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Corneal Ulcerations

Vickiandgar Feb 14, 2006 08:55 PM

I have a 12 year old Female Leopard Gecko. Recently I noticed she has slight, small ulcerations on the upper part of her corneas. They do not seem to affect her health, she still feeds well and can see her prey, however I can imagine it may be annoying for her vision. My question is, is it just "old age", or possibly, as someone suggested to me, the crickets I give her eating at her eyes while she sleeps!?? I normally feed her pinkies, crickets, and sometimes mealies and waxworms. I gutload the crickets first, use calcium, and will leave a couple pieces of flukers orange cube in the tank in case she leaves a couple running around.I work at a vet, but they don't really specialize in herps. I can grab some triple antibiotic ointment or anything recommended if it can help. Thank you for any help. Vicki

Replies (4)

fattiesNleos Feb 15, 2006 01:55 PM

try to get a picture so we can see. you might get some more responses.

Vickiandgar Feb 15, 2006 05:42 PM

Ok I'll try. My sis has a digital camera, I don't. It sounds worse than it looks I guess.

melgrj7 Feb 16, 2006 03:11 PM

One of my geckos, Magic, approx 6 years old, was diagnosed with a "corneal ulcer" due to injury (from either a cagemate or insect) in her right eye on august 31, '05. Magic was put into a hospital tank. The vet had me put chloramphenicol ointment 1% in the eye twice a day for 7-10 days. She stopped eating when I started the ointment, and the eye was alittle beter after this round of treatment, but not fully healed. The vet had me to start force feeding her carnivore care when she dropped to 48 grams, her average normal weight is around 75 grams. The vet also gave me Tobramycin drops to put into her eye, 1 drop a day for 4 days once she ate a meal on her own. I never did end up using the tobramycin as she refused to eat and then started sneezing. On sept. 26th she went in for the sneezing and I was given Doxycycline and Nystatin (the nystatin to prevent a yeast inefection from starting in the resp. track). The resp. infection went away quickly and the eye cleared up. Once her weight got up to 60 grams I stopped force feeding her, she finally started eating on her own after a week and now is doing well and only has a small scar in her eye.

Vickiandgar Feb 17, 2006 07:30 PM

Thanks for your response. I'll ask one of the docs I work with if the chloramphenical ointment would be helpful for her. Luckily she has no other symptoms. I'm going to have her seen by one of the doctors who occasionally comes to my office and knows a little more about reptiles just to have her heart and lungs listened to along with checking her eyes. She's almost due for her yearly anyway.Thanks again!

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