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I am interested to know if anyone has experienced anything like this. I have a year old lewis/caymen x and the very tip of my animal's tail (about the last 1/4" seems to be developing a problem similar to a problem I had years ago with an adult Green Ig. The vet identifed this as some sort of necrosis, and in that case, we had to surgically remove the tail above the necrotic area. In the original case, I had waited a little bit and kept my eye on the tail, not knowing why the tip of the tail seemed to be "drying up." You can imagine that this time, if it proves to be the same thing, I do not want to wait while it climbs up the tail. Is this common? Has anyone heard of this before? I appreciate any insight or experience anyone could share with me. I haven't heard of anyone else ever mentioning this problem, yet I am 2 for 2 (if I have accurately identified this as the same problem), so I am a bit disappointed as you can imagine, if this means I will have to duplicate my previous experience with this one. Thanks.

Jon

p.s., this is after the 3rd shed. I thought perhaps some skin was hanging on, but further inspection showed that not to be the case. The animal is in every other way apparently healthy- eats well, puts on weight, gets plenty of natural UV.

yeah Jon, I have been there, a few times. Here is my theory and trust me its hardly scientific- I think mine got this tail tip rot from either whipping the tail in self defense and hitting objects in the enclosure or hitting objects when the tail is flailing while trying to keep balance when exploring the cage or trying to escape it. What it comes down to is not enough room. I cant say this applies to you but that is about all I can think of when it happened to mine. It always seems to happen when they are young, hatch to a year old and scared you will eat them. Theory B is that it might be a lack of humidity. Like I said you are not alone and my circumstances may be different then yours. I have asked around and never got a answer that was better than what I thought up. I would love to know why too.

I also wrote David Blair who sold me the animal, to ask him what he thought, and his answer touched on some of the same things that you brought up. Seems like, from his experience, it has been the result of either tail whipping into an object, or (or maybe just complicated by) the fact that there just isn't a lot of blood flow there at the tip, and lack of humidity/soaking can even further complicate it, especially if there is shedding involved.

Jon