Serious Eye Issues: Please Help!

[jljohnson523]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and not very tech-savy, but I am desperate for some assistance from the community regarding my leopard gecko Rio, and an illness he has been battling.

Before I begin, let me prelude that I have already taken him once to a herp vet, and have another appointment scheduled for this upcoming Monday, which is the soonest the vet was available as he is out of town currently. However, I am hoping to find some way on here of making Rio more comfortable until then and preventing the situation from worsening in any way possible.

I moved homes about a month ago to a new apartment, and in spite of the fact that he was mid-shed, Rio had to come with me that day. I did my best to keep his humidity up and his stress level low, but although he was able to remove most of his skin, he was unable to get it off of his left eye. I was afraid to assist him and accidentally hurt his eyelid skin, as the area is sensitive, so I just regularly bathed him for days and gently rubbed at the skin with my finger and a qtip.

Within a few days Rio pulled the skin off himself, but by that time his eye had retracted and he had developed an infection. I had to start hand feeding him and took him to a herp vet, who confirmed it was an infection, not a retained eye cap, and gave me drops to do twice a day to treat him.

I was only supposed to do the treatment for a week, and improvements were supposed to be evident within two days. His eye *seemed* to get better, but much more slowly than expected. After a week the vet called to check and I updated him. He said to continue the drops if they seemed to be helping, and I did so.

His eye would open faster now, with less rubbing of the qtip needed, but it still seemed swollen and retracted. After two weeks passed, I went in one day and the eye seemed nearly better, and was open on it's own. For a few days I simply rubbed his eyes gently with a qtip and warm water to keep them clear, but he really seemed like he was doing a lot better.

Yesterday he was in his humidity container, and it was cloudy of course with water and filled with moss, and his eye had been doing better, so I just misted him and went about my day. I misted him again at night but he was still in the container, and his eye had been doing well so I saw no need to disturb him.

Then before I bed I checked on him and saw that he couldn't open either of his eyes. I had to take a qtip to both of them, even the one that had been perfectly healthy, to improve it. I don't know whether or not to do the eye drops, as I don't want to make him immune to antibiotics like I know humans can become, but I also don't want him to lose his vision before he sees the vet again on Monday, especially not if I am paying another $85 just to find out that he is blind. Qtips alone with warm water don't seem to be helping him much. They allow him to open his eyes, but it looks painful and I hate not being able to help him.

I will give you all the information you may need about his living environment, but when I explained his set up to the vet, he had said that the conditions were exactly as specified. I'm looking for ideas of how to help him, or anyone who has had a similar experience. I've never had a pet this sick before and I don't know what to do while I'm waiting for this herp vet to get here!

 

[Ozy]

Constantly rubbing them with a q-tip is probably making them more irritated. Flush the eyes with saline solution.

 

[mango+cola]

My gecko had an eye infection last year, so I have a little experience with it. First off, as said above, I would not put water out of the tap in your geckos eye. Use a saline solution that can be bought from any pharmacy or drug store. Just drop the solution in his eye, there is no need to rub it with a q-tip since there is nothing stuck in there, it is just an infection.

The infection sounds like it has spread to the other eye too. When my gecko had an eye infection, I could only see it on one eye but the vet said it was in both, just progressing slower in the other eye. So we started putting the eye gel in both eyes instead of just the one. If the eye is not improving, your gecko could be resisting the medication. Our gecko did this and we just got a different type of medication from the vets, and that worked.

Also, maybe you shouldnt keep him as humid as you are because it could promote bacteria growth. When our gecko had an eye infection, the vet suggested to keep the tank as dry as possible, while still being moist enough to assist with sheds if necessary.

I hope that helps a little.

 

[Ozy]

Also, maybe you shouldnt keep him as humid as you are because it could promote bacteria growth. When our gecko had an eye infection, the vet suggested to keep the tank as dry as possible, while still being moist enough to assist with sheds if necessary

I TOTALLY agree with this. Misting your leopard gecko's enclosure is not needed, because they come from dry, arid and rocky deserts. Just provide a moist hide at all times which can easily be made with an old Glad container or any other plastic thing they can climb into with a lid. Put a couple of moist paper towels on the bottom and cut a hole in the lid. Put the lid on and presto! Just mist the moist hide once or twice a day as needed and keep it on the hot side. Hope your leo gets better soon.

 

[jljohnson523]

Thank you so much, that information really helps! I was doing the water and qtip because the vet had said to do so to get his eye open to get the drops in, but if saline solution is a better alternative I'll try it! Also, I had been misting his enclosure a lot because this problem was initially caused by him being unable to shed the skin on the top of his eye, so I thought that the humidity was too low. He had a humidity hide that he's in a lot though, so I can probably stop misting the entire enclosure itself. Should I begin putting the drops in his eye again, or wait for the vet visit and just use the saline solution? As I said before, I don't want him to become immune to the antibiotic or anything, but I also don't want the infection to get worse, especially not if it's now in his other eye as well!

 

[Ozy]

Flush with saline, then put the drops in. If you have to do the drops twice a day I would flush and then do the drops. DO NOT stop using the drops.