Tail rot recovery

Hi, my sons beardie has tail rot, about 9cms of the tail, with total tail length being 21.5cms. We said we would self treat at home (iodine soak and antiseptic cream and lots of green healing plants) and review after a week and if it didn't improve we would go to the vet (its certainly not getting any worse although dark bit hasn't receded yet on day 5 of treatment). What I am wondering is if the tail will ever fully recover, i.e. go back to normal colour or will it stay dark forever? My son is wondering if the dark bit will fall off eventually? Does anyone know? Many thanks

Hi there, please post some pics of the tail [ while it's dry ] , many people are mistaken about tail rot and it's best to have other owners check it out. Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

Hi there,

Agreed, many people mistake it so pictures would be helpful.

Was the tail injured prior to this?

-Brandon

Hi, I've uploaded some pictures. He had a slight injury to tip of tail a few weeks ago (not sure how, hes on his own in viv) and we treated with aloe vera. It seemed to heal, but then the tail went a bit dark. I thought it was a shedding abnormality, or just recovering from the wound. I'm not sure how we didn't read about tail rot, when we read the care book cover to cover before getting one! Then my eldest son noticed the dark bit had got bigger and our beardie was slow at waking up one morn. We looked up dark tail and found tail rot, got some good info, and have been treating at home with soaking in reptile iodine and antiseptic after. We're including all things healing and green in his diet (plantain, dandelion, chickweed, nasturtium leaves, calendula/nasturtium flowers as an antibiotic treat... TIA

Your pics didn't show up [ or maybe you forgot them like I do sometimes ]

Weird, I can see them uploaded, is there something else I need to do so others can see them?

There it is. It's dark colored but doesn't look like tail rot or any injury.

Agreed. Just looks like dark coloring to me. Here is a picture of my girl Moro.

Her tail is usually pretty white, but when she gets excited or alert or stressed it turns dark like that.
Point being is that they can darken their tails just like they can darken the rest of their body, especially their beards.
I see nothing to worry about in your case

If you're interested, you can either just copy and paste the XIMG code from the user upload manager, and it will paste it as a picture, or you can use the other 3 links that it gives, but you will need to put it inbetween img brackets like this:

-Brandon

Thanks Brandon. See it wasn't dark before, and there was an injury to the tip of the tail, it was 'bleeding' at the end a few weeks back, you can see the tip better in this pic. I just think it looks like tail rot, but I am not an expert and am not trying to diss what you are saying, it just made sense with the background...the tail went dark at the tip then gradually worked its way up. It is interesting the pic of your lovely beardie with her dark tail! I hope I am wrong!;

Dark tails are pretty common in beardies but it won't hurt to continue the iodine treatment for a short while , at the least it will ease your mind since there was a small cut at the tip.

Compare tail rot to MRSA.

Just because you get a cut on your knee, doesn't mean you will develop some flesh eating bacterial infection. Just because your dragon injures it's tail, doesn't mean it will develop tail rot.
Tail rot is exceptionally rare. In fact I can't even recal the last time we actually had a case of what I'd consider true tail rot here. And we see hundreds of dragons a month come through this forum.

The closest is what happened here:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=249975&start=30#p1906184
And that was just an accident from the dragons tail touching the nebulizer. The tail got damaged enough that it died, but it didn't develop tail rot, it simply died and fell off. Of course the OP had kept the tail clean and sterile. The tail has recently just broken off at the injury point. Of course, technically, the tip of the tail that dies is in a sense rotting I guess you could say, but it's a natural process that their bodies can handle typically. And tail rot isn't really that serious unless and infection sets in.

There is a lot of misinformation out there in regards to tail rot, and thanks to a couple popular articles, a lot of unnecessary fear has been caused. Unless the tail is looking worse than the tail in the thread I linked, there is a good chance it's not actually anything serious.

Remember, the tail can get damaged, can even die in an area and fall off, all without tail rot being involved. Tail rot is a serious infection in the tissue of the tail that eats it from the inside out basically. As long as you keep the wound clean if it's open, there should be no issue.

Anyways, I'm rambling a bit but it's like looking at Webmd when you are sick. You usually read the worst and it typically is nothing to even worry about to begin with

Since their was an injury though, it would be best to keep it sterile and clean until it's healed over. Raw unpasteurized honey does great for this. Just don't leave insects in the tank. Or you can continue the iodine treatment if you'd like.

-Brandon

Ok, I hear what you're saying. I know there were a few articles, one that said try treating at home, another said there are no home remedies, blue light to the vet immediately, so yes lots of different information out there! His tail looks nothing like the one in the pictures, ouchy!!
I guess because it wasn't dark before a few weeks ago/ doesn't flash dark and then turn normal again/ there was an injury prior to it going dark, makes me think there is 'something' going on, BUT doesn't sound like its tail rot! Perhaps his wee body is just fixing itself. I will continue to soak until we are happy with it, but won't worry AS much now!! Thank you and I'll keep you posted!

I thought I would check out a pic in early September before the dark tail thing to show you the difference;