Beardie's tail squished under cup

[saintgeorge]

A glass of water fell on my baby beardie's tail. It is smashed - we think we feel shattered bone; there's a bump, and there is a 3/4 in thin cut where the cup fell. He doesn't seem much in pain. I am uploading a picture. What do I do?

 

[saintgeorge]

 

[saintgeorge]

He's now moving around on my hand and seems to be alert. My sister is going to the store to get Betadine and Neosporin to clean the cut. My mom won't be home for another half hour.

 

[Poisoned1]

The neosporin will help keep it clean, but what your beardie really needs is a vet, the tail may have to be amputated or just fixed up.

 

[saintgeorge]

Thanks. Does anyone have recommendations for vets near Newton, Massachusetts?

 

[saintgeorge]

He really doesn't seem deterred by the injury - now he's trying to climb on the keyboard and I'm trying to keep him on a clean tissue so his cut doesn't get infected. Is this injury going to be a problem in later life? And what does the average vet charge for such cases?

 

[Poisoned1]

I would wrap it up, the fact that it might be broken can cause a problem, and reptile's try hard to not show any pain because it's a weakness for predators to gobble them up.

http://www.herpvetconnection.com

That website should help find a reptile vet close to you hopefully

 

[saintgeorge]

I just want to thank everyone for all the helpful advice you gave me. When my parents got home, they were able to fix him up - my dad has decades of experience in treating cuts and wounds such as this in animals, and my mom also has an extensive background in caring for reptiles. So between the two of them, St. George has got it covered.
We moved him into a sterile 7 gal. tank with newspaper as substrate. He has a water bowl, two hides, a food bowl, and a basking spot in there. We've cleaned out his cut and right now he is basking.
As it is a small and temporary tank, we've been using a 5.5" reflector dome with a 40 watt bulb for lighting (we only have 25, 40, 75, and 100 watt bulbs, and anything over 60 watts in the 5.5" dome is a fire hazard). We also have an 8.5" reflector dome that can take 100 watt bulbs. Temps there are 85 on the basking side and 76 on the cooler side. In the big tank, we use a 100 watt "Repti Basking Spot Lamp" we got at the pet store for basking (which we keep in, and a 7.0 UVB fluorescent light. Temps in there are usually about 108 in the basking side and 84 in the cooler side. So should I use the 75 watt with the 8.5 in reflector dome for the small tank or leave it at the 40 watt with the 5.5 in dome? I don't want him to get too cold, but at the same time just using the same arrangements as in the big tank would bake him.

 

[Jiffy]

Is there any way you can put a higher watt bulb, but raise the fixture up some? Those temps do need to come up in his basking area.

 

[saintgeorge]

What I did is put the 75 watt in the 8.5 inch frame. Now the temps are around 85/95 in the cool/hot sides of the tank respectively. St. George has eaten at least a dozen crickets today (one 15 min. feeding and another brief one), so he seems pretty happy.