jkratman
Member
Hi,
My five year old male rescue dragon Finster is having some trouble. I hope you can help.
I've noticed over the last month that the end of his tail is droopy when he runs. Before, he would hold the entire tail up as he ran, so the tip would sort of point at the sky. I didn't think much of it, figured he'd sprained it or something, but watched it closely.
The other day I noticed that his cage smelled awful, not like poop, more like death. There was a trail of liquid on his basking platform and I figured he had had some sort of smelly excretion, which happens from time to time. I took him out, cleaned up the cage, made sure it did not smell, and put him back, but pretty soon it smelled bad again.
It was then I noticed the smell was coming from his tail. I took a closer look and there is a small "bump" in the near center, seems to go all the way around. The scaled look slightly redder than his normal color. The section after the bump is now completely limp when he picks up the rest of his tail. It points at the ground.
He continues to eat, poop, and run. He does not care if I touch or squeeze his tail. It does not seem to be causing him any pain.
He does have a vet, but unfortunately I can't get in to see her for three days (Tuesday) because she is out of office. I called the local animal hospital and the person who answered the phone was very kind. She went and spoke to the ER docs and they said, in a nutshell, that if he was eating and acting normally, it could wait. They said his tail will likely fall off, but that was not an emergency. Yikes.
What should I do? How does this look to you? I took the pics as close as I could.
I'm wondering if maybe it was a ruptured cyst or something? What can I do?
Some background on Finster here: https://www.beardeddragon.org/threads/rescue-dragon-finster.254235/
My five year old male rescue dragon Finster is having some trouble. I hope you can help.
I've noticed over the last month that the end of his tail is droopy when he runs. Before, he would hold the entire tail up as he ran, so the tip would sort of point at the sky. I didn't think much of it, figured he'd sprained it or something, but watched it closely.
The other day I noticed that his cage smelled awful, not like poop, more like death. There was a trail of liquid on his basking platform and I figured he had had some sort of smelly excretion, which happens from time to time. I took him out, cleaned up the cage, made sure it did not smell, and put him back, but pretty soon it smelled bad again.
It was then I noticed the smell was coming from his tail. I took a closer look and there is a small "bump" in the near center, seems to go all the way around. The scaled look slightly redder than his normal color. The section after the bump is now completely limp when he picks up the rest of his tail. It points at the ground.
He continues to eat, poop, and run. He does not care if I touch or squeeze his tail. It does not seem to be causing him any pain.
He does have a vet, but unfortunately I can't get in to see her for three days (Tuesday) because she is out of office. I called the local animal hospital and the person who answered the phone was very kind. She went and spoke to the ER docs and they said, in a nutshell, that if he was eating and acting normally, it could wait. They said his tail will likely fall off, but that was not an emergency. Yikes.
What should I do? How does this look to you? I took the pics as close as I could.
I'm wondering if maybe it was a ruptured cyst or something? What can I do?
Some background on Finster here: https://www.beardeddragon.org/threads/rescue-dragon-finster.254235/
