blondie098
Gray-bearded Member
Retained shed can be serious. One of our mods went thru an ordeal with her Ming, and her story has inspired me to post our story now. Our ordeal was not quite retained shed, it was instead a bloodclot in the tail.
Xena, our 5-year-old girl, has had some retained shed on the end of her tail for a little while. We've been working on it and the shed was splitting, just not coming off. We bathe regularly, using the toothbrush during baths. It's been conditioned with olive oil. No sharp stuff in her viv. Yesterday about 3 p.m. our daughter came running to us, said we needed to see Xena's tail. The last 2.25 inches of her tail had withered up and was like a twig. We checked her viv, nothing that could have caught it and injured it. We monited her and the tail all day and all night...
So off to the vet we go this a.m. (we have a great specialist in our area), after scouring research yesterday confirmed our suspicions that her tail had infact withered and died. He said she threw a clot, which cut off the circulation. It happened very fast, it was not like that the night before at bathtime, nor was it like that at wake-up/morning feeding.
Apparently, the bloodclot was thrown, and dragons don't have great circulation in the ends of their tails anyway, so it was a big deal for her, and deadened the last 2+ inches. Needless to say, she had to have 2.5 inches amputated this morning. It hurts my heart to see her booboo tail right now, but I'd rather have her tailless than not have her at all.
They are sending the tissue for lab tests / specimen growth -- so it could be anywhere from 3-7 days before we hear back, as our vet said that if she does have an infection brewing, it should be slow-growing. He gave her a long-lasting antibiotic shot, so we don't have to dose her daily.
And it doesn't help that she is forming eggs, too -- so we've got other issues going on on top of this, I've definitely earned a few new gray hairs.
They did an ultrasound on her, which showed better what was going on in her tummy/oviducts ... she's been having issues lately, most recently a near prolapse which scared the crud outta us. She would totally inflate herself and roll on her belly to poo, it looked like Fat Albert tipped over ... I know, weird visual, but good analogy.
Well, some eggs are still forming higher up, but some have started to drop... she's not interested in digging at all, and with the fresh amputation, it'll be a little tricky on timing.
We got the images on a CD, but they are thru eFilmLT program, and we're still trying to access them, we'll post them when we can access them.
I know vet appointments are expensive, but when some fluke like this happens, find a way to see a herp vet. Trust me, we just dropped $400 today for ultrasound, appt, amputation, and Critical Care (to have on hand, because she's making infertiles). While that $$ hurts, it would be a lot more painful if we lost our Xena because we didn't act.
Xena, our 5-year-old girl, has had some retained shed on the end of her tail for a little while. We've been working on it and the shed was splitting, just not coming off. We bathe regularly, using the toothbrush during baths. It's been conditioned with olive oil. No sharp stuff in her viv. Yesterday about 3 p.m. our daughter came running to us, said we needed to see Xena's tail. The last 2.25 inches of her tail had withered up and was like a twig. We checked her viv, nothing that could have caught it and injured it. We monited her and the tail all day and all night...
So off to the vet we go this a.m. (we have a great specialist in our area), after scouring research yesterday confirmed our suspicions that her tail had infact withered and died. He said she threw a clot, which cut off the circulation. It happened very fast, it was not like that the night before at bathtime, nor was it like that at wake-up/morning feeding.
Apparently, the bloodclot was thrown, and dragons don't have great circulation in the ends of their tails anyway, so it was a big deal for her, and deadened the last 2+ inches. Needless to say, she had to have 2.5 inches amputated this morning. It hurts my heart to see her booboo tail right now, but I'd rather have her tailless than not have her at all.
They are sending the tissue for lab tests / specimen growth -- so it could be anywhere from 3-7 days before we hear back, as our vet said that if she does have an infection brewing, it should be slow-growing. He gave her a long-lasting antibiotic shot, so we don't have to dose her daily.
And it doesn't help that she is forming eggs, too -- so we've got other issues going on on top of this, I've definitely earned a few new gray hairs.
They did an ultrasound on her, which showed better what was going on in her tummy/oviducts ... she's been having issues lately, most recently a near prolapse which scared the crud outta us. She would totally inflate herself and roll on her belly to poo, it looked like Fat Albert tipped over ... I know, weird visual, but good analogy.
Well, some eggs are still forming higher up, but some have started to drop... she's not interested in digging at all, and with the fresh amputation, it'll be a little tricky on timing.
We got the images on a CD, but they are thru eFilmLT program, and we're still trying to access them, we'll post them when we can access them.
I know vet appointments are expensive, but when some fluke like this happens, find a way to see a herp vet. Trust me, we just dropped $400 today for ultrasound, appt, amputation, and Critical Care (to have on hand, because she's making infertiles). While that $$ hurts, it would be a lot more painful if we lost our Xena because we didn't act.
As if she hasn't been through enough lately.. poor girl!
