Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well...the 3rd worst thing that can happen to a leo (in my opinion) has happend...i was checking on one of my gravid females (Phoebe) to see if her eggs have moved or gotten eny bigger... as i was doing this she was wriggling around so i put her back into her rack, and decided to refill her really heavy clay water dish..when i came back i literally tripped over a paper towel and dropped the dish straight on to her tail it didnt break off right away..instead she started swaying her tail around and then it went really fast and she closed her eyes is it split off..now...do i leave the wound untreated..i already cleaned out her rack and put new clean papertowels in...my other question is...will this effect her egg laying is any way?...i had bed a beast in her hide..and i had to replace it with papertowels...in my opinion the eggs are nowhere near being laid yet...how long does it take for the tail to grow back completely?

You can put a little PolySporin on the wound. Keep her tank clean and dry (except for her humid hide).

As for repercussions of her losing her tail ... is it the entire tail? All the way to her legs, or just a part of it. Either way, this is very bad, especially for a gravid female at the start of the season. IMHO, this clutch of eggs will be fine, but subsequent clutches may be lost due to malnutrition. A healthy female will put most of her tail fat stores into egg production over a season, so if she no longer has that tail, she's gotta compensate somehow. You might get lucky and she just won't produce any more eggs.

I would give her pinkies and silkworms. Don't overdo the pinks, but give her as many silkies every day as she will take.

Good luck,
Joel

PS: For a normal, male leo, it would take months (2 - 3) for the tail to regrow completely. For a breeding female, you might not see the tail you want to see for 6 months or more.
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2.5 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.0 Blair's Phase Gray Banded Kingsnake
0.0.2 Crested Geckos

Putting triple antibiotic ointment like Neosporin on the tail should help it to grow back looking a little less stubby. And, you probably already know this, but be sure to keep her on paper towels at least until the tail regens.
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chickabowwow

4.3.3 (Locke, Rosie, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

finnigan's answer seemed very thorough...i don't know because i have never lost a leo tail, but i just wanted to add that last egg season both of my laying females layed their eggs in the hide box with dampened paper towels and that worked fine. the only problem i had was that some of the eggs would stick sometimes to the bottom or side of the hide box, in which case i would just pick out most of the paper towel surrounding it and then surround the egg as best as i could with the perlite.

good luck, and good luck to your girl,

amanda