Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Help!!, i have 2 female leopard geckos in a 20 gallon long, heat pad, 50 watt heat lamp, hot side cold side, and moist retreat. Anyways, I went on a little weekend trip, as usual. Then when i came home to check on them I noticed a foul smell. I looked into the cage to see that my Patternless female's tail looked infected, as if it were cut. It smelled like ROTTEN FLESH, the tip of her tail was kinda dry and really skinny, and the rest of her tail was really soft, the flesh was pale, IT was just rotting. I put neosporin on it, Knowing and HOping that the Tail would fall OFF. Well she shed the other night, and is eating wich are both good signs. But WHAT DO I DO. Do i take out the MOist RETREAT, DOES IT MAKE THE TAIL ROT MORE? Would doing so, DRY OUT the tail. SHES IN THAT HOUSE ALL THE TIME. I think it was a fight, but i first need to get this gecko back to the way she was

I would get your gecko to a veterinarian as soon as possible. If the tissue is actually gangrenous they might have to amputate the tail for her, if she won't drop it on her own.

Luckly the smell has gone down remarkably. As for the tail, there is a few spots where it is black, where the gecko has cut off blood flow to those parts of the tail. The tail is still pretty much the same, the last inch of it is dried and shrivled up, as you work your way up the tail it looks a little better, covered with a layer of dead skin, and some spots of black, and then the last inch is perfectly normal, She is still eating, acting normal, and i think that she is going to drop the tail. I do plan on taking her to the vet.

If it was just a cut, then I'd say try to let it heal on its own, but with that horrible smell and the other symptoms, I'd say go to the vet, let them see what can be done to help the gecko.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Take it to a vet. Gangrene is nothing to play around with. It doesn't take long for it to spread into the rest of the body causing a systemic infection that kills the animal. The animal needs strong treatment now... the very least the vet will amputate the tail well above the line of the obvious infected area and put her on antibiotics. Then you just have to hope the infection hadn't already spread and started taking hold somewhere else in the body.
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PHWyvern

That sounds like it may be a thermal burn. Is the heat pad too hot? They can burn easily since they can't tell whe something is too hot. Measure the temp on the heat source. Either that or there could have been some stuck shed, but that would take awile to get bad.

Put her on clean paper towel as subtrate and apply some neosprin. Sounds pretty bad you should see the vet.
Do you have a pic?
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Sarah H

imageevent.com/sarah_h

Ok its gone, i did the self medication, recognizing that the black was the blood vessels in the tail shutting off, i realized that there was nothing to worry about, that section of the tail was simply dying and last night she dropped it, put some neosporin on it to keep it from being infected, but now all is well, thanks for the imput