Rescue Scale Rot

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YCproducedIT

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I've had Drango for nearly a week now. I rescued him from a friend who has had him for over 5 years. He recently picked up a second job to support a newborn baby, and became neglectful towards Drango, but I believe it extends beyond recent.. He was in the slightly smaller enclosure, but with an 18" T8 Reptisun 5.0 on top of the large square metal screen, had a meijer brand Daylight bulb for basking, and had calcium sand to his knees.. So I offered to take him in.

Won't eat greens or bugs, only Repta-Boost or Repashy. I put him in a 70g terrarium with fresh tile flooring, I have a 4ft T5 Arcadia UVB and a 125w Solar Glo with his basking spot sitting between 95-105 (depending on my central air being on or not), and the cool side around 80.

He clearly has retained shed, almost his entire body is covered in it, but his head was the worst with his front and back legs seeming stiff because of it. His head has warped scales from so many layers of shed, so I've been soaking him in betadine and purified water. He started rubbing his head on the bottom of the rope hammock and non of it is together, meaning only one scale at a time, not big strips like I've seen with other reptiles. I noticed one layer, revealing white wet scales underneath. After 2 layers already, it's revealed the same white wrinkly look underneath, almost like there's another layer but his scales/horns compared to the ones not peeling are already way smaller than when he started.

http://imgur.com/gallery/C1y2etG

Is this normal? Have I soaked him too much in betadine? Do dragons have like a skeletal skin layer that he's rubbed down to? He doesn't act like it hurts him, or that it's raw. Has he gone so long with retained shed that his body is wanting to go to the base and start from scratch?
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

That appears to be an area that is going to shed possibly but I can see that it is retained.
When you soaked him in the betadine how diluted was it?
Since his shed has been retained several times it will take some time for the scales to heal
up underneath.
Bless him, how is his appetite doing?
I don't think that he will have to start from scratch but it will take some work for his scales to
even out.

Tracie
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there, please post a pic from a little further away, also pics of the other areas of concern. That just looks like uneven shed, happens to most dragons but new owners mistake it for a health problem. It comes off when it's ready, definitely cut way back on the baths though.
 

YCproducedIT

New member
Original Poster
Drache613":2ixph4jj said:
Hello,

That appears to be an area that is going to shed possibly but I can see that it is retained.
When you soaked him in the betadine how diluted was it?
Since his shed has been retained several times it will take some time for the scales to heal
up underneath.
Bless him, how is his appetite doing?
I don't think that he will have to start from scratch but it will take some work for his scales to
even out.

Tracie

I've slowed the baths and brought the temp up a bit fearing he had a touch of URI, but it seems to have cleared up as he hasn't done the throat puff air push thing they do in a day or two. However, he can't seem to get enough water, I give him purified water from a spray bottle. I'll mist his nose and he'll get down and start sipping, but when I stop he gets anxious and while still trying to drink starts moving his head back and forth in search of the water source. He just wants more and more water.

His appetite is okay. When it comes to the Repashy he'll smell it and get excited and move for it, but after 1-3 little pieces he stops and closes his eyes and breathes for a couple mins before being interested in anymore. I havent fed him the Repta-Boost since receiving the Repashy but he would eat that just fine with breaks between mouthfuls.

His energy is pretty good now. For the first few days he would just sit with his eyes closed and sleep, whether basking or hiding both in or out of the enclosure. He now only does that inside the enclosure, but is actually responsive to people walking by. When outside the enclosure he high steps all around tonguing the entire living room with good breaks between distances. His back legs have both hard dry scales and moist retained shed which he jerks away in response to touch. His tail has some stiff dry scales as well with more retained shed in his creases causing him to struggle with u-turns. He curls his body in the intended direction and waives his front arm around trying to get turned. He eventually hooks foot and powers through the motion to complete the turn. The head scales still look the same, he just keeps dropping one scale at a time, some 2-3 times. Im not at home at the moment for a new picture, but here is a zoomed out point of view of the same picture: http://imgur.com/gallery/jVhcOkF

I really want it to all to go naturally but the seemingly painful response to touch in certain areas worries me is all, that's why I was soaking him probably more than I should've been.

Im trying to get him an appointment to a reptile vet but the only one nearest to me (2 1/2 hours) are booked for 4 days out, and have yet to get back to me with a slot confirmation at their soonest convenience.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Thanks for the pic....I guarantee you that is not scale rot and is not a problem in the least. I've seen these uneven sheds hundreds of times, you are worried about nothing. Please try to relax, I'm not being rude . I just want you to realize that lots of owners post with this same question many times. My own dragons shed like that more times than I can count. This is not a problem, he's fine ! :)
 
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