementation routines on the forum might be worth while.

 

[Dinosaur!]

I second what Indyana said, and also, a soak could be in order. You simply put her in some warm water for a few minutes, and work the skin off with your fingers, tweezers, and/or q-tips when it becomes soft and pliable.

I would also highly reccomend getting rid of the sand. She may have been fine on it for her entire life, but it can also lower the humidity, dry out her skin, and make it a lot harder for her to shed then it already is. This can lead to stress, infections, and more issues than it's worth. Also, sand can get lodged in eyes and cause more shedding issues and eye infections. It would be a comfort in her old age to have good clean sheds, and solid footing

But, please fill out the form so that we can get a better idea on how to help your little girl. Please post pictures if you can (if you dont know how, we can help you) so that we can get a sense of her body condition, and the eye problems. I hope this helps a little, and let us know what happens

 

[Olliek]

Thankyou so much for the advice. I've just given her a bath and managed to remove most of the dead skin, she can open her eye now! She seems much better but there's still a lot of skin around her legs and tail so I'm going to bathe her again a bit later. Is there anything else I can do to help the process or is it just a case of repeating the bathing until it's all gone?

For the moment I've changed her substrate to a wood chip one and am in the process of building her a wet/moist hide as the one I had previously clearly wasn't working. I will fill out the form when I get chance, I just wanted to drop a note to say thankyou and let you know how it's all going.

 

[indyana]

I'm not sure wood chips are better. If she accidentally swallowed any, it would be a much larger danger than sand for impaction. I know a lot of folks in the hobby are against sand around here, but there are plenty of breeders world wide that still swear by sand. Most U.S. keepers recommend no loose substrate and stick to things like slate tiles, paper towels, shelf liners, etc.

It's good to hear you've removed some of the shed. It's a matter of continuing to soften the skin up with humidity and hydration. Just be extremely careful with the eye caps.