Why do some leos have dry skin problems?

[lytlesnake]

One of the sunglows I bought last year has dry skin issues. I've soaked her numerous times, but I just realized the other night that I should have been soaking her every day. It looks like she's gonna lose one or two toe tips. I feel horrible, but I managed to save several other toe tips. I've got almost 50 leopard geckos, and this is the only one with chronic dry skin. She has a moist hide in her tub, which she doesn't seem to use, or at least I've never seen her in it. Maybe I'll build her a moist hide with side entrance and see if she uses that one. I guess I'll keep misting her tub too, and I'm gonna put her in a rack that has less airflow.

So it's crossed my mind that maybe I shouldn't breed this gecko, as it may be possible that the dry skin trait could be passed on. What do you think? I bought a SHTCT from the same breeder and it has no such problems, so I don't think it's due strictly to change of environment.

 

[lytlesnake]

No answers huh? That's okay. I have one other gecko that is having some dryness issues, an enigma het tremper. She's soaking right now, then I'll carefully remove the skin from her toe tips. Q-Tips do work very well for that. Both of these two are in the Vision rack, which does have more airflow than your typical PVC closed style rack. I was a little disappointed when I put the Vision rack together and saw that there was more of an air gap than I would have liked.

So it may be an issue of too much airflow. Luckily my Herp Enclosures racks have arrived, so I'll be putting those together and transferring these geckos into racks which should hold humidity better.

 

[blightedchemist]

one thing you could try, ive seen it at the pet stores, seems pretty interesting, the skin sprays they have avaliable to promote good sheds and to help provent dry skin, its got some minerals and extra nutrients in it along with aloe vera, i havent tried it yet, i probably will soon so long as my leo refuses to go in his humid hide and his last shed was a bit rough for him. id say give that a whirl, i will be soon.

 

[Nigel4less]

I have a two geckos that seem to have chronic skin problems, the tip of their tails haven't shed correctly and have turned black. I used a new, sterilized scalpel, and removed the tail tips so they would have a better chance of healing. Both are doing fine now, one of them I'm not sure I will ever breed, but the other may be able to breed late this year.

 

[Stevie]

Problems with shedding skinn could be caused by lack of vit. A! Gutload the mealworms and/or crickets with carrots every once in a while and it'll be fine. When I see a gecko turn grey, I'll spray the entire tank with water (just misting) and the animal as well! When the tank is nice and damp, it's fine. This way the gecko has no choice but to be in a moist hide.... ;-)

Greets,

Stevie

 

[blightedchemist]

hm there ya go, if he/she refuses to go in their moist hide, make the entire tank a temporary moist hide!

 

[lytlesnake]

Thanks guys. After I soak the gecko and remove the skin from the end of the toes, I spray the toes with one of those products. I think the one I've got now is a Natures Reptile spray. I use a combo of wet Q-Tips and tweezers (very carefully) to remove the dry skin. I also misted the tubs a bit yesterday. On the vitamin A, carrots are what I usually feed my mealies and supers, so there shouldn't be a deficiency there.

Had to soak my other enigma het tremper last night. She had several toe tips that could have been compromised, but I think I saved them all. I'm going to check every single gecko I've got, and get the ones with dry skin problems into the enclosed racks with less airflow. I've also completely closed the heating vent in that room. It had been barely cracked open, but considering this issue I think it's best to close it all the way.

Nigel, for the geckos that have lost part of their tails, check out a spray called Herptile RX. It's electrolyzed oxidizing water, which has antimicrobial and antifungal properties. It definitely helps to stop the damage from getting any worse. That turning black could possibly be thermal burn, check your temps on those geckos.

On another health note, I have a jungle tremper female who is looking thin and hasn't been eating much. The last few clutches of eggs she laid have been soft as well. I don't think it's a calcium deficiency, though that could be part of it. I'm gonna have her tested for crypto and other parasites. She ate a live pinkie mouse the other night (her first pinkie), so hopefully she'll pull through. She was one of the first two leos I bought.

 

[blightedchemist]

Well good i hope the dry skin geckos recover, im sure they will, just gotta give them a helping hand, and good luck with your jungle tremper

 

[lytlesnake]

Thanks blighted. I just collected a fairly healthy looking poop from my jungle tremper, so I'll have something to bring the vet for testing tomorrow. Yeah!

I'll make sure none of my geckos get dried out anymore, but I just feel terrible for the one sunglow that lost a couple toe tips. It could have been worse though, she didn't lose entire toes, and it was just a few. Still, I feel pretty guilty when stuff like this happens.

This is the downside of having 40+ geckos. Then again, I'm sure there are people who have hundreds of geckos and manage to keep them in perfect health at all times. From now on I'm going to inspect each gecko at least twice a week and make sure there are no problems.