Extremely worried about Rocket's tail now.

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AHBD

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Keep an eye on it because there could be unseen tissue damage there and that could cause a problem. If you see fluid oozing that you are sure is neither honey or ointment then it could be pus and
there would be something serious going on.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
When I had surgery to drain and debride two abscesses on the lower left leg (result of a fall down my front steps (tripped over my own shadow) and the bruises became septic resulting in cellulitis of the leg) I ended up with a large surgical wound below my knee and another wound about 1/2 the way up shin , the big wound was packed and the would midway up my shin had was packed and a drain inserted (draining into a bag) , the bag collected a yellowish fluid that I was told was called exudate and perfectly normal when there has been trauma / surgery .

This may be what you are seeing. If it changes colour or smells or has evidence of blood in it, I suggest a vet be brought into the picture promptly.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
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Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
Drache613":3n7hcbyy said:
Hello,

That is strange coloring! Have you put antibiotic ointment on it?
It looks fine though, so if it is shedding off then hopefully it is healing up without any problems
now. Since he is active then it hasn't affected him too much.
I'm glad everything is normal with his tail.

Tracie
What type of antibiotic ointment would be safe for him? And No it hasn't been shedding off, This was the Not fully developed Scales that were developing while he was Prepping for a shed.

AHBD":3n7hcbyy said:
Keep an eye on it because there could be unseen tissue damage there and that could cause a problem. If you see fluid oozing that you are sure is neither honey or ointment then it could be pus and
there would be something serious going on.
Ok, I definitely will keep a close watch on it, Thankfully I haven't noticed any more Fluid coming out of it.

kingofnobbys":3n7hcbyy said:
When I had surgery to drain and debride two abscesses on the lower left leg (result of a fall down my front steps (tripped over my own shadow) and the bruises became septic resulting in cellulitis of the leg) I ended up with a large surgical wound below my knee and another wound about 1/2 the way up shin , the big wound was packed and the would midway up my shin had was packed and a drain inserted (draining into a bag) , the bag collected a yellowish fluid that I was told was called exudate and perfectly normal when there has been trauma / surgery .

This may be what you are seeing. If it changes colour or smells or has evidence of blood in it, I suggest a vet be brought into the picture promptly.
That's interesting, and Ok, Hopefully it's just that and nothing worse. But if it worsens I'll try to get him to a vet Asap.

Thank Y'all SO much for all of the help so far. :) Rocket and I appreciate it.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
So Rocket's tail seemed to be doing perfectly fine, Everything seemed alright, Up until around 20 minutes ago. I had him sitting on my lap while he was soaking up some sun rays outside when he suddenly started kicking his tail. I figured he was just Getting comfortable or something.

But then he turned around and started deliberately kicking the area on his tail that was injured until he ripped off a good chunk of his own skin. I have no freaking clue why he did it but Now he has a huge raw skin patch on his tail.

So I tried to not freak out and I grabbed the skin that he ripped off and Took him over to the counter to Put some honey on the wound and another bandage on it. I am exceedingly worried about him now. He's extremely jumpy right now. He saw me move just a little bit near his tail and he Rocketed off of my lap and Under the couch.

Aside from the tail he has been Doing great he's 13-1/2" and weighed in at 75 grams yesterday. But with the way his tail is Acting is really worrisome. I'm going to call the vet soon and see if I can get him Seen asap. Because the area looks infected and There is absolutely zero scales on the patch now. I feel so bad for him. :cry:

Photos:
View media item 60545View media item 61014View media item 61012View media item 61008Sorry if it's not the best photos, he flipped out when I tried messing with his tail. Also, This doesn't look like The beginning of yellow fungus does it?? :(
View media item 61145View media item 61010
[Edit] Also to add: He doesn't seem to be able to raise/curl his tail anymore. He seems to be dragging it on the ground now rather than constantly having it curled up like he almost always does. :cry:
[Edit 2] We just called the vet. Unfortunately they're closed today but we Left a message asking for an appointment for him tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. ?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Yeah that might be best to have it amputated a little way above the wound. That way you're sure the infection isn't spreading.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
I was hoping we wouldn't have to come to that. ? But if that's what's needed we'll ask and see what the vet can do.

How exactly would Amputation work? Do they give him anesthesia and Do like a sort of surgery to remove it? He'll he okay with just half of his tail right? ? Because that'd be a good 3-4 inches off of his tail. :(
 

CooperDragon

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Staff member
Moderator
Amputation is a surgery done with anesthetics. It is done to halt the spread of an infection. If performed correctly it will allow the tail to heal over and save the remaining tail. They can do just fine without a complete tail. I've also seen dragons have good lives with missing limbs. It's important that the infection doesn't spread though, so it's good to get the opinion of a trained vet.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
CooperDragon":2sfnsvde said:
Amputation is a surgery done with anesthetics. It is done to halt the spread of an infection. If performed correctly it will allow the tail to heal over and save the remaining tail. They can do just fine without a complete tail. I've also seen dragons have good lives with missing limbs. It's important that the infection doesn't spread though, so it's good to get the opinion of a trained vet.
Sorry for the late reply, been rather busy lately.

So the vet visit went rather well, Thankfully they don't think that Amputation is needed (as of yet, We'll probably determine that on his next appointment).

They are slightly suspicious of A fungal infection on The tail but she said that with the test to prove that if it really IS fungus or not that the test would take around a month and that that'd be too long and that it'd probably be too late to be sure so we didn't go with a YF test. Hopefully that was the right choice :?

So they said that it definitely is infected in some way, but they're not entirely certain of what it exactly is.

They prescribed him with 0.04 of Bactrim to give him Orally daily for 3-6 weeks and a topical ointment thing of silver sulfadiazine cream to put on the effected areas on the tail for 3-5 days. So far the tail seems to be Okay? It's less yellow and it hasn't been peeling anymore.

I'm still rather confused about it all, but hopefully this'll work for him. :)
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
A month seems like a long time for a skin test result. Hopefully the issue is bacterial and the antibiotics work well.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
I So dearly hope so.
 
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