My husband’s Leo is right around 1 year old, bought as a baby from the pet store. He had a bad shed a few months ago and it messed up one of his eyes. The vet removed some shed and gave us some pain drops and antibiotics. It was pretty rocky for a while and he was getting worse. He stopped eating and his other eye had a small bubble on it. Back to the vet. We were given critical care to help get him to eat and were told to keep using the antibiotics. We were also given drops to repair the lens of his eye. After a couple weeks, his eyes were no longer swollen or having any discharge, but he holds both eyes closed all the time and still won’t eat and has gotten quite skinny.
A few weeks ago, I took it upon myself to learn more myself to try to help get him better by making sure he’s eating more. I use the side of a toothpick to gently open his mouth and squirt critical care in. I know this is stressful for him, but he’s really calm when I’m doing it most of the time and I’m really gentle about it. It had just been months since he had really eaten, so I figured we had to do something. I did more research and ordered a multivitamin without D3 for him, and ordered some calcium without D3 (husband had calcium with D3 in the tank). We put a little calcium in the critical care every other day and the multivitamin every few days.
So a week and a half or so ago, we took him to the vet again since he still holds his eyes closed and won’t eat. He ignored a hornworm that we left in the tank for a few days. This was the first time I went, and I saw my husband had been applying the eye drops wrong because he was scared to force his eye open ��. The vet did some tests and said one eye wasn’t reacting to light and the other only reacted a little. Then another doctor came in later and did another test and said his eyes are actually overreacting to light. Since we don’t know the morph but know he’s albino, she speculated that his eyes are probably just very sensitive to the light. I wondered for a while if he was blind—he walks into things some times and around them other times. We can’t tell and the conflicting messages from the vet didn’t clarify it either. They also decided to do a round of injected antibiotics every three days, so he has a couple weeks left of doing that.
Since then, I’ve made sure his eyes are being opened all the way when we take him out, and we were told to keep applying the lens repair drops. Before, he would close his eyes pretty soon after, or even during his time out of his viv, but now he keeps them open for quite a while (after we open them for him). Not sure how long, I just know they’re closed again when we take him out the next day.
We’ve done a lot of research on setting up his viv and the vet says everything is great. I keep an eye on the temps and humidity like a hawk to make sure that’s not the problem. Since it got colder, it wasn’t staying as warm as it should so I bought a ceramic heat bulb and digital thermostat and temps have been great since. The only thing we haven’t done yet, but are about to, is switch to a slate substrate. The shelf liner we use just feels too slippery IMO and I’ve seen him slide when he walks around.
Does anyone know what we should do? The vet says we’re doing nothing wrong, but he just won’t eat or keep his eyes open, and we can’t tell if he’s blind or not. My husband is at the end of his rope because this has been going on so long and is looking into giving him to a rescue, but neither one of us want to see him go. But we can’t force feed him and force him to open his eyes every day for the rest of his life. Would he really refuse food until he just dies? He’s basically still a baby and it’s just so sad because we feel like all we’re doing is stressing him out. He ate a hornworm one time throughout this last few months...probably early December. I recommended a different vet, but we called another one and they said the one we go to now is the best one in the area.
Also, his tank is a 20 gal long. His moist hide has sphagnum moss and he seems to really like it.
He doesn’t react to worms in front of his face, or anywhere really. We take care of all of his needs between 9pm and 10pm and keep the lights pretty dim throughout the process (though we’ve tried with more light too).
Any help is greatly appreciated! We really have no idea what else to do. We’ve been to the vet four times in three months, not including to get injections.
Edit: also, he no longer eats his shed either.
A few weeks ago, I took it upon myself to learn more myself to try to help get him better by making sure he’s eating more. I use the side of a toothpick to gently open his mouth and squirt critical care in. I know this is stressful for him, but he’s really calm when I’m doing it most of the time and I’m really gentle about it. It had just been months since he had really eaten, so I figured we had to do something. I did more research and ordered a multivitamin without D3 for him, and ordered some calcium without D3 (husband had calcium with D3 in the tank). We put a little calcium in the critical care every other day and the multivitamin every few days.
So a week and a half or so ago, we took him to the vet again since he still holds his eyes closed and won’t eat. He ignored a hornworm that we left in the tank for a few days. This was the first time I went, and I saw my husband had been applying the eye drops wrong because he was scared to force his eye open ��. The vet did some tests and said one eye wasn’t reacting to light and the other only reacted a little. Then another doctor came in later and did another test and said his eyes are actually overreacting to light. Since we don’t know the morph but know he’s albino, she speculated that his eyes are probably just very sensitive to the light. I wondered for a while if he was blind—he walks into things some times and around them other times. We can’t tell and the conflicting messages from the vet didn’t clarify it either. They also decided to do a round of injected antibiotics every three days, so he has a couple weeks left of doing that.
Since then, I’ve made sure his eyes are being opened all the way when we take him out, and we were told to keep applying the lens repair drops. Before, he would close his eyes pretty soon after, or even during his time out of his viv, but now he keeps them open for quite a while (after we open them for him). Not sure how long, I just know they’re closed again when we take him out the next day.
We’ve done a lot of research on setting up his viv and the vet says everything is great. I keep an eye on the temps and humidity like a hawk to make sure that’s not the problem. Since it got colder, it wasn’t staying as warm as it should so I bought a ceramic heat bulb and digital thermostat and temps have been great since. The only thing we haven’t done yet, but are about to, is switch to a slate substrate. The shelf liner we use just feels too slippery IMO and I’ve seen him slide when he walks around.
Does anyone know what we should do? The vet says we’re doing nothing wrong, but he just won’t eat or keep his eyes open, and we can’t tell if he’s blind or not. My husband is at the end of his rope because this has been going on so long and is looking into giving him to a rescue, but neither one of us want to see him go. But we can’t force feed him and force him to open his eyes every day for the rest of his life. Would he really refuse food until he just dies? He’s basically still a baby and it’s just so sad because we feel like all we’re doing is stressing him out. He ate a hornworm one time throughout this last few months...probably early December. I recommended a different vet, but we called another one and they said the one we go to now is the best one in the area.
Also, his tank is a 20 gal long. His moist hide has sphagnum moss and he seems to really like it.
He doesn’t react to worms in front of his face, or anywhere really. We take care of all of his needs between 9pm and 10pm and keep the lights pretty dim throughout the process (though we’ve tried with more light too).
Any help is greatly appreciated! We really have no idea what else to do. We’ve been to the vet four times in three months, not including to get injections.
Edit: also, he no longer eats his shed either.
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