Hello,
New to the forum, looking for some help. I'm not sure how old my beardie is as I adopted him and the people I got him from didnt know his age. I have had him for three years, they had him about two so guessing he is five?
Anyway, he has always had trouble shedding. We have the correct lighting and diet. I put mineral oil on him once a week and he gets a bath once a week to help also. However to no avail, this problem on his tail is just getting worse and I am not sure what to do anymore or what it is.
I use these for bulbs: 150w UVB, 60w red night light, 75w repti basking light. He eats a well balanced diet of 30 live crickets a month, a mini salad of greens, vegy and fruit daily, along with beardie pellets. I sprinkle calcium powder a couple times a week. I have not taken him to a vet as I am seeking advise here first. The only vet in output area is on maternity leave. He has never been a good shedder either.
Yes he has UVB. I listed all the lighting in my post. He is not my first beardie, just my first with this issue. I guess I will have to wait for the vet to return from maternity leave and just keep doing what I am for now.
Hello, for starters, get rid of the red light permanently. That will disturb their sleep and cause problems. Second, you need a long UVB light. A ReptiSun 10.0 t5 tube style bulb and fixture. Is there any other exotic vets you can visit? Although it might be nothing, it might be something serious.
Are you also using a UVB LIght, too, it wasn't mentioned?
How long has he had the bumps on his tail? That is extremely unusual, I haven't seen anything that strange before.
It could possibly be warts, or fungal. The only way you will know is to have a skin scraping done & a biopsty of the tissue done to see if it is bacterial, viral or fungal in nature. They also could possibly be abscesses, too. Are they hard or soft?
Do you think he ever had any tail trauma before you got him?
What is his diet like?
You can continue to put coconut oil on the areas, it certainly wont hurt. There isn't much else to do until you can find out more about what is going on. You could consider getting lamisil or monistat which are antifungal creams, in case it could be fungal.