Shed skin in eyes, please help

I recently adopted an albino leopard gecko from my local pet store. They told me that he was probably blind and had an eye infection and provided eye drops for me to give him twice a day. To give them to him I have to open his eyes and I've realized that his eyes look perfectly fine and he responds to movement when they're open so he's obviously not blind. I've also noticed what from what I've come to realize is shed skin in his eyes. I know because when I squirt sterile water in and sort of rub his eye lid some comes out, but there's still a lot in there.
It's my first time owning one of these little guys, and I'm not sure what I should do. I was hoping that I could get some good advice. He's otherwise quite healthy and his tail is nice and fat. I have a moisture box in the terrarium with him and I put him in a warm bath to try to loosen it up also. I see him squinting sometimes but most of the time his eyes are clamped shut. I'm sure it's really irritating and I really want to help him ASAP

If you want help asap then your best bet would be a qualified herp vet. I think it's pretty unethical of a pet shop to sell you a sick animal even if they did provide drops for him, but best thing you can do is get him to a vet to get type specific antibiotics in case an eye infection has started, keep flushing his eyes with the sterile water and see how much of the shed you can get out. Do not use any bright lighting as this will only irritate his eyes more so no UV light or red lights please. Did the pet shop tell you how long he needed to be on the drops or how long he had already been on the drops prior to you're buying him? Was he even seen by a vet? If so can yuo get a record of the visit with teh diagnosis on it? was the meds hes on prescribed by a vet or something over the counter sold in pet shops? What meds do they have him on?

Welcome to the forum, by the way

I agree with Kermit that you really need to find a vet to sort out this problem as they will have the correct equipment to get the skin out safely and with the least amount of stress caused.

He was free because the lady who had him before took him to the vet for his eye problem and couldn't take care of him and just dumped him at the pet store. I've been using ciprofloxacin, because it was what the womans vet prescribed. But the stupid thing is when they handed him off to me there was like two drops left in the dropper But good thing my father is an optometrist and he prescribed another dropper of it. It's just anti-bacterial so I'm going to keep using it just in case. The pet store really didnt give me any information at all.

I've searched for a herp vet in my area and there aren't any for like 3 hours.



Thank you for the welcome, btw I really appreciate the help.

Could you try and post some pics of his eyes open so we can have a look and see if we can give you and better advice for the poor fella.



the only advice i can currently give is you might want to change the eye drops to Tiacil Opthalmic Solution as thats what my vet gave me after he got retained shed out of my leo's eye last year (1drop per eye twice a day for 2weeks) and if you have blunt tip tweezers(rounded ends) just gentle try to remove the retained shed skin but be very very careful. i've only removed retained shed once from a eye on a leo using the blunt tweezers because my vet was ill.

I'm about to put some drops in and feed him so I'll post pictures in maybe a half hour. It really looks normal for the most part except for little pieces in the corners of his eye so I'll try to get a good shot.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent picture of a close up of his eye because my camera is rubbish. But here's a picture of him with his eyes closed and his enclosure. I'm sure that doesn't help, haha but Odie is a good looking leo and I like to show him off.

I found eye irrigating solution so I may try that. I'll have to see if I can get the Tiacil. I put in some water and he opened up his eyes and I rubbed a little piece of skin out. I tried to get a picture of that too but my camera sucks.

Albino's do sometimes walk around with there eye's shut in the daylight as it hurts there eyes.



Tiacil is a perscription only eye treatment but it is the best one for this as his eyes look swollen.



be careful with rubbing his eyes that you dont make them sore, do his eye balls look ok when he opens them? only asking as my male had a little white lump in the centre of his eye where the skin that was stuck had rubbed it but it soon cleared up with the Tiacil.



he is a lovely healthy looking leo

I was just gonna say the same thing Sam, that his eyes looked terribly swollen. I really think that this needs professional intervention before he gets a corneal ulceration or worse. Since your dad's an optomatrist, maybe he would have the skills to address it.

When I open his eyes they look perfectly clear, no redness, no puss, nothing unusual except for little white pieces that move around and some are stuck in the corners. I probably will have my dad give him a look because if you think his eyes look swollen that worries me even more. I'm probably going to end up taking him to a vet though when I get paid. The biggest problem is just that I cant find a herp vet close enough to me. I cant really drive 3-4 hours, yanno? But if my father can't do anything or if I have tiacil prescribed and that doesn't work I guess I'll have to.

Haha sorry about the ballerina wallpaper 18 years old and I'm still not aloud to change it.

the eyes just look a bit puffy underneath but that could be due to the build up of skin in the bottom eyelid.

if your dad cant do anything then you'll have to take him to see a vet or find a very good reptile shop to see if they could get the skin the skin really needs to be got out tho before it causes damage and maybe even makes him go blind eventually(worse case) you could try a damp cotton bud to get the moving bits of skin out but be careful not to leave any of the cotton wool off the tip in his eye



the wallpaper is fine i used to have horses at 18yrs old

Hahaha, thank you so much for your help. I'm so happy I joined this forum everyone is so nice. I was apprehensive about getting Odie at first because of his eye issues but now I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thanks again

thats ok always happy to help were i can nearly all my leo's have issues because there all rescues so im used to dealing with them and giving advice any problems or questions just start a thread or pm me