It was.
Two bleeding Leopard geckos were dropped off at her work. They are a mated pair and had laid several clutches. The owner was shocked to discover both of them bleeding and attacking each other (forgive me while I roll my eyes. How can you breed lizards and not know that it is often violent and mean?!? And that you can't leave them together?!? Anyways....) The owner didn't know what to do with them, did not want to take to them to a vet, and left them at the pet store. The pet store employees took them to Beth who called me.
I got them home and realized that ALL of my 10 gallon tanks are in use! That's never actually happened to me before. I had to leave the geckos in their boxes and run to the pet store where I picked up two 10 gallon tanks and a hide. My husband was nice enough to clean them out for me while I doctored the geckos.
The male has the fewest cuts. He is missing a LOT of toe tips from bad sheds. I managed to work a couple more stuck shed pieces off and they came off with more pieces of dead toes. I'm going to have to work on him some more later. I started with him first and was anxious to get to the female.
The majority of his wounds are on his hands and feet. I treated them with a Betadyne solution and then coated them with a light coat of Silvadene antibiotic cream. He's got a little hard lump on his chin too that we'll have to decide how to treat.
The female is a MESS! She's in bad shape and bled the most. She has two nasty bite wounds to her head along with a severe head tilt.
I sent the pic to my vet and asked if it could be pain related or neurological. He isn't sure yet but gave me instructions on how to treat her for the next two days (including pain meds). You can tell the poor baby is in a LOT of pain. Anytime you get near her head, she starts thrashing and rolling her head.
Her back foot is in bad shape too. At first I used a Q-tip soaked with Betadyne to treat her wounds but eventually just put her in the bath to soak. I got all of her stuck shed off and she lost two toes. :(
The top of her tail looks like ground beef from all the bite marks. :( She may decide to drop it instead of trying to heal it. I tried to help clean it and treat it as best as I could.
Both geckos are now in a good set up with clean water and a hide. The male is eating already and the female had pain meds. I'm too tired to decide what to name them tonight. They *were* a mated pair. I'll wait until tomorrow to let them know that their relationship is over. I don't think either one will complain too much about it. :D
On one side of my kitchen, I had all my vet supplies set out:
On the other side, I had my bread baking:
That pretty much sums up my life! ;) Reptiles on one hand, motherhood & life on the other. I hadn't intended to pick up bleeding geckos today, but that's the thing about rescue-- it's never predictable.
