Finally - 5 years late: An introduction to Cleo, Carra, and Kayla

[dakski]

My experience & knowledge of these critters is pretty limited, but it concerns me that the "mouth thing" recurs. 5 times is a lot, IMO, especially combined with eating difficulties. Maybe her mouth hurts? I don't know what age these guys are getting "old" & slowing down would be "normal". I've heard the same thing about albino vision & like you, not sure whether it's all that true.

I agree the mouth thing would be concerning, except she eats with it most of the time, so there may not be a correlation there. Additionally, within 30 seconds of removing it, she will accept food. So I can't imagine it hurts her that much. If anything, it's a relief as soon as it's out.

Not trying to argue Boger, just thinking out loud here.

My experience with mouth rot is limited to a very old Beardie who ate with it, but I treated and eradicated it anyway with a few weeks of injections and daily medication rubs in the mouth/gums. Lost him soon after to pancreatitis. RIP George.

Anyway, not sure what else could be causing the mouth thing, except some shed remnants. As mentioned, it seems to occur right after sheds, when it does.

Further, she eats enthusiastically when she can catch the food or I feed her. If her mouth hurt, wouldn't she avoid eating?

As with you, my experience with Leopard Geckos is limited. I know about them through keeping Cleo, Carra, and Kayla (RIP). I did a lot of research before I got them and since, but not sure about the having issues hunting. comes from.

After writing this, I googled mouth issues with Leopard Geckos.

This picture looks like what I've seen in Cleo's mouth, but about 10X worse. As soon as I notice it all I get it out, but I've never seen it anywhere near this bad with her. AGAIN - to be clear, this is not Cleo, but another LG with greatly amplified symptoms.



Reddit says it's mouth rot caused by weekend immune system. Any thoughts on that? Can age weaken an immune system enough to cause it? Do you think this is mouth rot? Can you scrape mouth rot away? Or, yes, most of it, but it comes back - hence it coming back. Could it be something else - like an irritation? He cage is spotless and cleaned regularly and I use paper as substrate so no real room for bacteria to grow. Unless it's just her immune system not being able to fight basic stuff.

Obvisouly, I don't want her to be in pain and if she needs treatment, will definitely do it. I guess I didn't think much about it because it comes out easy and goes away for a while. Hmmmmm - any thoughts?

You all know I want what's best for her. I just didn't think this was mouth rot or something serious. If I am being naive here, please let me know.

EDIT: I checked my records. It started last year and has happened 3X - about every 5 months.