Hi,
I'm a newbie, but just experienced this and so will post my experience. My beardie is 9 months and has adenovirus, so I thought she was having a respiratory infection because she had such labored breathing and was gaping but I also knew she had been shedding. I was ready to rush her to the emergency vet when I googled the symptoms and saw someone had taken theirs to the vet and all it was a nose plug. I know your not supposed to pick at sheds, but I just took my fingernail and lightly scraped it over the nostril and it unstuck the nose plug shed and she was breathing just fine. I stopped there and let her shed on her head continue as normal.
Yes it's just shed, no worries. You can gently use your fingernail or even a tissue and lightly pull up around the outer part of his nostril, the exterior shed will lift up, and then (don't be alarmed, it's kind of gross, lol) a long string of shed will actually pull right out of his nostril. It doesn't hurt them at all, actually it has to be relieving, but I remember the first time I did this years ago to a large adult beardie and I was kind of horrified at the long piece of skin that just lifted right out of his nose!
I just searched here on plugged nostril, it says don't pull it but try to mist it to loosen. It says if you pull it might risk injury to interior nostril. I was freaked out by the breathing so I didn't pull but scraped like she would have against a branch or something.
Ok thank you both for the info. I just gave him a nice warm bath and then used a washcloth around his nose area to help loosen it up. I did try to scrape it up with my fingernail but have this fear i might damage or hurt him so i left it be :lol: I also tried using tweezers as i thought it would be easier but again thinking i might hurt him. I'll try the Q-tip suggestion and maybe that will work.
Phew.. finally got it out for him. That nice warm bath really help loosen it up then i took the Q-tip and tweezers and Voila! YAY! Now hes back to being able to breathe again!
EllenD, you are right about the string, look like a long stringy booger that came out i am like eww! But least hes able to breathe out of his nose :lol:
Right? Im thinking this long string came out of this little guy , i mean he is growing but my goodness it gets really deep inside. Right after i took it out he was all happy and moving around. Going into his food bowl is like omg! I can finally smell this salad! :lol:
Lol, I know, the first time I ran into this years ago I had taken my fingertip and tried to wipe the piece of dead skin that was sticking up on the outside of his nostril away, and all of a sudden this long piece of skin fell out of his nose...Eww. I actually thought it was a big booger at first, until I looked closely at it...