What Is Wrong With My Leopard Gecko's Eyes?

Is there a foreign body in your gecko's eyes?

Is there a bump under your leopard gecko's eye that suddenly appeared?

Is your gecko holding its eye shut, trying to clean the eye with its tongue, or scratching it?

Is the pink tissue that lines the lids around your gecko's eyes inflamed?

Did the gecko's eye came out of the eye socket?

A foreign body is something in your leopard gecko's eye that shouldn't be there. This could be a piece of gravel or bedding, food, retained skin, or anything else that isn't normally found around an eyeball. The material can get stuck or lodged in the eye socket and cause a variety of issues if it's not removed promptly. By using cotton-tipped applicators, saline rinse, and sometimes eye lubrication, your vet should be able to remove an irritating foreign body from the affected eye.

If you notice a bump under its eye that suddenly appeared your gecko has developed an abscess. The abscess could be because of a cricket or mealworm bite, or your pet may have scratched itself on a branch or other object in its tank. Sometimes geckos that live together fight, and any resulting wound may cause an abscess to form. Regardless of the reason for an abscess, your vet will need to drain it and clean it out.

When a foreign body gets stuck in the eye or the eyeball suffers some other trauma, an ulcer may form. This happens when the cornea (the clear outer coating of the eye) is damaged. An ulcer is a tear in the cornea, which may be small or very large. Eye ulcers are very painful. If your gecko has an eye ulcer, it may be holding its eye shut, trying to clean the eye with its tongue, or scratching the ulcer with its foot. If the veterinarian finds an ulcer, he will prescribe special eye drops and your gecko will need to be rechecked in a few weeks to make sure the ulcer is going away.

Conjunctivitis is the technical name for pinkeye, an inflammation of the pink tissue that lines the lids around your gecko's eyes. One of the primary causes of conjunctivitis in a leopard gecko is an unclean terrarium. Because conjunctivitis in leopard geckos is typically caused by bacteria, treatment often requires an antibiotic eye drop or ointment.

Proptosis is probably the worst type of eye issue a leopard gecko can have. However, it's also the least common. Proptosis means the eyeball comes out of the eye socket. The only way this can occur to a leopard gecko is if it's squeezed so hard that its eye pops out. If proptosis occurs, the eye usually has to be removed by your exotics vet.

Check your gecko after it sheds its skin to be sure it also shed its eyelid lining. If the conditions in its terrarium aren't humid enough, the eyelid lining may stick to the eyelid and be retained after shedding, which can lead to an infection. Never attempt to remove a retained eyelid lining yourself. This is a job for an experienced veterinarian only.