Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, I bought a Tokay gecko about a month ago. The kid who worked at the pet store was trying to catch the one I wanted, and my tokay was running around with his mouth open, but not trying to bite. Then all of a sudden, another Tokay in the tank bit the Tokay I wanted right on his mouth. He caught him on the low part of the mouth, right hand side. and My Tokay started bleeding a little bit. For the first two weeks I put neosporin on the outside of his mouth where the scab was. That has healed, and looking at him you cant tell there was/is a problem. It has been about a month, maybe a little longer. Yesterday I picked him up for the first time. he bit me a little but mainly let me hold him but had his mouth open. I looked in his mouth, and the right side where he got bit is still swollen. Its not bloody, not really red (kind of a light pink, close to the same color as the rest of his mouth) I dont think it looks pussy at all. No yellow crusty stuff either It just looks swollen and tender. Is this a normal part of the healing process? should it take this long? He is definately eating normally, he shed the other day, so everything else is fine. Should I be worried? Is there anything i can put on the inside of his mouth to help keep it clean or speed up the healing? I have no problem getting him to open his mouth for me . Thanks in advance for your help.

I would think you're probably looking at an abscess. Neosporin can trap in bacteria...for a mouth wound usually you would use a dilute form of betadine or chlorihexiderm if anything.

The outside of the wound may have healed ok but you probably have bacterial that got trapped inside and formed an abscess. Unfortunately, if that what it is there is nothing you can do at home. A qualified reptile vet can make a small incision over the abscess with a scaple, remove the pus (usually hard), and flush the wound. At that point the vet would probably recommend gently cleaning or flushing the would and use systemic oral antibiotics like baytril.
Mouth abscesses are very common in iguanas and treatment would typically be to cut out the abscess, flush it very good, put the animal on oral baytril once daily for a coule weeks, and usually have the owner flush the wound with very dilute chlorihexiderm and possibly use q-tip dipped in dmso/baytril to apply to the wound after flushing.

Hope this helps.

Chris

How much will what you suggested cost?

also,
Is this required? Can I just leave it? is this a bad thing? It doesnt seem to affect his eating. Can worse things come from this?

Thanks for taking the time to write out such a complete response.

It's hard to say how much it would cost...that really depends on the vet you go to. I would say an estimate of $100 to $150 would be typical for the surgery, the cleaning of the wound, and the medication to take home with you...

If it is an abscess (notice I say if...I obviously can't tell via these postings ) than it will most likely cause further problems down the road. The infection could go systemic or since it is so close to the jaw bone it could go into the bone causing osteomyelitis...both are very serious problems.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer for your question. If it is not an abscess and is just some kind of tissue growth it may not be a big deal.

However, since you described a bite to the jaw from another lizard...most likely anaerobic bacteria was introduced into the wound which formed an abscess. That would be my guess to what you're seeing.

Let me know if you have any other questions or what the outcome is to this problem.

CHris