Tail necrosis?

[Lauram63110]

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?

 

[Denduran87]

poor guy.

 

[TASTIGER]

it looks like its doing better

 

[AHBD]

It doesn't look bad at all. Just keep putting the ointment on it and it should heal fine.

 

[Lauram63110]

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.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

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?

Tracie

 

[Lauram63110]

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.