NEW YORK - Badly emaciated, with a nasty abscess in his groin area that needs constant cleaning, Tucker is one very small, very sick and very unhappy gecko.
On the plus side, he`s in good hands -- literally, given his five-inch frame -- cocooned in the intensive care unit of the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine on Manhattan`s ritzy Upper West Side.
The only specialist facility of its kind in the northeastern United States, the center caters to a range of exotic pets as diverse as New York`s human population.
Cancer-suffering ferrets, iguanas with bone disease, parrots with blocked windpipes and even guinea pigs with chronic vertigo are treated at the clinic, which opened earlier this month to tap into a niche area of the hugely lucrative US market for pet health.
"It`s a bit of a leap of faith," admitted the center`s owner, Paul Howell. "But there`s a massive sub-culture out there of people who are ready for focused medical care for these usually left-over species."
Despite the alien environment it presents, New York City`s crowded, skyscraper landscape has long been home to an exotic menagerie with roots in tropical, rather than urban, jungles.
According to a 2001 census by the American Veterinary Association, there are close to 70 million exotic pet owners in the United States, including around 1.5 million in Manhattan alone.
The popularity of certain species is often trend driven. The 2005 pet-du-jour for ultra-chic New Yorkers is a Savannah -- a large and bizarre-looking cross between a domestic cat and a wild African serval -- which retails at up to 15,000 dollars.
Other pet choices beggar belief.
In October 2003, police charged a man with reckless endangerment after they found he was sharing his Harlem apartment with a 450-pound Bengal tiger and a three-foot alligator.
The medical center`s definition of "exotic" is a broad one.
"Essentially it means any owned pet that isn`t a cat or a dog," Powell said, adding that most patients were victims of well-intentioned but uninformed owners who had little idea how to look after their unorthodox charges.
Tucker, a spotted leopard gecko, had stopped eating for weeks before the family who kept him noticed the large abscess.
"They`re very nice people. They just didn`t know any better," said director of nursing Lorelei Tibbitts as she cleaned the tiny reptile`s wound. "We`re now trying to undo a very long time of poor care. It`s a sadly common problem."
The task of providing an exotic pet a natural life in an unnatural environment carries myriad pitfalls, some of which are hard to foresee.
One large iguana with intestinal problems was found, following surgery, to have swallowed a pair of lacy, Victoria`s Secrets panties. "They went down whole," commented Powell.
Facilities at the clinic are impressive: top-shelf radiology equipment with mammograph film for greater X-ray detail, specially adapted operating instruments for minimally invasive surgery and intensive-care units with controlled oxygen and regulated ambient and radiant heat.
Needless to say, such care does not come cheap.
Surgery and a full course of chemotherapy for a cancer-stricken ferret, for example, would cost the owner upwards of 5,000 dollars.
"To do the right thing for your pet, there`s a certain monetary commitment you have to make," said Powell.
Luxury extras offered by the clinic included flavourings with names like "Cheesie Cheddar," "Barkin` Bubblegum," and "Crispy Bacon" that can be added to medicines to make them more palatable.
"Some animals are notoriously non-compliant," explained Powell. "You find it`s easier to entice them than rough them up.
US insurers offer special policies for pets, although the clinic`s medical director Anthony Pilny said few owners bothered to take out coverage.
Diagnosing ailments among such a wide variety of animals is a constant challenge, especially the smaller patients.
"You can only take a certain percentage of their total blood for testing, so you might end up with just three drops," said Pilny.
"And you have to learn to make do with any diagnostic sample you can get," he added. "If you`re holding a pygmy mouse and it pees on the exam table, you`ve got to make use of that."
The volume of medical material on how to treat animals varies greatly from species to species, but the clinic promises to help any creature, no matter how unusual.
"Amphibian medicine for example -- frogs, toads, salamanders -- is in its infancy. We don`t know a lot about it," said Pilny.
"But regardless of what the pet is, we`ll try and treat it."

05/29/2005 12:50 GMT