Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

My leopard gecko, Virgil, seems to have an eye abscess. I noticed she was not eating (I give her calcium-dusted mealworms 3-4 times a week). My other gecko, Allora, is doing fine. Virgil has one eye that is puffed up, around the back of the eye. I do not see any redness or leakage around it. Besides not eating, she is acting normal - basking under the heat lamp sometimes, drinking water, crawling in her hide box, crawling all over me when I take her out.

The vet has tried a systemic antiobiotic, which had no effect. Blood work showed that she is not fighting an infection. An X-ray didn't really help, just tissue around the eye. The vet is now recommending that we sedate Virgil and aspirate the abscess to get a culture. Then we might remove the abscess surgically, depending on the results.

Has anyone had any success/failure with this? I would be shelling out 500-600 dollars to get this surgery done, and I'm just not confident of the success. Could this possibly heal on its own? I have been feeding her repti-aid, a gruel-like protein substance, and she seem to be doing ok for now.

Any advice/stories would be appreciated!

Kate

My cat gecko had a swollen eye, but it was an infection behind the eye and he responded great to antibiotics. Cats are a relative of the leo. Luckily, perhaps, for my wallet, he's TOO SMALL to have blood taken out of him. 10 grams, that's my boy!
I had no idea lizard surgery was that expensive. Which kind of worries me because I have a snake that will need surgery when she's older (12 grams animal, granulomatitis. I love tiny herps...)
As far as I've heard, the only way to treat abscesses is taking them out.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

We pop abscesses on rodents at our shop, no problem there. There is usually a scab that will start it so you just peel that, poke and sqeeze. Disgusting, though effective. I have no experience doing this to reptiles, though I do know that we have done so to leopard geckos on their side or stomach and so forth, not the head. It is a bit close to the brain and I cannot predict the effects of it. The absess must be prominent and ready to pop for manual sqeezage. A picture might help, but I will take no responcibility for my advice because I dont want to harm your lizard. It may also be swelling which sounds more common in geckos (though not leopards, mainly sub-family geckoninae rather than the eyelid geckos...). This is caused by lack of vitamins....

Ok... gross out post...

Reptile pus is more solid than mammal pus so normal squeezing isn't going to do the job so easily as it can be done on rats. Especially in such a sensitive area. Yuck!!! If it were my animal... I might do it myself on a snake, but on a gecko like that, I'd have to go with a vet. Of course I personally have no clue on how to restrain geckos.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Thanks for the responses!

We tried a vitamin A supplement, but that didn't seem to help =(

I don't plan on doing anything on my own with the abscess...it would just be too risky. I am just trying to decide if I should go through with the surgery. I could find a way to afford it if I really thought she'd be okay. With the abscess near the eye, ear, throat, and brain...it's worrisome. I guess there's no chance of it healing on its own? I'm willing to take the time to hand-feed her every day (which I have been) if she can heal on her own.

If the operation is too risky, I might have to put her down =( I don't want her to suffer, or go through all the trauma if the odds aren't good. The vet can't really say what the odds are until they have a culture, and by then Virgil would be sedated with drugs and they'd have put a needle in the abscess.

This is a really tough decision!