Shed Retention on Tail HAVE A VET APPT But Not Until Monday

[EgansFamily]

Hello all. I am new to the forum and have had my Beardie, Egan, for 3 months now. Prior to Egan I had several Iguanas, a Chamelion, a Ball Python, and another Beardie. My first Beardie was full grown and a rescue. Egan we got as a small baby. She will be 6 months old on the 14th (Valentine's baby).

I was aware of the issue of shed retention and did try to watch and make sure she shed completely after every shed, but this week when she finished shedding, we didn't notice that part of her tail about an inch up her tail did not shed properly and was left with scales all around it, about a quarter of an inch in length. We did not notice it until it had been a day and the color of that part of her tail had begun to change color. I immediately gave her a warm bath and picked the retained shed off with tweezers, but it was too late, the tail had already begun to die. I called the reptile vet and the soonest appointment they have is 10 am Monday. They said she should be ok until then and will likely need surgery to remove the dead part of her tail.

I am keeping neoisporin on the tail in hopes of preventing spread or sepsis, but does anyone else have tips on how to care for it or anything we should do in the time until the vet can see her?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, Egan is such a little beauty. You are taking care + doing what you can for now. Just be sure your vet is experienced with reptiles....amputation will not be too painful and she should bounce back very quickly from it.

BTW, do you have pics from before you picked the scales off ? The reason I ask is because sometimes pulling the scales off can also damage them.....not saying that's what happened but care must be taken when assisting a retained shed.

 

[EgansFamily]

Hi there, Egan is such a little beauty. You are taking care + doing what you can for now. Just be sure your vet is experienced with reptiles....amputation will not be too painful and she should bounce back very quickly from it.

BTW, do you have pics from before you picked the scales off ?

Unfortunately do not have any good pics as it was immediate panic. The tip of her tail still had color, but about a quarter of an inch of the way up it was dark grey/black and rigid for a half inch. When I got her in the bath the tail got flexible again and the color changed back closer to normal after a few minutes. It had me hoping that I caught it on time. This is the only pic I have before removing the shed and it was taken on my crappy LG cell phone camera (miss my old iPhone's camera!).

The darker grey is what turned black after she dried from her bath.

 

[EgansFamily]

Oh and yes, this is a reptile vet. It's 45 minutes away, but came recommended by all of the non reptile vets I called first.

 

[EgansFamily]

Is there nothing else we can do for her? Just wait for the vet?

 

[AHBD]

Yes, just keep the neosporin on it and when the vet sees it he'll take care of it .

 

[EgansFamily]

Yes, just keep the neosporin on it and when the vet sees it he'll take care of it .

Just feel so awful and helpless. She is eating and acting normal, but I just wish there was something we could do. It sucks not having more reptile vets in the area. This place is always packed.

 

[AHBD]

Yes, it's good that she's eating and once the dead part is cut off she'll do just fine. I know it's sad that that has to happen but she can live a very normal, healthy life like that.

 

[EgansFamily]

Thank you. We will love her no matter how nubby her tail is, she is such a love and she's so pretty. Still sad she had to go through this. Definitely will be hypervigilant about sheds going forward!!

 

[EgansFamily]

Egan went to the vet today to have her tail amputated as scheduled, but the vet didn't do the procedure. When I called last week they wouldn't schedule us any earlier than today because this was the soonest they could do the procedure. Today they said that they had overbooked and could not do the surgery and sent us home with antibiotics. We are going back on Thursday.

I'm pretty angry that they made us wait so long for the appointment only to make us wait longer. The damage to her tail has not progressed at all, but they did make her bleed during the exam (it has not bled at all before the vet touched it). I think they are more of a bird vet than a reptile vet and I am researching other options to try and get her in somewhere better before thursday. It's extra dissapointing since several vets I did call recommended this place. I feel this vet is just trying to nickel and dime us by breaking it up into two appointments instead of doing necessary surgery. Egan is eating, pooping, and acting normally, but we're still worried.


Here's a picture of Egan and my Service Dog Saxon at the vet today.

 

[AHBD]

Yes, that would be disappointing....at least it hasn't gotten worse and the few days shouldn't make too much difference. Hopefully they really know what they're doing when it comes down to the cutting. That's not difficult really, they just need to do the cut a little way above where the bad part ends. Some people have done this type of thing at home when it's a very minor part to be removed.

 

[EllenD]

That's extremely disappointing for you guys, the more stories I read from people on here about their vet experiences, the more appreciative I am to have both a great certified reptile vet and a great certified avian vet. Apparently they are few and far between.

I don't know why they would have made her tail actually bleed, that was unnecessary and it also makes her tail more open to new microbes and infection. You can tell just by looking at the photos you've posted that she definitely needs her tail amputated above the necrotic tissue and far up into the remaining healthy tissue. There's no question at all about needing an amputation ASAP, as I've seen many, many, many cases of tail rot and even just infections in beardie tails that haven't even started necrosis where the reptile vet did an amputation right on the spot during the very first appointment because they didn't want to play with fire.

It's probably good that they put her on antibiotics, but I have no explanation as to why they didn't just do the amputation, it literally takes no more than 20 minutes to do the entire procedure, including the nerve block, the amputation, and then the wound dressing/suture. And if they made you wait weeks for this appointment and then when you got there told you that they didn't have time for you, I'd be not going back there after this situation is taken care of. That's just unprofessional and unnecessary. The longer they wait, the more of his tail he's going to lose...

I'd keep the appointment on Thursday, don't cancel it, but there's no harm at all in looking around for another experienced reptile vet that can see her before then. I'd call around and explain what this vet did, and explain that you're really worried about letting her tail go for so long. It can't hurt to try.

If you show up on Thursday and they again say they can't do the amputation for whatever reason, or if they try to talk you out of doing it or asking you to wait longer to have it done, then I'd be out of there. I hope it's not a situation where this vet doesn't know what he's doing and is trying to prepare...Is this a reptile vet, like a specialist, or is it just an "exotics" vet? I've lost all faith in "exotics" vets after reading numerous posts in the last couple of months from people who took their beardies to one out of desperation. I've seen everything from "exotics" vets prescribing antibiotics for fungal infections or for parasites, a lot of them running absolutely no tests at all and just prescribing a broad-spectrum antibiotic out of desperation, like "Well, I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm not going to do any cultures or blood work, I'm just going to prescribe an antibiotic and hope it helps"... I've never really thought about it until recently, but calling themselves "exotics" vets simply means that they see pets other than dogs and cats. So they see reptiles, amphibians, birds, rodents, basically everything, but they specialize in nothing.

Just keep her tail clean, keep doing what you've been doing, and the antibiotics aren't going to hurt her (though they might upset her tummy, you might want to give her probiotics while she's on the antibiotics, if they're oral antibiotics and not just topical)...I'd start looking around for a reptile specialist too, at this point it's definitely worth driving a few hours to see a competent reptile vet...

 

[EgansFamily]

That's extremely disappointing for you guys, the more stories I read from people on here about their vet experiences, the more appreciative I am to have both a great certified reptile vet and a great certified avian vet. Apparently they are few and far between.

It's extra upsetting because this vet was recommended to me by other vets when I called asking for a recomendation for a reptile specialist for my Bearded Dragon.

I don't know why they would have made her tail actually bleed, that was unnecessary and it also makes her tail more open to new microbes and infection.

I don't think she did it intentionally, she was rough moving the tail back and forth during the exam and actually broke the skin. It looks worse today. I'm so glad for the antibiotics because I think she damaged the tail further than it had been, it is now grey behind where she broke the skin. I gave her a bath and put the ointment on her tail and wrapped in in bandaids.

You can tell just by looking at the photos you've posted that she definitely needs her tail amputated above the necrotic tissue and far up into the remaining healthy tissue. There's no question at all about needing an amputation ASAP, as I've seen many, many, many cases of tail rot and even just infections in beardie tails that haven't even started necrosis where the reptile vet did an amputation right on the spot during the very first appointment because they didn't want to play with fire.

It's probably good that they put her on antibiotics, but I have no explanation as to why they didn't just do the amputation, it literally takes no more than 20 minutes to do the entire procedure, including the nerve block, the amputation, and then the wound dressing/suture. And if they made you wait weeks for this appointment and then when you got there told you that they didn't have time for you, I'd be not going back there after this situation is taken care of. That's just unprofessional and unnecessary. The longer they wait, the more of his tail he's going to lose...

I told them that she had retained shed resulting in tissue death when I first called last week. I told them the tail was rigid and black and needed to be amputated. They still booked us out a week. It's only been one week, not multiple, but it still is too long, I think. Then yesterday they insisted they could not do the surgery until Thursday. Claimed they overbooked. I just don't understand why they wouldn't leave the 20 minutes for her tail when she's already had to wait a week! The boyfriend thinks it's that they're trying to nickel and dime us by breaking into two appointments. Whatever hte reason, it's horrible they're allowing Egan to go needlessly long without surgery. I'm definitely dissapointed in this vet.

I'd keep the appointment on Thursday, don't cancel it, but there's no harm at all in looking around for another experienced reptile vet that can see her before then. I'd call around and explain what this vet did, and explain that you're really worried about letting her tail go for so long. It can't hurt to try.

If you show up on Thursday and they again say they can't do the amputation for whatever reason, or if they try to talk you out of doing it or asking you to wait longer to have it done, then I'd be out of there. I hope it's not a situation where this vet doesn't know what he's doing and is trying to prepare...Is this a reptile vet, like a specialist, or is it just an "exotics" vet? I've lost all faith in "exotics" vets after reading numerous posts in the last couple of months from people who took their beardies to one out of desperation. I've seen everything from "exotics" vets prescribing antibiotics for fungal infections or for parasites, a lot of them running absolutely no tests at all and just prescribing a broad-spectrum antibiotic out of desperation, like "Well, I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm not going to do any cultures or blood work, I'm just going to prescribe an antibiotic and hope it helps"... I've never really thought about it until recently, but calling themselves "exotics" vets simply means that they see pets other than dogs and cats. So they see reptiles, amphibians, birds, rodents, basically everything, but they specialize in nothing.

Just keep her tail clean, keep doing what you've been doing, and the antibiotics aren't going to hurt her (though they might upset her tummy, you might want to give her probiotics while she's on the antibiotics, if they're oral antibiotics and not just topical)...I'd start looking around for a reptile specialist too, at this point it's definitely worth driving a few hours to see a competent reptile vet...

They're a bird and exotic vet. I think more of a bird vet after yesterday. There were a lot of birds hollering. They also apparently take in wild animals because while we waited, a woman and small girl dropped of a wild bird they found sick on their bird feeder that morning and one of the vets came and got it. Did that wild animal take my pet's time slot? Is that wild animal going to be kept away from all of those pet birds? I'm nervous about having her surgery done there. We're looking into other options, but haven't canceled the appointment yet.

 

[AHBD]

Just wondering how everything went ?

 

[EgansFamily]

They wound up not wanting to do the procedure on that Thursday, either, so we found another vet and had the tail amputated. Here is a picture from a bath shortly after the procedure:

She has really healed up well and is back in shed now. I'm hopeful that her tail will look even better after she sheds.