Shriveling Tail - HELP!

[MadEpiphany]

My bearded dragon is 4.5 months old, and has always had a thinner section on the very tip of his tail, about half the length of a tip of a pen. I figured he got nibbled there as a baby, as he was a petsmart lizard and was kept with a lot of other hatchlings. The rest of his tail always looked healthy, so I didn't worry. Recently, I noticed that the shriveled part was moving up his tail, basically 3 times as long as it had been, and that his coloring at the end of the tail had changed and gotten quite dark and unhealthy looking. What is wrong with his tail? What can I do to help? I want to bring him to a vet, but there is only 1 in the area that does beardies and he is pretty far from us and expensive so before I go, I thought I'd see if anyone here had an answer or a solution. A picture follows.

Forgot to mention, he is still eating and sleeping and doesn't seem all that stressed, but it does seem like the tail itself might be somewhat tender, as he doesn't like if I touch it.

 

[Gail]

The dried up tip is dead and if its moving up the tail then it could be tail rot. He really needs a vet before it goes so far up that he needs a amputation.

 

[Goonie]

Poor baby. I'm sure it's very tender to the touch.

From what I can see, it looks like the tail tip had been compromised by either a bite or retained shed, and the blood flow had been constricted for some time, thus the growing darkened coloring.
He should be seen by a herp vet soon. If it's due to a lack of blood flow, the tip may need to be amputated to open the vessels back up.

 

[MadEpiphany]

Yea I don't think I've ever seen the tip of his tail shed. I always sort of figured it happened when I wasn't looking because it's such a little patch. Ok, I'll get the poor guy to the vet ASAP. I hope he doesn't have to loose too much of his tail, that thing is his pride and joy he just loves to have it stroked.

 

[jirish617]

I would definitely take your beardie to the vet. If it is moving up the tail, like mentioned above it could be tail rot. Lenny had an injury to his tail and luckily it didn't spread. If it seems there might be an open wound I would apply the basic neosporin to it once a day. There really isn't much more you can do other than take it to the vet. Hope all gets better!

 

[MadEpiphany]

We are going to the vet today. Thanks everyone. I'll post what the vet says is going on so that if other's search this topic than can see what was causing it.

 

[jirish617]

Hope the trip goes well!

 

[MadEpiphany]

The tip of his tail was necrotic (dead). They snipped it off ( :shock: ), only that very end part which actually had never grown any bone for some reason, and gave us some antibiotic injectables (oh how he hates them), and I am pleased to say that his coloring in the tail is already much better than yesterday. I also got to see an x-ray of the little guy, which I have to say was somewhat awesome.