Cancerous tumor, full tail amputation, recovery?

[Lilith86]

Awww, I truly hope for a good outcome ! I can't imagine how nervous you are. It sounds like he's in otherwise good health and should tolerate the surgery. Best wishes to Agni and you, his family !

Thank you!

Update: we did pre-anesthetic blood work, which came back great. They said they have quite a few beardies in the hospital for surgery right now, and even though Agni is the oldest, he is the healthiest! Hopefully this is a good omen!

 

[AHBD]

Glad to hear it !

 

[Lilith86]

Glad to hear it !

Update: Agni is out of surgery and currently recovering well! We will have another update tomorrow as he continues to recover in the animal hospital for a few days. He will be on plenty of pain meds (lizard friendly form of morphine) and will be a sleepy boy for a while. Hopefully we can take him home on Friday (after we take the OTHER lizard also to the vet, for a toe/stuck shed problem. Hopefully after this we will be done with the vet for a while!)

The vet said that she got pretty good margins, so there's a good chance this will cure the cancer.

She said he still has a little stump of a tail, but because the tumor was more on one side than the other, it's a little asymmetrical now (I'm impressed they could keep any tail, so I'm happy). They also ended up having to remove the hemipenes because there was not enough room left to hold them in what was left of the tail-- they would have continued to prolapse and that would have been another surgery. So that's not great, but it's much better than being worried about prolapse all the time!

Now, we just wait for him to come home to a nice, clean, super comfy post-op modded tank....

 

[AHBD]

O.K, so far so good ! As for the other dragon's toe, can you post pics here to see if it's something we can help with ? If I dont reply right away it's because I'll be out cutting grass for a while.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Oh bless him, I hope everything goes well after his surgery. I hope that they are able to get everything
in the area so it doesn't come back. Poor guy, he lost both of his hemepenes too? He will recover &
since he wont have to suffer through prolapses or another surgery that is good to hear.
When will he be able to come home?

Let us know how he is doing!

Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

O.K, so far so good ! As for the other dragon's toe, can you post pics here to see if it's something we can help with ? If I dont reply right away it's because I'll be out cutting grass for a while.

Hi AHBD! No problem!

So this is a picture of my leopard gecko's foot immediately after I was able to pull the shed off. It's red at the tip, and I can't tell if it's just the nail or some of the flesh that is also black... I'm hoping it's just the nail and maybe the nail will fall off and re-grow?

Since we're driving all the way to Fairfax again to pick Agni up after surgery (still doing well in recovery!) we just made a vet appointment to have them look at the leopard gecko's toe too. (The front facing picture is from a while ago, the one where you can see that he's about to shed again is current).

We have a dedicated humidifier and humidity meter for him (always between 30 and 40%, tough lately on the high end around 45%). But today I'll be making a moist hide for him today with some wet paper towels and tupperware, just in case that makes it a little easier on him. I'll change out the paper towels every day and rinse with soap every few days.

I'm also currently dabbing some of the silver sulfadiazine cream the vet gave me for Agni's tail onto the leopard gecko, Annyeong, 's foot. Seems to be helping! It looks less red today. Still a black bit at the end. I'll try to get a new pic for you guys later tonight when I clean out his cage.

 

[Lilith86]

Hello,

Oh bless him, I hope everything goes well after his surgery. I hope that they are able to get everything
in the area so it doesn't come back. Poor guy, he lost both of his hemepenes too? He will recover &
since he wont have to suffer through prolapses or another surgery that is good to hear.
When will he be able to come home?

Let us know how he is doing!

Tracie

Thank you! We are hoping to take him home Friday afternoon (tomorrow)!

 

[AHBD]

The toe doesn't look too bad, a moist hide should solve the shedding problems. I have one for my 6 yr. old leo and never had a problem. I don't change the paper towels every day because it stays pretty clean [ I just add a little water every few days ] and I only wash it out every once in a while. When you do, make sure to rinse very well so there's not even a hint of soapy smell.
Glad to hear that Agni will be coming home tomorrow !

 

[Lilith86]

The toe doesn't look too bad, a moist hide should solve the shedding problems. I have one for my 6 yr. old leo and never had a problem. I don't change the paper towels every day because it stays pretty clean [ I just add a little water every few days ] and I only wash it out every once in a while. When you do, make sure to rinse very well so there's not even a hint of soapy smell.
Glad to hear that Agni will be coming home tomorrow !

Yay, thank you for the guidance! Good to know it can stay clean for a few days. Do they tend to avoid it if there is a hint of soapy smell? That is very good to know and I will try to make it as neutral smelling as possible!

 

[AHBD]

Well reptiles often taste + smell stuff with their tongue so you know how soap tastes if you don't rinse a glass well before you drink from it and animals in general don't like the smell of soap or chemicals at all. Just a real good hot rinse does the trick so it should be no problem.

 

[Lilith86]

Update! Agni is home and doing well! The vet did a great job! He is much brighter and more aware than I thought he would be. He is already a little mobile around his tank, inspecting things, and I got him to eat a few silk works! He looks a little dehydrated around the eyes, I think he will be feeling a little better soon. I misted him, but he was not into it and gave me a black beard.

So the doc has him on meloxicam and tramadol for pain, which I think is great. And an antibiotic (enrofloxacin). We will also continue with the milk thistle liver supplement to help him not get constipated again. We will re-check in 6 to 8 weeks to remove sutures.

Below is a pic of his tail nubbin, which is actually more than I thought he'd have! The vet apologized for the asymmetry (due to the placement of the tumor) but I think it turned out great given where we started from. And he still looks cute!

We had a tornado come through today and almost didn't make it out the door... so we have had to reschedule to toe check for the leopard gecko (tornado made us miss the only opening they had today). We're hoping to reschedule for some time next week and will watch it until then and continue to apply the antibiotic ointment.... Does anyone know if I should be expecting the leopard gecko nail to fall off like a damaged human nail? How do these things play out usually?

 

[AHBD]

Wow Agni looks good, I hope that everything turns out alright and that the cancer is gone ! As for leo's toe, it looks irritated but I don't know that it's actually infected. Not sure if it'll fall off or not.

 

[Lilith86]

Wow Agni looks good, I hope that everything turns out alright and that the cancer is gone ! As for leo's toe, it looks irritated but I don't know that it's actually infected. Not sure if it'll fall off or not.

Thanks! I'm going to just keep an eye on the leo's toe and take him to the vet if it doesn't improve. Thanks so much for all your help and support!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I agree, Agni looks really good! That is surprising he actually ate a couple of silkworms, too. He
should start to feel a lot better once he gets a bit more hydrated & the anesthesia has fully worn
off, too. I am surprised too that he still has some tail left & hopefully he wont have anymore trouble
with things.
I don't think the gecko's toe is infected but keep putting the antibiotic ointment on it, or some raw
honey to help it out. It should heal up for him soon.

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to update you all, Agni is doing great (I think). He is getting less grumpy about taking meds by mouth twice daily, and he seems to be healing well. He is bright and alert, crawling around his baby proofed cage, so he's fairly active for someone so soon out of surgery.

He hasn't eaten anymore silk worms yet (he was thinking hard about it yesterday but ultimately rejected them), but I have been sneaking in an extra oral syringe of about 3 ml of various lizard friendly baby foods per day when I give him meds, trying to focus on the green ones rather than the sugary ones. He has not started to drink yet, but he does (mostly) tolerate me misting him down, though he hasn't lapped any water droplets off his nose.

The surgical site looks pretty good to me. The vet said that a little bit of a scab is fine, as long as it's not dry and all the other tissues don't look inflamed, and it still pretty much looks like that today. We'll be taking him back in 5-7 weeks to have the sutures removed.

Annyeong, the leo, seems to be improving too. The flesh of his toe is pretty much back to normal color, it's just the nail that is still black. I'm just keeping an eye on it at this point. I tried to make him a damp hid out of tupperware, but I think it's actually too small! He already has two hides, and one is near the corner where he poops.... don't really want to make that damp... so we might try to get a longer tank for him and then just get him an actual cave furniture hide and try either paper towels or moss to trap in the furniture.

I gotta run now, but pictures later if people are interested!

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate you all so much! I'd like to periodically post updates on this thread until Agni is fully healed so I can give you a happy ending to our story