Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a sad story with a happy ending so far. My husband is a 4th grade teacher. Two years ago we bought a beautiful leopard gecko (Sandy) for his classroom. All was well, until last October. People broke into the school and stole thousands of dollars of equipment and made a terrible mess. The lid was off of Sandy's cage and Sandy was gone. We were devastated, assuming that they had either stolen Sandy or much much worse.

3 weeks ago (after about 6 months) Sandy was found in another classroom. She was in pretty bad shape with almost black toes and a missing tail. We put her back in her cage and left her at school until break because the kids were so happy she was back, but now she is home and going to remain here for rest/recuperation. Her toes are now completely healed. My husband looked up some info online and thinks the tail had just recently fallen off, probably due to malnutrition or possibly an attack (the school is in an old mill and there are lots of creatures roaming about). We are feeding her crickets and worms coated in vitamins. She really isn't eating the worms very well but eats about a cricket a day. I think while she was on the loose she was used to eating insects. Of course we provide her with fresh water.

After 3 weeks, her tail is red--but it doesn't seem to be infected. There is a small stub that we hope is the start of a new tail. We haven't touched it or cleaned it, just kept her tank clean (sand on bottom) and provided her with fresh food and water daily. We have not taken her to the vet at this time--because we don't want to cause her undo stress. She does not travel well and we are moving in 6 weeks across the country. We are also monitoring her tail closely.

Finally the questions: Is there anything else we can do to help her tail heal? Should I bring her to the vet? Are we missing anything? Will her tail grow back the same as it was?

We are so happy to have her back, it is as though she is back from the dead. I did call the vet and they said we could bring her in but didn't seem to push it.

jackie

There is nothing you can do.... Leaving it alone like you have been doing is the best thing you can do.... Reptiles are very fast healers and do well without human intervention... Superficial injuries like lost tails and small cuts from breeding need no special treatment.... Just keep the stress level down (by not handling it and putting creams on it) and the cage clean and your leo will be fine....

I am glad you found the leo alive and in more or less, one piece....

I read about this a while back and was really mad that someone would do this to the kids pet. I am very happy to hear that you got her back. One main thing. Take her off the sand immediately. It will only lead to more problems oin the future.

Thanks,
Phillip Hemingway
GKO Reptiles

We have had her on sand for 2 years with no problems--it was what the pet store recommended and we didn't know any better. I had heard that some people don't recommend sand. Right now I'd prefer not to disturb her unless absolutely necessary-we have only handled her briefly (about once every week or so) to make sure she's healing. It really seems to stress her out. What would you recommend instead?

Jackie

When she is better, you can use slate tiles (or any tile with a rough surface) for a natural look..... But for now, while she is not in great shape you can use good old paper towels....

Gregg is right...At least go with paper towels until your little friend heals himself.

I wanted to let everyone know that Sandy continues to heal. I saw her eat a cricket today--she hasn't touched her waxworms (bought as a treat to hopefully tempt her to eat something) or her mealworms. I think she is so used to eating insects that the mealworms don't register as foods anymore--they don't move a lot. I'm going to go to a different store and buy "fresher" ones. I've also heard people swear by superworms and ordering them online. Are they a little more active? I'm redoing the tank Saturday when I have time (I at at work 12 hours a day) and will take her off sand at least for now. When we relocate to MN next month I plan to upgrade her 10G to a 20G long (I have a 20G long with newts) and get a stand that will support both tanks. That will give her more room and I'll have more space to put in a few more hides. She's still not very active but I've been leaving a basking light on at night and she is under it every morning. She's been in school most of the past two years and to be honest I am not sure what her normal activity was. I think she is also getting used to being in a cage again, one reason I plan to upgrade the cage in 6 weeks. The tail looks better and it seems to be growing from both ends, if that makes any sense. There's a definite stub that's a bit red but not infected looking and the part of the tail connected to the body seems a bit longer too, although that could be my imagination.

Jackie

"Finally the questions: Is there anything else we can do to help her tail heal? Should I bring her to the vet? Are we missing anything? Will her tail grow back the same as it was?"

Poor little gecko! How could someone be so mean?!

Some people put neosporin on the little nub, but this was a while ago, and would probly be best to leave it for now.

There is an obvious visable difference between regenerated tails, and normal tails that geckos have had from birth. Regenerated tails are shorter and nubbier, and can be drastically different colors and patterns than the rest of the gecko.

Glad to hear you found your gecko! Hope all turns out well! I just wanted to touch on the substrate subjecy real fast! After doing a lot of reading and talking with people mostly on here I do not think sand to be best for geckos. They mainly live on rock outcropings, rock ledges etc. Of course i am sure they are in contact with sand on a daily basis but they do not live in sand. I would recomend as was mentioned earlier to go to home depot or lowes or whereever and pick out some nice slate tiles. There are hundreds to choose from. Have the store or someone else cut them to size (or buy a 12 dollar diamond tip tile blade). There real easy to spot clean as you can just remove the whole tile if soiled and rinse it off or however you wish to do it. They look really cool and after we set our tank up our leo was out and about much more often! Heres a pic of our setup with the slate.

Good luck!

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Mike & Wendy

2.0.0 Siberian husky, Jackrussel/schitzu
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.1 Leopard Gecko
4.0.0 Beta's
3.1.0 Future Herper's