Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a vet tech student and am doing some reasearch on subcuataneous emphysimas in leopard geckos. These appear as bubbles of air under the skin, usually (in my experience) around the front limbs. If anyone has seen this in thier own geckos, it would help me greatly if you could tell me about your experiences, any testing done by your vet on the animal, and treatments that were given and how effective they were. photos would be helpfull as well. Anything too large or private to be posted here can be sent to my e-mail, strangewings64@yahoo.com

thank you,
Sheila

Ummm you are not talking about the fat pockets that form under the front armpit area, are you????

I don't have a gecko with that problem, but someone in the LiveJournal community might. She says the bubbles seem to deflate when pressed. If that sounds like what you're talking about, perhaps you can help her. We all suggested fat deposits. Here is the link to her post.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/leopardgeckos/52820.html

You can find the persons contact info here if you don't want to join LiveJounal (it is free).

http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=deadtomyself

Hopefully you can help each other.

Yes, these are air bubbles that do depress when you push on them. I have one gecko that has had them for several years. They go away for a while and reoccur. My vet said MoonShadow's were the first he had seen, but he has been seeing more and more of them lately. so I thought perhaps I would have some luck on the forums. He suspects that she has holes in her respatory system somewhere that are leaking air out into her body and it is finding its way towards the skin. I'm not really sure of that. I'm doing some skin scrapings of the area to see if it is bacterial. They do not seem to bother her in any way, but I have stoped breeding her (she is a blizzard) in case it is a genetic abnormality of the respatory tract.

They are harmless fat deposits. Many of my breeding size Leo's have them.
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Sarah H

www.fototime.com/inv/500FFD9910FF842
[email]ghia12345@aol.com[email]

If you are talking about pockets of air that appear ion the armpit regoin then its just a sign your leo is a healthy fat breeding quality leo....
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

What you are describing behind/under the geckos forelegs (armpits) that look like large blisters is not air, it is actually liquid adipose material... and usually implies that the geckos are well-hydrated and have good fat reserves for breeding.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com