Beardie Purchase Turned into Rescue - continued from ER

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RMBros

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Since my guys (?) seem stable, I'm re-starting this thread here rather than maintaining on the ER discussion.

For the complete story, you can read here:
https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=221109
Didn't see anything against cross-posts, so I hope that's okay.

Quick summary - purchased two beardies off of Craig's List. One is super healthy (Tastic), one has foot rot on both back feet, tail rot, and what looks like some sort of impact injury on the right back leg (Pirate - looks like he's (?) going to lose the right foot, at least up to the ankle, and my kids are darkly funny).

I missed the injuries during a very cursory pre-purchase inspection - long story, but it was a hurried exchange at my place of work.

Took over care last Tuesday and Pirate already seems to be improving a bit.

Looks like at least two toes from the left rear foot will make it through - black area is smaller and what I thought was completely necrotic is turning back to a more normal skin color.

Right rear is still clearly going to be lost, but maybe only at the ankle - I was worried about the whole leg.

Black area on tail seems to be reduced, so hopefully, what is left of the tail (about 1/2) will be saved.

We're basically doing baths twice a day, followed by polysporin (no pain killer) on the affected areas.

Supplementing diet with syringe-fed dense calorie stuff.

Pirate is fairly active (compared to Tastic) and still climbs fairly well - now even moving the right rear leg to try to help out (wasn't doing that at the beginning).

All the black rot/necrosis seem to be from bites - we saw that Tastic was biting Pirate's feet and tail, so we separated them.

On the plus side, both seem fairly hand tame, so no trouble handling and bathing.

My kiddos are enjoying their new pals and they're getting to participate in the rescue portion, so I think it will be a positive experience all the way around - assuming we can completely stabilize Pirate.

Thanks to everyone for advice and all the info contained in previous threads - both have helped a ton.

I'll post pics and updates here.
 

CooperDragon

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I'm glad to hear they've stabilized. Hopefully they continue to heal and thrive under your care. I look forward to reading updates about their progress =)
 

RMBros

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Tastic (the healthy one) had his first shed right before Christmas - all went well. A tiny delay with the tail shed, but seems to have shed that last bit a day or two after the rest.

Pirate lost the necrotic part of his tail over the holiday break - just dropped off with no trauma. I did a quick examination of the black bit and it looked almost like charcoal; no bone evident at all, just a black dried-sponge looking piece.

Feet still look rough, but he is using the healthier foot more than before. Pirate also seems to have more energy and willingness to feed.
 

RMBros

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The necrosis has continued a bit after the tail fell off.

After Christmas, Pirate lost most of the severely damaged foot - really only the ankle left.

Last week, the middle toes on the less damaged foot broke loose and were only hanging by a tiny bit of skin, so I trimmed the skin and removed them.

They had actually folded all the way back, exposing the healthier skin underneath the necrotic/blackened toes.

No reaction or bleeding at all when I trimmed them loose.

Looks kinda strange, but Pirate is now a metal head beardie - his back foot looks like the classic metal goat head: :headbang:

Having a hard time getting either to eat their veggies - I picked up some baby food (squash) and I'll give that a shot.
 

RMBros

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Super stoked about how well Pirate is doing lately - the better of the two rear feet actually started to swell a bit after I made my last post, but in the last couple of days, the swelling has gone down and the skin over the missing toes seems to be taking on a more normal look.

His appetite has improved as well - crickets beware!

On the bad side, the other rear foot is gone entirely and the leg up to the knee is shriveling and looks to be ready to turn black/go necrotic.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Poor little guy...hopefully it will turn out O.K in the end. One thing that would help any of those wounds....keep them dry and put raw honey on it. Constant bathing can actually increase the bacteria level [ offer water with a syringe or eyedropper on the snout ]....honey is a natural moisture barrier, kills about any type of bacteria and promotes healing because it contains amino acids enzymes + nutrients. But the honey must be raw [ unpasteurized ] to contain the antimicrobial properties. Here's a link to some great info on use of raw honey on wounds including very graphic photos , scroll down past the writing :
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjQx9j_y6DKAhVMhhoKHUxeBTIQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evet.dk%2Ffiles%2FHoney%2520for%2520Wound%2520Care%25202.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGacBLxBFj8nZ2PA4kGFhyGguSTDw&sig2=Ei0Yaep3KWqmXXuN3QLVPw
 

RMBros

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Original Poster
I've been bathing, then putting on neosporin.

I'm afraid the honey would make a sticky mess - any way to avoid that?

Forgot one other plus - my wife agreed to dedicate a built-in bookshelf to creating a larger habitat.

One more item on my to-do list, but I think it will provide a much bigger space and look a lot more stylish.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
As long as you don't have loose substrate it will be fine, but it would keep the foot from getting scraped up if you put a small band aid on it after applying a dab of honey. You can cut the bandaid to size before putting it on. Then just check the wound every 3 days or so and apply new dressing .....the honey doesn't stick to the wound either, so you don't have to worry about that. Just don't leave any loose crickets in the cage at any time. Your set up looks good, lots of climbing areas just like they prefer. :) As long as you don't think he's rubbing his foot and irritating the wound on anything. And while they are still healing you can keep them in their present tanks and save the bookshelf enclosure for the future. That'll give you plenty of time to work on it and get it just the way you want it.
 

RMBros

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Original Poster
Whooooaaa, those are some brutal pictures.

If honey fixed those, I may have done Pirate a disservice by using neosporin.

Honey plus bandaid might work, so I'll give that a shot on the peg leg.

Does any type of bandaid/adhesive work better than others?

Thanks!
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
You can use whatever type you can manipulate enough by cutting with scissors to get it to cover the foot. Even a bit of gauze with a small piece of medical tape.
 

RMBros

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Original Poster
Tried honey, but couldn't get the bandaid to stick.

I just turned Pirate loose and, of course, he decided to spend the night with his back feet soaking in the water dish (does anyone else's beardie spend a ton of time soaking?) and likely washed all the honey off.

The leg looked GREAT after all of that....for about 6 hrs.

After that, it has started to look even worse than before.

I may forge ahead with both honey and neo and just deal with the mess - maybe pick up the water at night, so we don't have a repeat of the long spa session.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yes, definitely get the water bowl out. Soaking in water, especially for a long time is going to increase the bacteria entering the wound and keep it from healing.
 

RMBros

Member
Original Poster
Update pics and a surprise

Thought I'd post a few more pics to show how well one rear foot was doing and how poorly the other was doing.

84914-3188934014.jpg
How the tail is healing - not perfect, but a ton better than when we got Pirate.

84914-2689569784.jpg
I think this foot (left rear) is healing as nicely as can be expected.

Compare it to the "before" pictures and you can see that all the blackness is gone and there are even two toes left on the foot.

Now for what I thought was going to be the bad news - right rear foot is totally gone and it looked like it was going to be an extended natural amputation process.

84914-9329430954.jpg
Sorry it's a bit blurry, but this is what the leg looked like before bath time.

Less than five minutes later, I was working the leg a bit when Pirate was in the bath and felt something snap - the whole black part and a sheath that went all the way up to the knee came off.

84914-8386681173.jpg
Not very pretty, but all the black is gone and there is a semi-healed stub on the end - no exposed bone as there is in the tip of the tail.

Leg is still swollen, so we could still lose the whole thing, but, for now, it doesn't look as though it is rotting.

84914-3632122968.jpg
This sorta gives some perspective on how swollen the right rear leg is - hopefully, the necrosis is over with and we can work on the swelling, but the leg is a little raw/exposed on the underside, so I'm going to have to keep it coated with honey/Neosporin for a while.

I think this is progress.
 
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