Swollen toe / infected?

Hello,

We adopted a 12+ month old male dragon sixteen days ago. I feel that the original owners took pretty good care of this guy, with the exception that he was probably not close enough to his insufficient 5.0 UVB and basking bulb. I have corrected his basking situation with the appropriate 10.0 UVB bulb, distance from it, and cage temperature.

We noticed last Friday that the outer toe on his right front foot was becoming swollen, so I started taking daily pictures. Th size does not appear to have changed much to today, but there is definitely some increased redness, discolored scale, and two small spots of bleeding that were not there the first two days. When we got him, his substrate was one of those sand mats, and they had a real log hide with bark on it in his cage as well. Our new reptile carpet was finally delivered on Saturday, so the sand mat was remove, and I also removed the log hid for now as we’re not sure if the bark or sand mat could have caused this injury.

We are scheduled to leave him with the vet all day tomorrow, so that they can see him when they have time, but I wonder if we could still deal with this at home. There is no other swelling in any other digit or joint, and the redness underneath has me suspect that he got poked by the bark or the sand mat. I see no foreign object in his toe, we have been soaking it daily, and applying Betadine to the bloody areas underneath.

Could the pros weigh in with their options about taking him to the vet tomorrow? Does that seem necessary at this point, or could we potentially resolve this ourselves?

Here are three pictures of his toe. Thank you for any help you can offer.

Hello,

He could have caught his toe on something, which can definitely cause some trauma. I am
not real familiar with those sand mats but that is a possibility. Did they have a mesh hammock
perhaps that he could have ripped his toe or toenail on?
If it doesn't appear to be spreading as an infection would or the swelling isn't increasing you
could try to self treat for awhile. It doesn't look necrotic right now. You can continue to apply the
betadine daily, & soak it. You could use antibiotic ointment on it or raw, unpasteurized honey on
it too for help with warding off infection.
Does it seem to be bothering him?

Tracie

Drache613":2vfzkgr9 said:

Hello,

He could have caught his toe on something, which can definitely cause some trauma. I am
not real familiar with those sand mats but that is a possibility. Did they have a mesh hammock
perhaps that he could have ripped his toe or toenail on?
If it doesn't appear to be spreading as an infection would or the swelling isn't increasing you
could try to self treat for awhile. It doesn't look necrotic right now. You can continue to apply the
betadine daily, & soak it. You could use antibiotic ointment on it or raw, unpasteurized honey on
it too for help with warding off infection.
Does it seem to be bothering him?

Tracie

Click to expand...

The original owner did give us a hammock, but it was not in the cage with him when we picked him up, and we verified with pictures of him the first week that we had him that his toe was not swollen at that time. We did actually watch a cricket get a leg stuck between two pea sized rocks glued to the sand mat, so it is definitely possible that his nail could have become hung up on the mat.

Starting yesterday, it does appear to be bothering him. He appears to be favoring that arm a bit when we hold him, and he’ll pull it away from us and wave it around if we touch it at all. I looked very close at the palms of both front feet and would say that the one with the bad toe looks a little puffier than the other at this time.

So your inclination is that he may have twisted or broke his toe, and does not necessarily have a foreign object stuck in it? Is the increasing redness, discoloration and spots of blood signs of healing, like festering out, or getting worse in your opinion?

We are having issues feeding him, mainly fruits and vegetables, but that has been since day one. We’re not sure that he ate his greens very well for his past owners. He will currently eat 2-9 crickets/roaches per day, and whatever fruits and vegetables we can get into him by gently placing small thin pieces between his lips to trigger a response. Some days are more successful than others. He’s currently a little over 18” and weighs 484 grams, if that helps.

I have Mupirocin USP, 2% for n hand, is that safe to use on his foot?

Thank you very much for your input!

Picture comp of his front feet this morning:

Hello,

Poor guy, it does look a bit swollen in the pictures you posted. I'm sure that it probably is
hurting some. He likely caught it on the sand mat or on the bark somehow. You can go
ahead & use the Mupirocin on his hand, that should be fine.
I don't think anything is in or caught in his scales or any bones are broken, but he definitely
hurt or strained that area. It might be slightly infected so I would watch that closely & it it
continues to get worse or the swelling increases he may need a vet visit.
The diet sounds fine, no problem with that. They are very stubborn about eating their salads
but hopefully he will start to soon.
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

Drache613":1rerm01e said:

Hello,

Poor guy, it does look a bit swollen in the pictures you posted. I'm sure that it probably is
hurting some. He likely caught it on the sand mat or on the bark somehow. You can go
ahead & use the Mupirocin on his hand, that should be fine.
I don't think anything is in or caught in his scales or any bones are broken, but he definitely
hurt or strained that area. It might be slightly infected so I would watch that closely & it it
continues to get worse or the swelling increases he may need a vet visit.
The diet sounds fine, no problem with that. They are very stubborn about eating their salads
but hopefully he will start to soon.
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your input. We will continue with our treatment plan for now, and have an in-office vet appointment scheduled for next Tuesday if needed. Thank you again for all your help.

Hello,

You are very welcome. I hope his toe starts to feel better soon. Let us know how things
are going for him. Did he eat anything today?

Tracie