Help Young Beardie, Pics, Tail Rot Or? What To Do?

[darknezz]

This is my first beardie and I got him from a friend a few weeks ago. A week ago I noticed about half an inch of his tail was darker and all dried up hard and dead looking. I did research and figured it is tail rot, I've been giving him baths allot, that part of the tail was shedding but most of the scales have came off now. A week later it has spread more. I'm going to start dipping in betadine, giving daily baths and putting mineral oil on it. Is this what I should be doing? If it doesn't get any better I'll have to take to a vet I assume.

He is very active and eats good, no signs of being sick, hes a very friendly guy too.

Any opinions on if this is really tail rot and what else I can do about it would be greatly appreciated.

Here's my setup:
The bulbs I am using are a compact flouro Zoo-Med Repti Sun 10 UVB desert and a Zoo-Med 75w UVA basking bulb. The flooring is new repticarpet and theres a heat pad under the tank. I feed him small crickets daily coated with reptivite every other day and romaine lettuce in between crickets. Clean fresh filtered water changed every day. I monitor the temps and it stays between 95 and 105 during the day, right under the basking light, and doesn't go below 70 at night. I have not been monitoring humidity however.

Here's some pics.
You can see where the tail starts to get hard a little above that on the live part of the tail it is greyish.

 

[MissT]

Hey there!

I think you may well be right. It does look like tail rot and it looks like it is spreading. Personally, I would take him to a reptile vet asap to have it fully assessed. I hope he is feeling better soon

T

 

[darknezz]

I'm wondering if there's anything I can do in the meantime though, I know a vet bills gonna kill me...
Does anyone have experience with this taking them to a vet? Like what the vet does, antibiotics, amputation, and such?

 

[darknezz]

Please does anyone else have any suggestions or opinions? I'm starting the treatment today and will see if it gets any better over the weekend. I'll also be going down to a reptile only pet store where I personally know the owner and hes very knowledgeable to ask him about it and to locate a vet around me that actually works on lizards. Next week I suppose I'll have to go in even though I don't really have the no money...

 

[BaskingBaby]

It looks to me as if the tail was caught on something and is going to dry up and eventually fall off. I would just keep it REALLY clean, I think some people recommend bathing him in betadine solution once a day. A vet trip would be ideal though...call around just to see how much office visits are, you might be surprised.

 

[vickson420]

Hello,
It does appear to be a bit more then tail rot.It may have started that way(an injury could have done this also) but it is rapidly spreading most likely due to lack of blood flow and infection.If you look at the last pic you can notice the graying which is the infection moving upwards.Unfortunately the tail area that is affected has to be removed ASAP.The infection will continue further up as well as invade the blood and other organs.I know this isnt the news you were hoping for and I am sorry.You need to get him to the vet to have the area removed as there really isnt a home remedy for this.It is a fairly simple procedure so it shouldnt to bad a cost just try your best to use a herp vet as they will know better how far up to go to remove the infection.

 

[darknezz]

I've been doing the betadine once a day and it seems to be helping a little.
There is only 1 vet within 100 miles of me that will work on reptiles, I'll be calling them Monday to see when they can see him... Thanks for the responses, basically confirming what I thought. Hopefully the vet wont charge me TOO much, or maybe work out a payment plan with me.

 

[darknezz]

Just to follow up on this... For the vet just to look at him they would have charged $80, at first they would'nt tell me over the phone how much a tail amputation would be but after many tries and finally getting mad and demanding to talk to the actual vet and not the beotch secretary he said it would be at least $300 plus antibiotics... And its cash upfront, no payment plans accepted. So that just wasn't possible.

Anyway I I've been washing the tail off and putting betadine on it once to twice a day for the last few weeks and the infection stopped in its tracks almost imediatly, the already dead part of the tail dried up further and fell off. I've been continuing the betadine but will probably stop soon as there is no sign of infection anymore.

Hooray for a $15 bottle compared to $380++!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hello! Sorry to hear about your beardies tail. How long ago did the deadened part of the tail fall off? Is there any exposed raw tissue?
In the case that there is... along with the betadine/water soaks you can also apply a triple antibiotic, such as Neosporin to the area. Try and keep the area as clean as possible.
Good luck and keep us updated on how your beardie is doing.

 

[darknezz]

It fell off about a week ago, it came off clean no tissue, the end of the tail healed over.
I pick out his cage every few days and totally clean it with peroxide once a week, including washing his hammock, rock, ect.

I think hell be fine, hes just got a shorter tail now :?

 

[techdave]

Good to hear that he's going to be ok.I would take out the undertank heater. The basking light is sufficient to keep him warm.