here is the situation-
my female, ~2 year old gecko, Jeeves has something wrong with her tail. i am going to get her to a herp-vet ASAP, but i'm looking for advice in the interrim.
for a while now, i had noticed what looked like retained skin on the top of her tail. it looked like a very small area, just dorsally. so, i've been careful to make sure that her humid hide is always humid. additionally, a few times, i've placed her in a 2-gallon, all misted up, for a few hours, in the hopes that it would help the skin slough off. i was hesitant to try & remove it myself, lest she drop her tail.
so- i had checked it closely as recently as last week, and it still just looked like retained skin, that appeared as though it might easily take care of itself. well, tonight, i took her out to have another look. and in several spots, there are irritated, red areas showing through the dry-skin looking areas. (i don't have a camera, i can't post a picture.) in one spot, the normal bulge of her tail (it is her original tail, so one of the ridges), appears to be deformed & sore, inverted at a spot. the areas that look like retained skin seem to have spread.
anyways- she was my first baby, and i'm very worried. like i said, i am going to get her in to see a vet ASAP, and i mean that. she is housed with another gecko right now, in a 20L. does anyone have any ideas, or have had similar experiences? perhaps her enclosure is too warm, cold, dry, or moist? i am going to get her a quarantine tank as soon as i can as well. does anyone have any suggestions for ways to keep her as comfortable as possible, until her appointment? (she is acting mellow & content, and eating with gusto, as normal, that's one reason i didn't catch on to the seriousness of the problem earlier.)
her set up, i thought, was ideal. the hot end reaches the 90s during the day, the cold end in the high 70s. there are hides at both ends & the middle. the humid hide is on the cold end, which i thought was proper, although someone suggested it's better at the hot end? she has a varied diet (mostly mealworms, with crickets, and occaisional super worms & waxies), usually coated with calcium, but occasionally with vitamins. she has constant access to a water dish and calcium dish. when i feed crickets (which is not often), some of them remain in the tank with her. i thought that they targeted toes, so i have been keeping an eye on her toes when i feed crickets (they are all fine & intact). but i am worried that perhaps they have irritated her tail? any thoughts? i have tried hobbling crickets & putting them in a dish, but they seem to escape easily. does anyone have suggestions for feeding crickets in a bowl more effectively?
thank you!
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marla
currently: 0.1.0 axolotls, 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, 1.6 leopard geckoes, 0.0.20 oriental fire-bellied toads, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders
