gecko dropped her tail! Please give advice!

[cthulhuhail]

Help please!! I've had my leo for a long time, she's really close to me and has never dropped her tail before. She is my first lizard, and I care about her more than anything. It's my fault, when i was taking her hides out so she could hunt a wooden one slipped out of my hand and fell on her. She got out of the way and i caught it (she is not crushed) but it was more than enough to spook her into dropping her beautiful little tail. i thought this would never happen, i should have been paying more attention and it is entirely my fault. what do i do??

i have replaced her reptile carpet with paper towels, should i moisten them? should i make her enclosure hotter? i have a small heating pad on one side of her tank under one of her hides. there are (retired) heat lamps in my house, i stopped using them. should i take one back out? she has only ever eaten crickets, i've tried to get her to eat mealworms and she never seemed interested. from what i've read in the past half an hour, i should feed her fattier foods like waxworms. will she be interested? what else should i do to make sure she recovers as well as possible?

i'm sorry if i sound frantic. things are really hard right now and I Need her to be alright. any advice is welcome

 

[acpart]

Your gecko should be able to recover. Keep everything as near "normal" as you can. The reptile carpet is fine. Anything that isn't particles is fine. If she's used to crickets feed her crickets, just be sure not to leave any crickets in the enclosure until her tail starts to regenerate. Some of what may cause her problems is having so many changes to her living conditions, so go back to how it was before.

Aliza