Tail rot? And then woke up to a hole in his tail!

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I'm a bit stressed! :shock:
i noticed 2 days ago that the tip of my beardies tail was looking dry and stiff. i did some research and thought it could be the start of tail rot? so i went and got Betadine and neosporin with NO pain relief. Day two of soaking twice a day i noticed all the scales started coming off as i was drying it. So with some relief i said OH it's shedding.
Cut to last night, i felt the end of the tail and it was getting more stiff, but not black. I soaked it again in Betadine and lathered with Neosporin before bedtime.
Woke up this morning and freaked out! There was a hole in the middle side of his tail??!!
I googled and found on here, that it was from a cricket! there has been one cricket living in his tank for a week that i can't get rid of because it keeps living in the grapevine basking log and finds crevices to habitat in.
so my guess is that a cricket was hungry and ate at his tail?
i took the log outside in hopes its gone.
I just soaked his tail in Betadine and put raw uncooked honey on his tail.
My question is .... is a dry stiff tail, tail rot?
And does the hole heal shut eventually?
its sunday and we don't have Reptile ER today but tomorrow i will go to my vet.
To add more to this- Norman just got done (last week) with his month round of antibiotics which we just treated for RI. so i'm surprised if he had an infection in his tail if he just finished
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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I would get him in to the vet -- it doesnt look good and if there is an infection going the raw unpasteurized is going to help and maybe stop the infection - but the dry stiff tail is telling me its dead-- and yes it would of been of been a cricket -- lets hope you got it -- I would be taking everything out and spraying w/ Zoo Meds wipe out or F10 to kill the cricket -- or at least try and find it --- w/ the coloring it looks like the infection has moved up but AHBD or Tracie would need to look at it and advise on that -- so to be on the safe side I would get him into the vet ASAP
Karrie
 

adventureswithnorman

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KarrieRee":36pc1isl said:
I would get him in to the vet -- it doesn't look good and if there is an infection going the raw unpasteurized is going to help and maybe stop the infection - but the dry stiff tail is telling me its dead-- and yes it would of been of been a cricket -- lets hope you got it -- I would be taking everything out and spraying w/ Zoo Meds wipe out or F10 to kill the cricket -- or at least try and find it --- w/ the coloring it looks like the infection has moved up but AHBD or Tracie would need to look at it and advise on that -- so to be on the safe side I would get him into the vet ASAP
Karrie
thanks for your response. Yes tomorrow i will get him in asap. i found the cricket and set him free outside.
so his tail has been all white since he was ill last month. As he got on his antibiotics and got healthy and strong again i thought it was from stress. The tail has been white like that since 4 weeks. And like i said it turned stiff 2 days ago but not black looking. Yesterday when i soaked it 10 min the shed came off, the shed was dark and his undercolor looked normal and his tail was soft and flexible.
right now he seems alert and he ate a bit on his own.
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CooperDragon

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That does look like infection but I wonder if it is progressing or not. Has the shriveled area at the end expanded further up the tail? Keep taking photos of the tail and that wound so you can reference more easily. I agree that using some neosporin and some raw honey may help heal the wound. I think the questions are has an infection set in and is it progressing. Hopefully your vet will have some answers for you. Do bring along any photos you have so you can compare and see if the issue is getting progressively worse or is static.
 

adventureswithnorman

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Original Poster
CooperDragon":hvi6i5hc said:
That does look like infection but I wonder if it is progressing or not. Has the shriveled area at the end expanded further up the tail? Keep taking photos of the tail and that wound so you can reference more easily. I agree that using some neosporin and some raw honey may help heal the wound. I think the questions are has an infection set in and is it progressing. Hopefully your vet will have some answers for you. Do bring along any photos you have so you can compare and see if the issue is getting progressively worse or is static.
i feel like as soon as he finished his last round of antibiotics for the RI the tail thing started. i have lots of photos and his tail has always been white for about 4 weeks. i thought it was the beginning of his tail shed.
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May 22

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June 9th
 

CooperDragon

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The white part does look like shed. That's not concerning me. It's the shriveled bit toward the tip combined with the wound that are concerning. The tail looks OK in the June 9 photo so it could be that the damage is progressing up the tail. I would discuss this with your vet and see if action is needed. You don't want an infection to progress too far up the tail if that's the issue at hand.
 

adventureswithnorman

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AHBD":nxn3kpt5 said:
I agree, vet may almost certainly need to amputate. That is going quickly up the tail.
Crazy that the infection is moving quickly, as he just finished his one month round of Antibiotics of Panacur last week. How does one get this?! I keep everything so clean. And his Calcium levels came back good and his temp and uvb is all right.
i'm so confused as the last 2 months have been nothing but vet visits. i grab his fecal today, so hopefully tomorrow they can test it.
 

KarrieRee

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Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
You want to stop that infection as quickly as you can - it will get into his organs and results will not be good
Karrie
 

adventureswithnorman

Member
Original Poster
CooperDragon":mdrwxjv2 said:
The white part does look like shed. That's not concerning me. It's the shriveled bit toward the tip combined with the wound that are concerning. The tail looks OK in the June 9 photo so it could be that the damage is progressing up the tail. I would discuss this with your vet and see if action is needed. You don't want an infection to progress too far up the tail if that's the issue at hand.
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i have the raw honey and bandaged it all up for the cricket hole and for the tail rot i have neosporin. BUt it's so stiff when i soak it, it doesn't bend at all :(. i have no idea how this happened.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
I know, I really feel for you because you really didn't do anything wrong. Some beardies have a slight infection brewing under the scales where it does not show at first, then sometimes it's actually mushy as it deteriorates before it looks like the shriveled part . I would guess that the amputation will actually be an inch above where you see the hole. It sounds scary but beardies do very well with amputations and recover very quickly, sometimes eating the next day. From my experience beardies don't seen to feel intense pain in their tail. Is your vet very experienced with beardies ?
 

adventureswithnorman

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Original Poster
AHBD":2g8b6kaf said:
I know, I really feel for you because you really didn't do anything wrong. Some beardies have a slight infection brewing under the scales where it does not show at first, then sometimes it's actually mushy as it deteriorates before it looks like the shriveled part . I would guess that the amputation will actually be an inch above where you see the hole. It sounds scary but beardies do very well with amputations and recover very quickly, sometimes eating the next day. From my experience beardies don't seen to feel intense pain in their tail. Is your vet very experienced with beardies ?
yes my vet is awesome. she's considered the top in my county, and she helps me with my 15 chickens too. i definitely trust her. it's just not cheap. i walk in the door and its 85$ The beardie RI cost me 1K
i just can't believe the cricket got to him last night and ate at his tail.
Does that hole go away? that was bad luck and a double whammy.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Wow, 1K for R.I. treatment ? That's super expensive. Was your dragon hospitalized or nebulized ?
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I dont know -- I have never experienced the holes in tail thing so that was a first for me -- Tracie or AHBD would be able to answer that question better than I
Karrie
 
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