I apologise if this message appears in duplicate. I wrote:
This is a long post but I hope someone can help lead me on the right path. I have a number of U. phantasticus/ebenaui in 3 separate vivaria. In an effort to experiment with the amount of spraying actually needed, I stopped spraying as frequently. This weekend I noticed that one male had a shiny spot on his head that wasn't going away. I thought it was just water but I noticed the spot every time I spray the viv. Since the viv was now "dry" there was no reason a droplet should have stayed on his head so I took him out and there was a hole! It was like the tissue was receding at that spot. I took him to the vet and the vet told me it was a physical injury (also implying the injury looks like a burn from a bulb which is absolutely impossible). I suppose this is possible but very unlikely. He prescribed betadine for me to daub on the gecko's head. I decided to take a look at the other geckos and lo and behold, all the males (3 in total) have some form of "shiny" growing there. It's not significant but I think it's there. Two of these males have only been with me for less than 2 weeks. However, the female in this group does not have the shiny beginnings of this injury. Also, this "injury" does not exist in the other viv containing the other 2 young phants and 2 young ebens, nor does it exist in the quarantine of 2 other ebens. So here is the scenario: the vivs are split into - viv#1) 3 adult males, 1 adult female (she laid infertile eggs) and viv#2) 1.1 young phants, 1.1 young ebens. Viv 1 is less "planted", viv 2 is very well planted because it has the youngsters in it. This is what I think the possibilities are. 1) In viv 1, the males fight and bite each other. This isn't occuring in viv 2 because they are all young. This seems far-fetched. 2) Because viv 1 is less planted, when I spray the viv, water gets on the animals and starts to rot their heads. But this doesn't explain why the female doesn't have the infection. In viv 2 the geckos are always "hidden" from water because they are small and always in the leaves. 3) The geckos are infected with something and it's just a matter of time before it gets the female (or she is just stronger than the males). 4) Crickets bit them. There is something ill at work here. I don't understand why even new geckos are getting this. I really think it's the spraying but does anyone have any other ideas? I included a pic so you can see the injury. (The pic makes it look a LOT worse than really it is.) Thanks for any help, Mike
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