when i bought my tokay gecko, as the person was reaching into the tank to buy him, he got bit on his mouth by another tokay. its on his lower jaw, and when i first got him home, his mouth was bleeding, and his lip was swollen. the next day it had scabbed up. now it seems though whenever he opens his mouth the scab falls off and has to reform, and his lip is still a little swollen, and raw. he is eating though. the other day i thought i saw blood in his throat, but after doing some reading it looks like its normal for their throats to be black, and since i dont see color too well, i figure thats all it was. I went to the pet store today to ask them about it, and they said to put some neosporin, or benzol/benzalene (to be honest i forget the word she said, but i think it sounded like that) and to water it down, otherwise it will burn. but as you know, tokay geckos arent the most pleasant animals, and i dont think mine would let me put anything on his mouth. In anycase, should i be worried about this at all? or should i just let nature take its course and let the little fella heal? please offer any advice. thank you in advance.
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my tokay got beat up, is there anything i should do?
Replies (2)
then I would just try to irrigate it with Hydrogen Peroxide and a q-tip a couple of times a day for a few days and see if it heals OK. Putting a little Neosporin on it probably wouldn't hurt anything either. What you want to do is keep the area as clean as possible to prevent an infection. If he gets an infection, you will see a pus pocket forming and you will see a cheesy substance around the site. The usual culprit for those infections is Pseudomonas flourescens and they tend to be in the bloodstream and adjacent tissue as well, so topical antibiotics are not that effective,. Usually if it gets to that point (full-blown mouth rot) intramuscular or subcutaneous Baytril or some other antibiotic/antimicrobial is used.
If he is eating and acting fine let it heal on it's own. Watch for infection though such as no scab, bleeding along with whitish goo coming from the wound and try to keep the area clean. Wounds like that can also be a prime spot for Stomatitis (mouth rot)to pop up.
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Jeremy Carroll
Center for Reptile and Amphibian Propagation and Conservation
http://www.onet.net/~eagle/Reptile/index.htm
