What did I do to my leo???

[Pixie]

I was giving some food to my leos when I noticed that one of them seemed to have strange dark spots on her shoulders. I picked her up for a closer look to find dark scabs or gangrene! I am totally flipping out now!

A quick history of the past couple months with my leos: I had some treated and the others given a preventative treatment for worms with Panacur. This girl wasn't particularly affected but since she had some contact with an infected gecko me and my vet decided to give her a preventative treatment. She lost some weight due to losing her appetite over a few weeks and only recently started eating again. At first not much and very picky of which food items and after back to her old piggy self. She was brought back for a follow up visit at the vets when she still hadn't gotten her appetite back a bit less than two weeks ago.

She was given a shot of vitamins and antibiotics and I was given 4 follow up shots to give her. I was showed on how to do them, sub-cutaneously in the upper "arms". Since her first shots her appetite zoomed back to what it was and I can actually see a difference already in her tail. But today I find these "injuries" on her and I am freaked out. They are obviously due to her shots as they are in the exact locations that they were given.

Does anyone know what could have possibly done this??? Could it be the medication? Unfortunately, I don't know which antibiotic she was given as the syringes were preprepared for me and don't have tags...

Could it have been my poor execution of giving her the shots? I did it exactly the way I was shown and I do have some nursing training so I have a bit of practice on humans and understand the differences between sub-cutaneous, submuscular, etc...

Of course I am bringing her back in to the vet's first thing in the morning but is there anything I can do now? I'm thinking of putting some polisporin on but it'll be really hard... Since all the commotion with the shots she's afraid of me now... :( and I don't blame her, poor thing...

A very distraught Pixie...

I'll try to take some pics to show you what it looks like

[Pia]

Polysporin is good or peroxide in an eye dropper or syringe might be easier to get on her. Getting her to the vet like you are is the best thing. Don't feel bad, you obviously care about her and have her best interests at heart. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Just an extra tidbit of info - You can get polysporin eye/ear in liquid drops which I find is easier to administer than the ointment. I used it on a White's tree frog that had a scratch under its eye and another that had rubbed its nose raw, with excellent results.

[snakehunter]

i was given meds for my snake, and they said not to be alarmed when the pigment gets darker, this could be it, but im not sure, i was useing Fortaz, and Batril.

[Sean Day]

Hi Pixie
Could it be some sort of bruise from the needle? Not sure about herps but I no a person who gets a huge bruise every-time she gets a needle.

Sean

[Pixie]

Just when I went to get my camera to take pics, I realized I lent it to a friend... Aarrggh! It is not bruising unfortunately, they are scab like spots at the injection sites and it looks like the top skin of those areas is dying off...

I'm seeing the vet in an hour an a half so I'll have a better idea of what it is and especially how this happened.

It looks as if it's something that could heal over a couple of sheds as it is quite superficial. I just hope that it's not spreading... I especially hope that she's not going to get more shots!

What a nightmare...

I'll post an update later today when I get back from the vet's.

Pixie

[The_Omen]

I am curious to which antibiotic was used in the mix..
I am sure the vitamin was a B12 mix, which is typically a dark brown/orangish color, which can 'stain' the skin on thin skinned animals like leos.
In combination with antibiotics, which are dehydrating, it can sometimes make the dark coloration more prominant, due to the dehydration effect in the injection area.

Antibiotics alone, especially baytril, on the other hand, can cause slight tissue discomfort in the area and sometimes will leave a slight harmless abcess under the skin. The majority of the time, the abcess will go away.

Another point to consider is the gauge of the needle used.
Smaller is better on small animals, as long as the medicine can easily flow out of the syringe. If not, then the meds can most likely be thinned by using an injectible saline to dilute it.

Think of the needle size in comparison to our size.. if we were to get an injection from an apportianately sized needle, it would be like getting a shot with a 1/2 inch pipe.
Yes, we would bruise AND possibly get some damage to the skin and tissues just from penetration alone.

[Colonel SB]

It could also be brusing.