Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought an adult male leopard gecko two days ago and have been soaking him in warm water and gently rubbing his toes with a q-tip for the past couple of days to get a severe build up of dead skin off his feet, which of course he hates. What worries me now is that he has started shedding again and i haven't yet managed to get the layers and layers of dead skin off. Of course, the breeder told me he had just been shedding and his toes should be fine in a couple of days, so I'll take it up with him too.
In the meantime, does anyone know how likely it is his toes will suffer permanent damage if i can't manage to get his dead skin off? As it's the Christmas period it will probably be quite difficult to see a vet. In the meantime, if he does suffer injury, is there any antiseptic I could use that won't hurt him? (i.e. would tea tree oil be ok?)

p.s. i do realise the breeder was full of lies when he told me he had just been shedding and now I've realised the extent of the problem I'm shocked that he could have let the problem persist.
I already have a moist hide in the tank, but my male prefers dry areas, so I've been popping him straight into the moist hide when I put him back after soaking sessions.
He's been eating very well, and doesn't show any other signs of ill health.

Basically just keep up what you are doing - soak a few times a day and gently work the shed off. If the q-tip method isnt working well for you then let him walk through your hand (after soaking, and gently roll his toes between your thumb and forefinger slowly working at the layers of shed.

If you keep him nice and moist (humid hide, soaks etc) during this shed he may get a little more of the toe skin off. If not - just keep working at it.

If the shed stays on for too long he will lose those toes, at least the bits with the shed on them. It cuts of the circulation and the toe die. Since you dont know how long he has been like that there is a chance the toe tips are alrady dead.While this is unfortunately, it will not affect his long term health - he will just have shorter toes with no claws (several of my rescues have been that way - they dont seem to notice)

If the toes do fall off then they heal quickly on their own usually - as long as you are using a substrate that wont get in the wound while its fresh (i.e no sand etc but rather using tile, paper towel, shelf liner etc) then it should heal fine. You can put a little triple antibiotic ointment on it if you want.

Also, with the humid hide - he may just not beused to the idea yet and may start using it later. Or it may not be up to his "standards" - what are you using as a medium? is it on the warm or cool side?
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