Retained eye caps/shed? (Might get a rescue!)

So, at the pet store I work at, someone decided they no longer wanted their 15 year old leopard gecko and dropped him off. He has calcium sand, no humid hide, and a white basking light for heat. He has a good body weight, but the little guy just broke my heart! I'm trying to convince my mom to let me adopt him, and trying to get my boss to lower his adoption fee for me. (Everything he comes with in his set-up is either broken, or not suitable for a leo...)

He has some badly retained shed in one of his eyes though. They previous owner told them it doesn't bother him (What????), but I did some research on it and it looks like it can lead to an eye infection. If I end up adopting him, what would I need to be prepared for in terms of medical care? I go to a great reptile vet that I could get eye oitment from if I need too. But are there other ways to get the shed off?

Wish me luck! I',, keep you guys updated on if I can adopt him.

awww poor little guy
I don't understand why people get pets if they are not going to look after them properly It doesn't take a lot to just read up about their care

I hope your mom lets you adopt him Good luck!

with eye's and retained shed your best bet is take the poor guy to the vets if you do get him as they are the best people to deal with there eyes without damageing them.

Good luck with getting your mum to let you adopt him x

leopard geckos do not shed eyecaps like other (non eyelid) geckos and snakes...their eyes are pretty much like ours...they shed the skin around the eyes, but not the eye itself. other geckos, and snakes have a protective transparent "scale" over thier eyes, that actually sheds with the skin, leopards, fat tails, and other eyelid geckos do not...there may be something in her eye, maybe even skin, so see if you can maybe flush it with water, but have someone to help you hold, or rinse, and have the other person do the opposite...let us know how it goes

...but i do agree with sam about the vet, so please do not think i dont want you to take her to the vet. i also reccomend this!

Agreed with Rick but it could LOOK like there is shed on the eyes because maybe there is shed that got in her eyes and it looks like it is her eyes shedding. Just a thought. Thanks for the help Rick

Well, there is something in his eye that shouldn't be there, and I had been reading something about stuck shed. I know it's something along those lines! But anyways, I've adopted him!! I'll add pics and more details tomorrow!

could be a rub on the eye its self appearing a lump caused by retained shed or it could be retained shed loss in the eye but either way best thing is to see the vet hun, get the vet to check in his mouth for a abcess droped down from the roof/side of his mouth as that can happen from retained shed but the eye will usually be puffy and may even have a grey film over it.

Glad he's got a great home with you x

Awww! Congratulations Itching to see!

OK, here he is!


So I dumped out all of the sand, cleaned out his tank really well, gave him a new hide that he actually fits in and a humid hide, and used a ceramic heater instead of the basking light. I bought him some nice new dishes today too, since his old water dish was covered in sand stains and complete with algae. I wanted to take a "before" picture, but I had to get rid of the sand before I brought him home LOL... Here are the "after" pictures though!






He's actually pretty chunky!



His bad eye. I put some water on it and the crap softened up enough that he could open it, but once he was back in his viv it dried up again. If I can't fix it myself over the weekend, I'll call the vet to see if I can get him some ointment. Does anyone know of something I can put on his eye to help him? I have some eye ointment and eye drops on hand that I've used for my rabbit and my dog, but I'm not sure if they are reptile safe. Does anyone know of some eye drops/ointments that are?




Whatcha lookin' at??




Discovering his new wormie dish:





So far, he is incredibly sweet and friendly. I don't understand how someone could get rid of him! He was very patient with me when I was wetting his eye, and trying to get the retained shed off his fingers. I tried feeding him a little roach, but it kept hiding under him and he was getting really confused. He happily ate it out of my fingers though! Later when I was peeling off the mass amount of tape that is stuck to the side of his tank for some reason, he ran right over to me and stared at me... He must have figured out that me = food. :P


And he needs a name! I really like Stanley, but I'm still thinking. Other possible names are Captain Jack (His eye looks piratey!), Sheldon, Kody, or Quincey. Any other ideas?

He's gorgeous! He sounds like quite the little cutie. I find the "reject" leos always seem to have the sweetest personalities!

Plain saline drops would be OK for you to use.

He's also going to need an UTH soon.
Good luck with him!

thats so awesome that you got him! im so glad he got to have a happy ending, and what a cutie he is, i bet he is so happy to be with you now. i personally like captain jack but that's because that is a person on a show called Dr.Who lol but anyways i remember hearing that with the sheds in the eyes, that you should go to the store and get plain saline solution, no added cleaning chemicals or anything just saline, and you can drop that into his eye and try and wash the shed out. you could also call a reptile vet and explain whats going on and ask them if there is anything besides rinsing with saline that would help.

Yup, he will definitely get a UTH but the CHE will work for now... It's better than what he had! I need to get another thermostat first though, or figure out how to position his cage so that I can plug his UTH into Stella's thermostat. The last thing he needs is to be burned by a UTH.

I'll see if I have any saline, or I'll get some tomorrow.

Anything else I can do for him? He doesn't seem to know what to do with a humid hide. He will sit there and stare at it or poke his head it, but he won't go in it.

He prefers to konk out in the middle of the cage than use any of his hides, actually.

lol thats awesome he must just love his new home to much to hide from it lol but he probably doesnt know the moist hide is safe yet give him time he will eventually go in, especially if you get him that uth and put the moist hide half on the uth lol

Just thought I'd give you all an update!

He is already a completely different gecko than before, and I've only had him 2! At the store he was really lethargic, and would army-crawl around in the sand with his eyes closed. One of my co-workers actually thought he was dead!
Now he is exploring everything, walks normally with his eye open, and he will get really excited and come out of his little cave when he sees me. He is very alert and curious.

He still doesn't know what to do with his humid hide though. He just stares at it, and yesterday he went up to it and started drinking water off the paper towel. He won't go in it though!

And I found some lamp dimmers on Amazon for $10, so I should be able to get his UTH this week!


I don't have any Saline eye drops though, I don't think. Like, would it just say "saline" for the ingredients, or what should I be looking for?

im so glad he is doing so well! that's great to hear, and if i were you i would go to your pharmacist and ask them if they could show you a saline solution that would be safe for rinsing your eye out with that doesn't have extra crap for contacts. they should be able to point you in the right direction ^_^

Stanley has developed some attitude LOL... He decided that the HATES being picked up! Once you get him out of his tank he is OK. But when I try to get him in his tank, he flails wildly and does a little alligator death-roll to try to espace! Poor guy. I want to help his eye, but I don't know if I should be picking him up or letting him calm down for a while and leave him alone. And I think I'm just going to call the vet on Monday and see what he can give me... If I'm going to buy something for his eye, I might as well get the right stuff!


He is eating really well though. I hand-feed him a roach nymph every night, and I was helping him find mealies. He will go after them when they are by his "good" eye, but he looses them when they crawl near the other side of his face. He has horrible aim too, so it takes him 3 or 4 tries before he can get it.