Injuries

7/25/2013

Chahoua with back leg and tail injury

Geckos can sustain injuries from various causes. Possible causes: they are self inflicted, sometimes a cage mate gets too aggressive, sharp or abrasive cage furnishings, crickets left in the cage deciding to chew on the gecko, and bad sheds or improper humidity causing bacterial or fungal infections.

Nemo's Story: The injury you see in the picture above is pretty severe, it is also part way healed and at the same time at a critical point in healing-because it has become infected. The yellow/brown is not a healthy color for a reptiles injury. I purchased the gecko already injured so I can only guess at the cause. He was being 'gecko sat' by a reptile keeper other than the owner. He was missing the toes on his left foot and the skin on his foot and hemipene/tail area was missing as well. This gecko had been taken to the vet when the injury was first discovered by the gecko sitter. He had been placed on oral antibiotics and the recommendation was to wash the area with a disinfectant such as chlorhexidine. At the time the picture was taken he had finished the oral anti-biotics and infection had started in despite disinfectant and a sterile environment. I started using a topical triple antibiotic in conjunction with the disinfectant.

I cleaned the injury twice a day and applied the antibiotic. Within a week the injury had turned color as the infection went away and the healthy new grey skin started covering the area. This would not be a healthy color for a human, but it looks great on a reptile. The scales haven't started growing back on the area yet so it doesn't show color.

The scales grew back over the new skin within the month. Nemo was eating like a pig at this point and gained 20 grams. He went from 35 grams when he arrived to 55 grams. Today he hovers around 70.

10 Comments

Tiffany Vazquez

6/18/2018 06:18:28 pm

My crusted geckos foot looks burnt or rotting . Im not sure why of whay to do .

Lorna

7/7/2018 08:35:13 am

Hi Tiffany,
Without seeing the gecko in person I'm going to guess from your description that your gecko has a bad shed situation on it's foot or that it walked through the food or both. Sometimes feet get crusty and they need a "sauna" to help get the shed or food off. Get a Glad box as described in the "How to Make a Nestbox" post and use a hot glue gun to melt some air holes in the lid and/or sides. Not too many because you are going to use the box for humidity-but enough that your gecko is getting some fresh air in there. Don't cut the entrance hole in the lid as described-leave it one piece. Take paper towels and dampen them down with room temp water. Place the towels in the box and spay the box with water. Then place the gecko inside with the lid closed for about 15 minutes. This is usually enough time for the dirt to loosen and hopefully come off by itself on the towels. If it needs more help then wet down a q-tip and see if you can gently scrub the mess away. You may need to use a dab of neosporin without pain reliever if the foot appears raw once the surface shed/dirt is gone. Most of the time the skin is fine under it though. If left too long it can cause restrictions in blood flow and they can lose toes, so it is important to get it all taken care of. If you suspect a deeper injury once you have gone through these steps then a vet visit may be in order.

Good luck!

Crystal

8/15/2018 08:04:55 pm

Hi there can anyone tell me what is happening to my gecko’s foot? We have our nieces and newphew visiting and they were playing with Danko our yellow crested gecko two days ago. Before they played with him he was totally fine. Now I’ve noticed some sort of lesion and his one foot has turned black and looks as if he’s not using it anymore:( what should I do for him? Take him to vet or can anyone steer me in the right direction please. I don’t want him hurting;(

Lorna

8/15/2018 09:42:32 pm

Hi Crystal,
Take a look at Tiffany's comment above and my answer to that one. You could be dealing with an injury rather than a bad shed, but cleaning the area with a gentle wet q-tip after a sauna might help you to see what the problem is. If you don't see an injury and the problem didn't resolve in the sauna (like old shed skin or dirt or food coming off on the wet paper towels) then I would take him to the vet in case you have a bacterial infection going and he needs anti-biotics. If you do see a wound then you can try treating with a little dab of anti-biotic cream like Neosporin without pain killer (pain killer is toxic to geckos). Black is generally not a good color for gecko limbs though so if you do not see improvement after the cleaning and/or anti-biotics then again I would recommend a vet visit to get to the bottom of it. Good luck!

Wolf

12/5/2020 07:20:53 am

Hey so my crestie on the top of its mouth has kinda what looks like on the second picture of this forum except it also looks like it goes in a little maybe with some tiny tiny bubbles only like 1 tho that just stays there and is much smaller and I just noticed last night I really need to know if shes OK. Thank you if you reply! pls help.

Same dude

12/7/2020 03:15:19 pm

Nvm I found out what it is.

Jake

6/26/2021 11:55:04 am

Im so glad I found this post, I have a 1year old leachianus gecko that had a bit of a tail incident when my roommate put an enclosure on her tail tip, I treated it like the vet recommended and she ended up dropping/biting off the injured section but I noticed she also had a cut along the right side of her tail further up, I know Leo's have fracture points in there tail but I don't know about leachies and the vet said to treat it similarly and let her heal but I can find nowhere online that has good pictures about the healing process or what an infected wound looks like, I'm a little less stressed😅

Lorna

6/26/2021 07:32:17 pm

Jake,

I'm glad you are less stressed, pet injuries are always tough since we don't usually have a body of knowledge about how to treat the little guys like we would for another human and on top of that they really can't tell us what is wrong. What you saw with the segment coming off was probably that area going necrotic and shriveling up as the blood supply dries up to an unhealthy area. The tail is designed to come off pretty cleanly during predator battles or even battles with another leachie but usually at one spot-where it is attached to the body. There is a muscle there that helps them detach it and the blood vessels are designed to close. Mother Nature is pretty ingenious.

Here are some thoughts based on my personal experience, with the caveat that I am not a vet and that you should seek professional advice if you see something you don't think is normal, plus nothing I say is meant to contradict any advice your vet has already given you. I have had leachies bite each other's tails off during mating and they grow back, although not always with the same color as before. One tail even grew back completely pink. The main thing is to watch the leachie for behavioral changes, particularly lack of appetite and weight loss as well as spreading necrosis at the wound site. Both of those could be signs that she needs to go back to the vet for a check up and possibly go on oral antibiotics-typically delivered daily through a syringe. The key is to keep her environment very clean (which I know can be challenging with leachies in particular!) and give her good ventilation and not too much humidity so that you keep bacteria, opportunistic bugs, and fungus under control. I take mine out of their planted/soil environments and put them in a hospital cage on paper towels and make egg crate caves to hide in. Basically it is all disposable and the idea is to change it out often and wipe down the walls and floor with chlorhexidine or F10. You can use a Kritter Keeper or glass cage but she may feel better if you can cover a couple sides with a piece of brown or other neutral construction paper on the outside to make her feel more hidden. Another option is a rubbermaid/plastic storage container with frosted sides, and good ventilation holes.

If you don't have these on hand-I get the storage boxes at Home Depot and use soldering iron or glue gun to melt air holes and put them all over the top edge going down about 6 inches and all around so that air can circulate (speaking of...do this in a ventilated area-the plastic will send up fumes that probably aren't great to breathe and be sure to rinse the box before you put the leachie in it). Then I cut a hole with a Dremel and add window screening on the front and back and hot glue it in place. Do this on two sides of the box for better circulation. Some people use a drill with a door knob cutter for this and use a metal vent cover you can get online as well. Don't go too large with the enclosure, definitely not larger than her current enclosure.

While she is healing make sure you take food and droppings out within 24 hrs so you don't attract bugs or fungus. Once the wound is grey and sealed you can put her back in her regular enclosure but still don't let the environment stay too humid (keep it under 55%) until the area is fully healed and keep a close eye on her to make sure she is improving. Best of luck!

K Griff

3/3/2023 04:17:39 am

We had a tragedy. My little boy tried to hold our sweet little crested gecko and he sustained injuries. We are devastated to say the least! It appears his backend is paralyzed. I don’t know what to do. Can anyone help me!

Nico Clay link

12/1/2023 01:30:45 am

Thank you for shharing this

Injuries

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