Shedding issues?

Hello,
I wanted your opinion on what’s going on with my beardie. He’s eating well and active as normal but I’ve noticed a couple issues with him in the last couple of days that he’d never had before.

To start, I have him in a 40 gallon breeder with a ZooMed 100watt basking bulb and an Arcadia UVB tube light. He has a wooden basking branch and a half log to hide. He eats Dubia roaches and country greens every day. He gets calcium powder with D3 or calcium powder without D3 but with vitamins depending on the day; on one day I leave the roaches naked. Right now I have him on puppy pads as substrate because I don’t like the repticarpet much and I’m trying to find an alternative (never sand or the like, though).

Anyway, he’s a fan of rubbing himself everywhere in the tank and sometimes he doesn’t shed properly, which I think is what caused the issues below. He has a watery eye with what looks like a line of soaked skin, right along the bottom lid, which I think is irritating it. I can see a break in the line of what I think is shed skin and it lifts off the eyelid a little but I don’t know how to or whether I should remove it. I put a couple drops of Bausch & Lomb’s sensitive eyes saline solution in the eye last night and this morning the eye seemed ok and the skin along the lid more visible and lifted off the eyelid. The eyeball itself looks nice and clear but the skin under the eye itself looks a bit wet and unlike the healthy eye. I suppose the tearing of the eye from the irritation of the leftover shed is wetting the skin under the eye? Is this leftover shed? How can I gently remove it? It doesn’t look dry so maybe I can use a q-tip in saline solution to gently try to wipe it off?

The second issue is the nostril. It looks reddish on the outside and inside and sort of crusty. My guess is he rubbed it somewhere to get the nose plug out and he injured it and it bruised? What should I do to it? Diluted betadine? Leave it alone? I just don’t want him to get an infection or something.

Thanks in advance.

It looks like a pretty typical shed pattern. Shedding around the face and eyes can cause irritation but usually clears on it's own. Rinsing with the saline may help flush his eyes. You can try putting some saline on a qtip and gently rubbing at the loose skin and see if it will come free. Don't be too forceful but help it along if it's ready to go. I'd leave the nose alone for now unless it's actively bleeding or you see an open wound.

Does he have anything to rub up against like bark from a half log or piece of rough carpet like astro turf etc? Maybe that will help. I let my dragon out a lot and he tends to rub his face along the carpet in the house which helps. I don't like repticarpet as substrate either. It tatters quickly when washed regularly. I'd look into non adhesive shelf liner since it's easy to clean and you can get a variety of patterns. Fleece works well if you want something softer but durable that allows burrowing.

Thanks for your response. He definitely has places to rub himself on and he does, which is why he injures himself sometimes. I appreciate the substrate suggestions, too. He loves to burrow so I’m considering fleece. The only thing I’d have concerns about is the difficulty cleaning it when he poops. I don’t want it to be unsanitary. Are puppy pads ok? Because they’re easy to clean up, absorbent, etc.

Anyway, I ended up using the saline and a q-tip to gently remove the skin from his lower eye lid. It was basically sitting just inside he eye and I didn’t want it to irritate him. Then I flushed it with saline. His eye seems much better and looks normal.

The nose is also a little better but crusty. The nose plug is starting to pop out but it’s still reddish. He definitely rubbed it too hard against his tree branch basking spot. However, the nostril looks ok (no bleeding or an open wound), so I won’t mess with it.

Some people use puppy pads. When fleece gets pooped on I usually just throw it in the washer and dryer with a load of rags and it's fine. Holds up to that much better than repti carpet does.