Leopard geckos troublesome foot

Question
I have a leopard gecko named Joaquin,and he's about 10 yrs. old. The past few years, his left back foot has been giving him trouble. Once, when he was shedding, the skin didn't want to come off and when it finally did, it was raw and slightly bloody. Ever since then his foot has been kind of finicky and I have to monitor it when he sheds and make sure the skin comes off right away. Sometimes I have to pull the skin off his foot because he just leaves it and it gets very tight, and then his foot will bleed so I slather it in neosporin and put him and some food and water in a box with paper towels till it's healed so nothing sticks to it. It heals and then if the skin doesn't come off soon enough the next time he sheds, it'll do it again.I've tried every kind of substrate to try and find the one that works the best(the calcium sand was the worst because it would stick to his foot and irritate it, I guess). Just keeping an eye on it and a little home doctoring has worked in the past. I can't afford to take my lizard to the vet, as much as I love him, I can't imaging if I had to take him to the vet every month or two for a minor problem.  His foot has scar tissue and the toes are sort of wonky looking, but he doesn't seem to mind. However,I was gone this last week, and it didn't get done properly and now his foot is swollen(it has never done that before) and red and if I try and take the skin off it bleeds profusely and I don't want to hurt him. The skin under the dead layer is very red and raw. It's not black anywhere and I don't think there's any dead tissue, but I'm afraid there will be. His leg is beginning to turn red as well which is what scares me. I'm worried he'll get blood poisoning or something.I know that this is serious, but what I'm looking for is your honest opinion. What would you do with no money and a ten year old gecko? Taking him to the vet and running up a couple hundred dollar bill is absolutely not an option; we.are.broke. But at the same time I can't just do nothing. Is there anything I can do? I am also very curious about why this has been a chronic problem for him. No one at the pet stores knew anything about it. I'm assuming it's some sort of skin condition and or a bacterial infection. I may go to the vet and beg for mercy rather than sit by and watch him suffer. I don't know what else to do. Please help me. Tell me anything.

Answer
Honestly, I don't know a ton about Leopard geckos, but I didn't want to just not answer at all. All it might be is that he has a more difficult time with the regular shedding process, so would need some changes in enclosure in order to help. Generally, shedding problems, chronic and otherwise, can be treated by raising the humidity in the enclosure, and occasionally soaking him in lukewarm water.

No matter what, don't "help" him out of his skin. If it's not ready to FALL off, then it's not ready to come off. I'd just increase the humidity, change the substrate to something non particulate (like tile or something that can't aid an infection), possibly raise the temperatures a little bit, and see what happens.

Good luck.