Swelling advice

[ecto]

Greetings,

We are having some issues with our ~4 year old leopard gecko. His home is a 20gallon long tank, with a warm hide at 88-92 degrees, a humid hide and a cool hide. The substrate is tile and we keep his home very clean. Loki normally eats crickets and mealworms, gut loaded and coated with calcium. A few months ago he began to refuse the crickets, and now eats only mealworms(I attempt to feed crickets every so often to see if his disposition has changed).

Recently it seems his head has started swelling. Until today it was completely symmetrical. He has continued to eat, and shows no signs of distress or discomfort. I have attached the best pictures we could get. Today it seems to have gotten even worse, and is no longer symmetrical. It appears that on one side he isn't able to close his jaw completely.

He hasn't lost any weight since switching feeders, and is still at about 90g. He's always maintained this weight, despite a large appetite.

We are unsure of what is going on with him, and if there is anything we can do to help.

 

[sausage]

omg poor baby! that looks so uncomfortable .
you must take him to a vets asap, kinda looks like it could be a tumor. are the lumps hard?
I dout any one on here would be able to help with this :S.

 

[ecto]

They are soft to the touch. He doesn't react to them being touched as if they are painful. This is very disheartening, hopefully the vet will be able to help

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I would assume that is a MASSIVE infection behind his eyes. I would get him to a vet if you would like to save his life. I would think those abscesses need to be drained ASAP and he will need antibiotics to cure them. Geckos are very hardy and will often not show signs of pain or sickness until it is too late.

I would check out Arav ? Find a Vet and make an appointment with a qualified reptile vet ASAP.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[ecto]

We got Loki the first available appointment, and will have more details on Wednesday. Thank you guys for your input. We were quite horrified when we saw him in this condition. The vet is charging $50 for the exam + whatever incidentals are incurred. Is there a ballpark I should expect for the operation/antibiotics?

We are hoping for the best.

 

[sausage]

im so glad your taking him to the vet .
price will all depend on what they find sadly, fingers crossed its somthing simple thats easily treated.
keep us posted.

 

[Phoenix1115]

I paid $200 total for a vet visit/exam + antibiotics for 2 ball pythons, so if its just antibiotics then I'd say not more than that, but if it's more serious than just an infection (possibly something that needs surgery or an overnight stay) it could be more.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Mine had an eye infection last summer and my vet charges $65 for an office visit but made the antibiotics affordable and didn't charge extra for small things. I walked out of there with shots, drops, and a mortified leo for about $120. Vet only charged $20 for a recheck appointment too so I had him back several times just to make sure things were going okay.

Good luck to you and Loki!! Definitely let us know what you learn!!

 

[catvettech]

Last time I a swelling on a reptile, it was a box turtle but it was not symmetrical. It turned out to be an ear infection. I am very curious about your guy. Good luck.

 

[ecto]

Loki had his appointment today. The Dr. said that it seemed like an abscess due to an ear issue. She did not want to lance it today due to its size and location, so we are going to give him antibiotics to try and reduce the swelling before trying to lance it.

 

[Phoenix1115]

I hope they work for you! keep us posted

 

[ecto]

After a week of antibiotics, the vet decided to operate on Loki's poor head.

After opening it up expecting an abscess, but found something that neither she nor any of her colleagues have encountered before. She described it as being kind of a hollow shell similar to a gourd. Going in tomorrow to discuss these implications. Has anyone had a similar experience? I was very hopeful that it was just a standard abscess which could be removed. Haven't been able to find anything similar on google, all of my searches have brought up abscesses and tumors.

 

[sausage]

How strange :S Im so sorry to hear that its not as simple as we all hoped. Perhaps there was an infection that stretched the surrounding tissues and it didnt return back to normal once the infection went?
fingers crossed for tomorrow, keep us posted.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

That's crazy. Is he continuing to eat and act normally? My fingers are crossed it doesn't affect his quality of life!! Sounds like you found a good vet so hopefully she can come up with something!! Keep us posted!

 

[Phoenix1115]

Yeah, any update?