Shed constricting toes

[Melody]

One of my adolescent MSS girls seems to have an ongoing problem with shed sticking to her back toes. I would usually just soak her in warm water and get the shed off with a Q-tip.

This time I have a real problem. I got most of the shed off with the above method (over a 2-day period). Today I noticed apparently a small amount of shed still remained 1/4 inch up the toe -- forming a ring around the toe and constricting circulation to the toe. It isn't black yet, but you can see there is definitely constriction going on, and she is losing circulation there.

What do I do now? I have soaked her 1/2 hr in warm water for several nights, used a Qtip, etc but I can not get these rings off (they are on 2 toes). In desperation this morning, I put some olive oil on it (I figured at least it wasn't toxic). What can I use to soften this up? Neosporin? Calendula ointment? Vaseline? It is so tight there is no way I can use tweezers or anything else on it. I have to hope to soften it I think, but I have done all I know to do. I don't want her to lose her toes, but I am getting nowhere! !!!! HELP!!!!

 

[Dottie]

You could try mineral oil on it to see if that will soften it up and help it slide off. My best tool for that problem is the Swiss Army Knife tweezers. They are so small that they usually work like a charm. Hope you find something that works.

Dorcas

 

[brandy101010]

I have a really bad shedder on my hands also. I have to help her with every shed and soaking and a q tip usually does not work for her either. What I do is I soak her feet for a long time. If the water gets cold I take her out and put freash in. even after soaking for 10 min the skin is really hard to get off. I take tweezers and gently and slowly pull it off. Sometime it works other times I have to leave it for the next day and try again but eventually it does come off. I hope you can get it off soon. I have not had any geckos loose toes but I have heard it can happen to problem sheeders.

 

[monkeygirl]

iv the same problem, iv 8 geckos and out of them, only 1 has problem shedding and she has the problem every time, she leaves the skin like boots on her feet, doesnt even bother getting it off! lazy little thing. she hates being in water too, but it needs to be done, oh well, i guess that just how she will always be

 

[Franks_Geckos]

If soaking doesn't work, I would try the smallest tweezers you can find. I had do do this once to save a Leo from losing his "thumb-like" toe and it worked. It stayed dmaged from the constriction that occurred, but at least he still has it.

 

[gothra]

I use cosmetic tweezers to help get stuck shed off, q-tip never worked for me...

 

[frost1375]

I have a gecko that I raised that has a few toes missing because of him not shedding. I catch it as soon as I can now. I just can't believe they don't get it off on their own. I also have two adult geckos given to me whose toes are missing because of this problem. Sometimes I'll hold him over the sink and just pour warm water over each foot to really soak it. He hates being soaked in a container, which is necesary sometimes. I just use tweezers to gently pull it off. The tweezers with the point I find are the best. Sometimes when it seems to possibly bother him, he assists me and takes some off with his mouth. Why can't he just do this in the first place? I also wanted to know, does anyone know if the toes being constricted by the shed and then the toes falling off... does this process hurt? I would assume it would, but it doesn't really seem to bother them that much.

 

[GeckoMandi]

I use cosmetic tweezers to help get stuck shed off, q-tip never worked for me...

This is the same thing I do

After I switched to a rack system and started using moss in my moist hides haven't had a bad shed since.