Awhile back I posted and asked for advice on a tail issue. The last 1.5 inches on my guy's tail is very dark, very dry -dead feeling. Like a stick. He is otherwise fine, but I was worried about tail rot or something. I was advised to soak him and look for retained shed. He bathes every day for about 20 min (and poops in the tub), so I soaked him and put some Lubriderm on the tail and then looked for retained shed. I saw some and rubbed it off, once I did that, the tail looked red and sore right before the dry dark part. The next day, the dry dark tip of the tail broke off (!). I soaked the stump of the tail in very mild Nolvasan solution and then put Neosporin on it. These photos show the tail 2 days after the tip cam off.
Am I treating it properly? Is there anything I should be doing better? Advice?
Thanks for the positive comments! He seems to be doing just fine -his appetite has not changed, and we had a nice big poo this morning in the tub. He's not mopey or off personality wise, either.
I bought him a soft toothbrush and will brush him *gently * after a soak when I know he's shedding to make sure that his fingers and tail tip dont retain any more shed skin. Thanks again.
The tail looks like it is doing fine. Just keep putting the antibiotic ointment on it & it should continue to heal up nicely.
How is his appetite doing?
Hi Tracie, and thanks for jumping in. His appetite? It's gone through the roof! He just finished a shed and sent 15 supers to worm heaven! He's not mopey and the appetite is better than ever! Interestingly enough, after this latest shed, I'm thinking he has a pinkish cast to him, when before he was a brownish greyish 'camoflage' kind of color. If I look at the base if his spikes, it seems like I see a pinkish/orange kind of color that I hadn't noticed before. Do they change colors, that is, permanently? he's 4 years old, so I'd have thought if he was going to have pink/orange on him, he'd have it by now. But otherwise, he's alert and frisky and hungry as the proverbial horse.