On Dead Toes | Leopard Geckos | Page 1

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 12:08 AM

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TL;DR: My leopard gecko has a dead toe from stuck shed. Thought it would fall off at some point, but it's been weeks and it hasn't. What do?

I adopted a leo approximately 5 weeks ago, from a friend who bought a pretty morph at an expo without any prior intention or planning. They've taken decent care of her but I'm still dealing with a couple of knock-on effects regarding their health and habitation that I'm looking to improve. Most notably: they didn't appear to be good at removing stuck shed from toes. And unfortunately, since I am a new keeper, I didn't identify it as stuck shed at first, and it was left unremoved for about a week (plus however long it was stuck with the prior owner). One of her front toe-tips constricted and has since remained very grey-and-white, even after I emergency-bathed her and removed the shed with cotton swabs. I am completely certain that it is dead. It's been a few weeks since this has happened, and I was under the impression that it would at some point fall off, but I'm wondering if I'm mistaken in that. All the online guides focus more on preventing this than dealing with it, so it's hard to know where to go from here. Advice?

For the worried parties, don't worry, she has since successfully shed in my care, and I was proactive in searching for (and have successfully removed) stuck shed since.

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Forgive the calcium powder in the shot, she's started sleeping in the food bowl

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native nest Jul 29, 2025, 3:35 AM

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the resolution here isnt super great, but it does take time for a toe to fall off. the most likely time for it to come off is with a shed so if she hasnt shed with you just yet, that could be it

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:15 AM

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A shed has happened

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Wish I had a better camera

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:15 AM

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yeah a higher res image would really be helpful here

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because it looks to me like theres still shed there

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:16 AM

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I definitely removed it. Or, some?

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More photos will have to happen after work tomorrow

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:24 AM

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i mainly think that because necrotic toes are a super deep red/purple almost black

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:25 AM

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You see, THIS is information that might be useful in any of these guides

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Found some photographs I took at/around the incident

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:29 AM

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hang on let me see if i can pull up a photo of my leos dead toes when she had those

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:29 AM

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Photo 1 is as-found, photo 2 is after bath and removal, same day, photo 3 is after she shed, about a week later

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Is that the red-black you're looking for?

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:30 AM

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there we go

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yeah last photo

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that toe tip is definitely dead

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:31 AM

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That's what I thought

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...lmao, the dead toe has more shed stuck on it doesn't it

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That's what we're seeing there isn't it

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So I should just expect the toe tip to fall off on its own eventually? Anything I should be worrying about that isn't immediately obvious? Anything I can do to make it less painful?

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:37 AM

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indigo oak ...lmao, the dead toe has more shed stuck on it doesn't it

yeah thats what i was thinking

native nest Jul 29, 2025, 4:38 AM

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indigo oak So I should just expect the toe tip to fall off on its own eventually? Anything ...

id say yeah the easiest thing would be to wait for it to fall off but since its already been several weeks you may need to take her into a vet to get it removed

indigo oak Jul 29, 2025, 4:39 AM

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Okay. I'm gonna clean up the shed tomorrow and see if it doesn't come off then. If it doesn't, it might have to wait another week since we're moving in a couple days :/

indigo oak Jul 31, 2025, 12:58 AM

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Okay, did a soak and then tried to remove any stuck shed I could with a cotton swab + my fingernails. Not sure how successful I was.