What antiseptic is safe to use on reptiles?

Question

If my geckos get cuts or scrapes, what is safe to use to clean the wounds?

TCP? Iodine? Antiseptic? Something else?

I have a reptile-safe disinfectant that I use to clean the tank with, but there's a world of difference between sterilising an environment and applying something to an open wound. I doubt very much that it would be suitable.

I have seen products like this advertised as wound cleaner for reptiles. That's the only such product that that website sells, so I don't know what my options are. I also don't know if I can use antiseptics or TCP intended for human use on my geckos, or if it will be toxic to them.

Please bear in mind that I'm from the UK, so if you use American (or elsewhere-ian) brand names, a translation of what they actually are would be great.

Answer 1

Be careful using human products on reptiles, as they have sensitivities to particular chemicals. I'm not familiar with TCP but "phenol" is part of the name and phenols (like in Listerine, Pine-Sol, and other disinfectants) can be toxic to reptiles (Source: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Disinfectants.html

Most minor cuts might be better left alone unless the animal is delicate or in poor health. Stress from handling to treat the wound might do more harm than good, depending on the animal. Some reptile-safe disinfectants for wound cleaning are Betadine (povidone-iodine) and Novalsan (chlorhexidine diacetate or gluconate), used for wound irrigation and topical disinfectant. Silvadene (silver sulfadiazine) cream is used for burns or bacterial/fungal skin infections. Minor cuts can be treated with Neosporin Original ointment WITHOUT pain killers. Sometimes the wound just needs to be covered and kept moist, in which case plain petroleum jelly or even pure honey can be used. (Source: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-738-HONEY.aspx?activeIngredientId=738&activeIngredientName=HONEY )