Very dry/itchy skin & raw patches....

[lilmidget865]

Hi everyone, I am a new gecko mommy to 2 leopard geckos. I got them at ***** last Wednesday (a week ago tomorrow). They seemed very healthy at the time (which I made sure of when I got them).

Setup:

-10 gallon aquarium with metal screen
-Florescent light that runs 12 hours a day on a timer
-Ceramic heater that is set on one side of the tank running all day
-Cage carpet
-Moist hide with moss
-Rock cave/platform setup under the heater
-Water
-Food dish with constant supply of meal worms
-Vitamin dust for crickets and meal worms
-Dish of Calcium & Vitamin D3 supplement
-Fake plant

-Temp: 82 on "hot" side, 75 on "cold" side
Humidity: 30-40

I plan on adopting a 20 gallon long tank from my boyfriend's sister and adding an under tank heater to heat up the "hot" side to hopefully, almost 90.

_____________________________________________________

The problem:

My geckos are not eating right now. I haven't given them crickets yesterday or today because they end up staying in the tank without being eaten. I do have a small bowl of meal worms on the cool side of the tank that they have not touched. I have been spraying the tank lightly and the geckos with a reptile spray.

Yesterday, I did the routine spray and one of the geckos seemed to get itchy immediately and started scraping against the carpet and the rocks. I also noticed him/her licking and scraping at its legs. I noticed shortly after this episode that he/she rubbed back some skin on his/her neck and it looks raw/bright pink and painful. The same thing happened to the tip of his/her nose. I cannot get them to go into the moist hide and I am afraid that they are not going to shed properly and even more afraid of the sores on the neck of the one of them. Today, I gave the wounded one a warm "sponge" bath in a clean container, carefully wetting it and using a q-tip to clean the wounds with water and gently wipe its body. I dried him/her with paper towel and put him/her back under the heat lamp.

What do I do from here? I am worried that they are losing slight body mass from not eating and am worried about a bad shed. Is there something I can feed them that I can syringe feed that is safe to use, if so, how do I go about doing this safely.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I will take him/her to the vet if I need to, but because of cost, I am trying to avoid it.

Thanks in advance guys! I already love these little guys and really want them to pull through this!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Your warm side temperature should be around 90-92 degrees on the surface.

 

[lilmidget865]

Update

Well, I bought a 20 gallon long reptile tank off of my boyfriend's sister. It's a great tank and I think the geckos are happier there too! There's so much more room for them to move around in. Also, I am using an under tank heater that I put pretty centered on the bottom. I am still having trouble getting the tank up to 90-95 on the warm side, so I am not sure what to do from here. The "itchy" gecko was rubbing against everything again yesterday but I caught it and took it out of the tank and gave him/her another bath, which I intend to try and do daily until I see improvement (if I don't, I will take him/her to the vet). One great thing is that I saw him/her drink after putting him/her near the water. He/she was drinking for about 5 minutes so I am wondering if this is all due to dehydration. Does anybody know if dry skin can come from dehydration? I am guessing this would be one of the more obvious signs. Thank you for any responses!