I rescued my little gecko from animal control a year ago, and I have been 2 reptile vets in the Bay Area since. I don't know how old he is. He is a wonderful gecko with a nice temperament, so I have tried to help him.
Right when I got him I realized he had a whitish thing about 1 in long "growing" out of his pre-anal pores - it was as wide as his pre-anal pores too - maybe a 1/4'' wide. It wasn't a prolapse. The vet basically pulled it out of him and left a sore on his underbelly. The vet called it a hormonal secretion build up - she wasn't sure. It looked infected. I gave him medicine. He healed up pretty quickly. Then I saw the thing growing back just a few months later. It started as little white sheets of skin. No irritation. It wasn't his shedding skin either. Then Dec. 2012 he seemed to be getting the big "plug" sticking out again. It quickly progressed to looking very infected. He was biting at it so it looked bruised around his lower belly. I took him to a new reptile vet… She started by pulling the plug out again. It was very infected. She felt his lower stomach and found a large hard lump inside. She put him under anesthesia and pulled the 2nd thing/tumor out through his anal pore sore from inside his body. It was very large (about 1x1''). She said she had no idea what it was and gave it to me in a preservative bottle so I could have it tested. She had me put the same cream on the sore and give him antibiotics by mouth for 2 weeks. He stopped eating much at all for months but he was so plump to begin with that it didn't affect his weight much. The whole thing really upset him.
I've been watching his pores for the last 6 months, since he last went to the vet. Recently he had a new "plug" coming out of his most central pre anal pore. So the middle one looked clogged with a tiny "plug" and I pulled it out myself, leaving a small sore behind. This was a month ago. He has shedded twice since then. His belly and feet have had trouble shedding so I usually help. 2 sheds ago, I pulled the skin off under his belly right at the anal pore site, which kind of pulled out the new light colored plug (maybe it's a scab?) and left behind an uninfected, pinkish little hole which I dabbed his cream on and healed quickly. Then after his most recent shed about a week ago, I decided to leave the skin at his sore site alone to make sure the little hole healed. Until yesterday… I pulled off the little piece of skin and under it looked like a little smooth pink piece of tissue/tumor protruding just slightly through that same center pre anal pore.. I touched around it and it feels like that's just part of a larger thing inside him (very similar to the thing the infected thing vet felt and removed that he had been biting at). It's the early stages this time and maybe someone could remove it with less difficulty than last time. The area seems red and inflamed today so I am thinking it might be infected again. I also think that's why his previous owner took him to animal control to get rid of him.
Regarding husbantry: I keep a clean water bowl in his cage as well as a bigger, under-tank heated pool of water made with a ceramic bowl. He eats mostly meal worms and some wax worms. I used to keep crickets all the time but he is afraid of them. I dust all his worms with high quality multi and calcium/D3. He is way too small for a mouse - about 6'' long in total. He was tested at the vet for parasites and has none.
I know very little about all of this, and my reptile vets know very little. This will definitely be an ongoing problem and I am going to have to give him up if I can't find some way to manage this. It's a very expensive issue and stressful.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Basically what I'd like to know is if anyone has ever encountered the recurring tumor my gecko has. Also, is it possibly malignant? He has had the tumors for at least a year.
