malnourished dragon with an open wound and a bad arm

[ersl12]

Hello,

i've acquired this dragon from a person who was not able to feed her properly for couple of weeks. She is very malnourished (skin and bones basically) and now i just turned on the light and saw an open wound on her leg. I've had her for a day and fed her some repta aid yesterday as well as some crickets. I'm very worried, when she walks (if she does) she doesnt seem to have any control of her paw/arm past the injury. I can see bones through the wound as skinny as she was. There might have been one or two crickets hiding in the tank overnight that i did not see and i hope they did not cause this damage. I don't have the funds to go to a vet at the moment so would really like some advice here first. If i have no choice i will go to the vet though.
I am upset and feel like this is my fault somehow.

Thank you, here are some pictures

 

[fez09]

OH my goodness, poor tiny little baby!!!! Of course a vet visit is always recommended but you can also get some betadine (or povidine) from the store and mix it in some warm water to make it look like weak tea and soak her arm in it, then very carefullt pat dry and apply neosporin. Do you have the proper setup for her? What type of UVB does she have and what are her temps? What tpe of thermometer do you have? Is she eating much??

 

[ersl12]

Her set up is perfectly fine and the temperature is completely normal. We have another dragon who is perfectly healthy with the same tank set up, supplies, and temperature. Throughout the day there were a few small blood spots on the paper towels (I am currently using them for her substrate). I soaked her arm in the Betadine and put some Neosporin on it and it looks slightly better and it's not as bloody.

It's hard to tell if perhaps a cricket hid and overnight did this, or because she is so frail, maybe just sitting or moving against the log we have in the tank did this. She was very malnourished from the previous owner, so I know that is not helping this. If she was healthier and more of a normal size, this "cut" definitely would have not been as bad. She is not eating as much as she should, so we are feeding her Repti aid (2 days so far).

It was hard enough getting her in the condition she was in and saving her from that, but now this. If it gets worse, the obvious option would seem to amputate it, but the fact she's so skinny and malnourished, we feel a vet may not even be able to operate on her. If she doesn't get better in a day or two we'll take her to a vet.

 

[ersl12]

We ended up taking her to the vet and sadly we had to put her down. Already suffering from malnourishment (she's 4 months old and you can see how small and frail she is), she lost so much blood.. there was basically no chance, and nothing could even been done because she was so small and skinny. We're so sad, she would have been a beautiful orange translucent adult

 

[nair88]

so sorry to hear that you had to put her down

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Oh how sad! I'm sorry you had to put her down. That's too bad that she was not taken care of properly.

 

[ersl12]

Thanks everyone. Those pictures don't even show how bad it got, half her arm was just blood, and since she was translucent you could see it all. It was horrible. Her whole arm was basically limp and she couldn't do anything with it and just kinda drug it along. So that on top of being malnourished was just too much. I'm sad to see her go so soon, but at least she is out of her misery.. I can't imagine what it was like for her. I wish we could've gotten her sooner from the previous owner so we could have fed her properly.. it's a shame he didn't take care of her, but we did the best we could, and at least we took her into a good home, even if it was just for 2 days