Cancerous tumor, full tail amputation, recovery?

[AHBD]

Sounds good, I would really like to see how things go and will watch for any updates about Agni and pictures are always appreciated !

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Absolutely post pictures of Agni, anytime you would like. We all love to see progress of
everything, & how he learns to adapt to his body changes. I am happy that he is bright
& doesn't have a black beard right now, either.

Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

Hi everyone!

Agni seems to be recovering well! It's been slightly over two weeks, and he is bright and walking around a lot and starting to get his appetite back, and starting to take little poops again. It's been far enough out that he is off pain meds now and just on the antibiotic and a little supplementary baby food.

I did send an email to my vet, though, because I'm a little concerned about the color of the scales right on the incision line. They look pretty dark. I don't know if I that's just damage from the stitches and is normal, or if that's some kind of necrosis starting that I should worry about. Does this look weird to you guys? Some of the dark gunk is leftover scab material from the actual operation... the incision is not actively weeping.

I'm calling the vet first thing Monday morning... they are closed on Sunday!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Agni looks great! Bless him. I am glad he isn't on the pain medication anymore, they are kind of
hard on them.
It really looks clean, the scales look normal to me & not necrotic. It is possible that it could be some
dried blood perhaps? It is great the wound isn't seeping, so hopefully there isn't anything else going
on with it.
Let us know what the vet says on Monday.

Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

Hello,

Agni looks great! Bless him. I am glad he isn't on the pain medication anymore, they are kind of
hard on them.
It really looks clean, the scales look normal to me & not necrotic. It is possible that it could be some
dried blood perhaps? It is great the wound isn't seeping, so hopefully there isn't anything else going
on with it.
Let us know what the vet says on Monday.

Tracie

Thank you, Tracie! I will let you know! I think it's probably fine, but I'm such a worrier... we've come so far that I don't want one little weird thing to throw off the rest of his recovery! It also doesn't help that I haven't been able to find any images of health scales at an amputation site to compare to...

 

[Drache613]

Hello!

No worries, I completely understand. After everything he has been through I would definitely want
to be sure that nothing else was going on again.
I hope he is doing well!

Tracie

 

[Lilith86]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on Agni. It looks like everything is okay for now. I talked to the vet, and she said that it's possible that the scales distal from the sutures (down the tail rather than towards the body) may die and fall off due to lack of blood supply, but that would be okay. I would only need to worry if it looked like tissue was necrosing above the suture, towards the body. I also asked if they wanted me to put any silver sulfadiazine cream on the necrosing scales, like I had done on the dry tail rot at the whole beginning of this experience. She said that was not needed, since he's still on the Enrofloxacin for a few more days.

Needless to say, I will be keeping a close eye on this. And I may call back and ask if I should put the silver sulfadiazine cream on after we stop the oral antibiotic in a few days, just so he has some kind of antibiotic support while that tissue is dying off.... but do you think that the moisture from the cream would make it not dry out and fall off properly?
... ugh. So many questions. I hope the vet is not annoyed with me.

The main thing is that Angi is very active and seems alert and happy, and his appetite is continuing to improve! He ate 2 silk worms in one sitting yesterday (normal for him is to eat 6 silk worms once per day). I did give him some watered down green bean and corn baby food via oral syringe just to make sure he's hydrated, because he still can't take bathes, and he hates being misted (does not lap it off his nose, just shakes his head).

Below is a picture of he amputation site, for those interested. The incision is shaped like an upside down T. The horizontal incision looks really good, no discoloration. It's the vertical incision that has 2 rows of darkened scales below the suture line, which look like they are necrosing and will fall off.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Honestly, I don't see any issue with applying the silver sulfadizine cream as needed, as a simple
precaution. Be sure to keep her hydrated though, since she is on the Baytril, too.
I don't think the moisture would affect the tissue in the manner of it not sloughing off properly.
It sounds like Agni is doing great, that is excellent. I'm happy he did eat a couple of silkworms
for you also.
Please keep us posted on his progress.

Tracie

 

[beardie3]

How is your progress? I'm currently waiting on picking up my beardie on a partial tail amputation surgery aswell. They said it went well, and he is also an older guy, they say over 7 for sure

 

[Lilith86]

Hi everyone!

I'm pleased to report that Agni is doing well! He is eating, drinking, and acting normally. He still does his little goofy run around the apartment, and he climbs around on stuff just fine! He just went to the vet to have the sutures removed, and the senior vet there decided that it would be best to debride the area of the dying scales. I don't think Agni was super happy about that, because he was black bearding, but it is much better than risk of infection developing under those dying scales. So this is what the amputation site looks like now.

We're still giving him hydrotherapy every other day (running the amputation site under luke warm water for 2 minutes) and applying the silver sulfadiazine ointment over the area where the removal of dead scales left some raw tissue that needs new skin to grow over it. But other than that, he's doing very well (milk thistle supplement still happening too because he is just a constipated boy).

Yay!! I will keep you guys updated and will hopefully be able to show you what the amputation site looks like after being fully healed in a few weeks!

Thank you everyone for your support! I'm glad we have a happy ending here!

 

[Lilith86]

How is your progress? I'm currently waiting on picking up my beardie on a partial tail amputation surgery aswell. They said it went well, and he is also an older guy, they say over 7 for sure

Hi there!

I'm sorry your lizard is having to go through this too, but I am very glad to hear that the surgery went well!

I think the thing that really helped my boy is that the vet kept him until they were sure he was stabilized, and when he got home we followed post surgical care instructions really religiously. We also made sure that he was hydrated and getting calories every day, on top of the pain meds and oral antibiotics.

We ended up syringe feeding him about .35 ml of watered down dragon safe baby food every day I think worked really well to keep him hydrated and comfortable with those meds, even when he wasn't interested in bugs for like the first week after surgery. We were also on enrofloxacin oral antibiotic for quite a while, and two different types of pain meds. He was not the happiest about getting all that shoved in his mouth every day, but we just tried to be as gentle with him as possible and he got used to it.

We also had to be suuuuper cautious about picking up his poop immediately and making sure he didn't get it on himself. You can't bathe them for a few weeks after surgery, but you also don't want the wound to get infected. But we also knew we couldn't realistically be deep cleaning his tank on a daily basis. So we outfitted his cage with easily disposable cheap bath towels (to give him some padding and comfort) and with paper towels on top of that. It made clean up a lot easier for us, especially when my husband and I were both working. If he did get any poop on him, we had a spray bottle with water that we would use to moisten the dirty area, then scrub gently with a toothbrush with some antibacterial hand soap, then spray again and pat dry with a towel.

It's a lot the first two weeks after surgery, but you can do it! I found making a daily check list helped me wrangle everything and not get anxious about forgetting something.

If you don't mind me asking, what was the reason for your dragon's partial tail amputation? Cancer, too?

Please feel free to share picture of your baby to this thread and to update it I hope they have a good recovery!!!

 

[AHBD]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on Agni. It looks like everything is okay for now. I talked to the vet, and she said that it's possible that the scales distal from the sutures (down the tail rather than towards the body) may die and fall off due to lack of blood supply, but that would be okay. I would only need to worry if it looked like tissue was necrosing above the suture, towards the body. I also asked if they wanted me to put any silver sulfadiazine cream on the necrosing scales, like I had done on the dry tail rot at the whole beginning of this experience. She said that was not needed, since he's still on the Enrofloxacin for a few more days.

Needless to say, I will be keeping a close eye on this. And I may call back and ask if I should put the silver sulfadiazine cream on after we stop the oral antibiotic in a few days, just so he has some kind of antibiotic support while that tissue is dying off.... but do you think that the moisture from the cream would make it not dry out and fall off properly?
... ugh. So many questions. I hope the vet is not annoyed with me.

The main thing is that Angi is very active and seems alert and happy, and his appetite is continuing to improve! He ate 2 silk worms in one sitting yesterday (normal for him is to eat 6 silk worms once per day). I did give him some watered down green bean and corn baby food via oral syringe just to make sure he's hydrated, because he still can't take bathes, and he hates being misted (does not lap it off his nose, just shakes his head).

Below is a picture of he amputation site, for those interested. The incision is shaped like an upside down T. The horizontal incision looks really good, no discoloration. It's the vertical incision that has 2 rows of darkened scales below the suture line, which look like they are necrosing and will fall off.

Hi everyone!

I'm pleased to report that Agni is doing well! He is eating, drinking, and acting normally. He still does his little goofy run around the apartment, and he climbs around on stuff just fine! He just went to the vet to have the sutures removed, and the senior vet there decided that it would be best to debride the area of the dying scales. I don't think Agni was super happy about that, because he was black bearding, but it is much better than risk of infection developing under those dying scales. So this is what the amputation site looks like now.

We're still giving him hydrotherapy every other day (running the amputation site under luke warm water for 2 minutes) and applying the silver sulfadiazine ointment over the area where the removal of dead scales left some raw tissue that needs new skin to grow over it. But other than that, he's doing very well (milk thistle supplement still happening too because he is just a constipated boy).

Yay!! I will keep you guys updated and will hopefully be able to show you what the amputation site looks like after being fully healed in a few weeks!

Thank you everyone for your support! I'm glad we have a happy ending here!
[/QUOTE]
Glad to hear it, I hope that Agni continues to do well and have no further complications ! Raw honey is always good on any type of wound.

 

[beardie3]

Hi there!

I'm sorry your lizard is having to go through this too, but I am very glad to hear that the surgery went well!

I think the thing that really helped my boy is that the vet kept him until they were sure he was stabilized, and when he got home we followed post surgical care instructions really religiously. We also made sure that he was hydrated and getting calories every day, on top of the pain meds and oral antibiotics.

We ended up syringe feeding him about .35 ml of watered down dragon safe baby food every day I think worked really well to keep him hydrated and comfortable with those meds, even when he wasn't interested in bugs for like the first week after surgery. We were also on enrofloxacin oral antibiotic for quite a while, and two different types of pain meds. He was not the happiest about getting all that shoved in his mouth every day, but we just tried to be as gentle with him as possible and he got used to it.

We also had to be suuuuper cautious about picking up his poop immediately and making sure he didn't get it on himself. You can't bathe them for a few weeks after surgery, but you also don't want the wound to get infected. But we also knew we couldn't realistically be deep cleaning his tank on a daily basis. So we outfitted his cage with easily disposable cheap bath towels (to give him some padding and comfort) and with paper towels on top of that. It made clean up a lot easier for us, especially when my husband and I were both working. If he did get any poop on him, we had a spray bottle with water that we would use to moisten the dirty area, then scrub gently with a toothbrush with some antibacterial hand soap, then spray again and pat dry with a towel.

It's a lot the first two weeks after surgery, but you can do it! I found making a daily check list helped me wrangle everything and not get anxious about forgetting something.

If you don't mind me asking, what was the reason for your dragon's partial tail amputation? Cancer, too?

Please feel free to share picture of your baby to this thread and to update it I hope they have a good recovery!!!

Thanks for your reply and so happy for you with the recovery
He started getting tail rot but I'm not sure how it started but it was spreading fast. We rescued him from a neglected home late last year though.
My guy unfortunately passed. He never ended up waking up after surgery

 

[Lilith86]

Thanks for your reply and so happy for you with the recovery
He started getting tail rot but I'm not sure how it started but it was spreading fast. We rescued him from a neglected home late last year though.
My guy unfortunately passed. He never ended up waking up after surgery

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that! My condolences. I know it is never easy losing them <3

 

[beardie3]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that! My condolences. I know it is never easy losing them <3

Thank you! He was an older guy, but not sure how old. But I can just feel the love from him since we got him. As soon as we started helping him he was always excited to see me,. I absolutely adore every moment . They really are special animals . Again I am so happy for you that yours is still with you.