Wet Hide

[Jolenels]

Well, first off, we found out, that after two and a half years Dora is a boy. Apparentley the person who got it for my daughter told us it was a girl because that's what the pet store guessed at and we didn't try to hard to look otherwise, but when we had the breeder look at her eyes he informed us we have a male gecko. So now Dora is Spike. One cartoon to another lol

His eyes are very slowly clearing up. The one eye is almost back to normal but the other eye is still really bad. The breeder and specialist (T) told us that he may have some sight loss that is permenant. He isn't sure what is going on with Spike's eyes or why they are not healing faster. But he told us to try to introduce a wet hide again and maybe if it is just super persistant shed in her eye it will help.

I have never been able to get this darn gecko to use a moist hide. Ever. This time we went all out, got an actual hut thing, cost us $40, and some sort of moss stuff he recommended. Spike wont even go near it. We thought maybe because the bedding is cold, so we put it on the heating pad....never warmed up, put it under the light, never warmed up.

It's been in there for days and Spike won't go in it at all. I have tried wet hides several times and he just won't use them. I generally end up misting him when he sheds.

Any advice?

 

[acpart]

Go low-tech: try a gladware container with a hole cut in the side. Set it so the lid is on the bottom and put some paper towel in. Mist daily. A lot of geckos like to go in a hide like this and lick the water off the sides, so maybe it will be a hit (If you've already tried one like this, disregard). Some geckos don't like the feel of the moss.

Aliza

 

[Jolenels]

Yea that was my first attempt

 

[Jolenels]

he went in the hide today! It may of been because I forced him in, but hey, he went! And he sat in it for a full five minutes before leaving it and going back to his dry hide. He is currently living on paper towel as with the eye infection I wanted the most sterile substrate I could change often without going broke. And he wasn't a fan in the start, he wouldn't step off the slate haha so I'm not sure how he would do with paper towel.

I do have the issue of possible partial blindness. As far as anyone can tell he won't regain sight in his one eye we have been feeding him live crickets from tweezers, but you have to swing the cricket past his good eye. Will he ever learn to hunt with only 50% of his vision? I HATE that this happened and I feel like such a failure. We are still treating both eyes with polysporin but the one eye is clearing up and the other one isn't budging. It's stuck on cloudy mode.

 

[acpart]

Is there any chance that there's a piece of shed stuck on the "bad" eye? Great that he went in his hide. Good luck with him. I do think geckos can adapt with vision problems, though he may need some assistance.

Aliza

 

[Jolenels]

We thought it was shed originally but it appears to be inside the eye.. if that makes sense. We are continuing treatment though