If it is simply an injury, it will likely heal as long as the animal
isn't stressed by something else. Sometimes fussing too much over them
can be a stress in itself.
Concerning misting, they do need a good bit to avoid shedding trouble,
but it should dry between mistings and the substrate should no be waterlogged.
If you get a warm spell and the soil is soggy, you get a nice bacterial bloom
combined with heat stress on the geckos and then you have trouble!
Your supplement regimen sounds good. I do worry with Herptivite that the
beta-carotene (red bits) might not stick to small crickets well.
What do you feed the crickets? Are you offering other insects? If the diet is
mainly crickets, supplementation becomes very critical to general health.
Check out herpnutrition.com for some good products.
Neil
Hi Neil,
I'm starting the vitamin E as of today. I remembered it last night while in
bed ;-) . I am using Herptivite for the vitamins and Repcal + vit D for the
calcium. Both of these are at every feeding because the older female is
starting to lay (infertile) eggs. I also give a direct dose of
vitamins/calcium mixed in water once a week from an eyedropper. I am doing
this because I worry that there isn't any calcium left on the geckos after
being in the enclosure for longer than a few seconds.
I still think Barbie was right - that the dark spot is fungal - but I hope
vitamin E will help the geckos fight off any other skin infections/injuries.
The injury looks a lot better after removing the dead skin.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neil A. Meister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: [gecko]head infection in U. phantasticus
Hi Mike,
That is a nasty looking injury.
>
Betadine won't hurt, but I would keep watching the other
geckos. Skin problems heal better with Vit E supplemenation.
You can simply take a droplet of goo out of a capsule and put
it on the tip of their snout.
This was recommended to me by vets when I ran into
a vitamin E deficiency. Since then I've found it helps
skin problems clear up. I would give them all small doses
for a few days and then cut back to weekly and see if that helps.
What are you using for supplements?
Neil
>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
>
>
>Attachment converted: Neil's HD:injury.jpg (JPEG/ogle) (000B75BC)
--
Neil Meister
Promotions Secretary
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
http://www.gekkota.com/html/gecko_night_2002.html
President
Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society
http://users.eastlink.ca/~nshs
_______________________________________________
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
Classifieds
http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi
gecko mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
_______________________________________________
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
Classifieds
http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi
gecko mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
--
Neil Meister
Promotions Secretary
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
http://www.gekkota.com/html/gecko_night_2002.html
President
Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society
http://users.eastlink.ca/~nshs
_______________________________________________
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
Classifieds
http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi
gecko mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
