Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a female mali uro and her tail has done some strange things. first probaly about a year ago when she shed all of her spikes went with her tail. the spikes like ltterally dissapeared, thensomewhere around a couple of months ago the tip fell off of her tail. i was wondering if this just happenes or if maybe i am doing something wrong with my setup or something. other than problems with her tail she appears healthy and always eats healthy so i dont know what could be wrong.
please help
thanks
sean

i am a layperson and a noob but reading your post the most likely cause of the spikes and tip falling off is probably retained shed constricting vessels and restricting blood flow. it could be your temps and/or relative humidity. maybe both too low. i think if it was too high your description would be different.same thing happens with toes. it so happens i was just looking in a book about digit abnormalities and other problems, so i will pass this "food for thought" on to you. but don't take my word for it- could be something else- i don't know.my mali female's tail hadn't shed in a long while- i was afraid the same type of thing might happen-she finally shed with no problems in the beginning of summer and i didn't do anything directly to her tail.. maybe it was the summer humidity.maybe it was the use of her fairly new nest box(fake burrow) as a hide. maybe both. maybe, maybe not -hard to say.good luck with your mali, hope this might help a little.

is there a water dish in there?a friend of mine had his uro in a tank with a large water dish, the humidity gets too high and they get a type of tail rot.ive read about it before.i never spray my uro down or anything maybe thats the prob.

I have read fungus can also do things to the tail.it makes it look crusty.fungus is really bad, if it goes systemic they will likely die.if systemic, they will start the downward spiral towards death,systemic fungal infection is much more difficult to treat than bacterial. i have heard of reptiles being kept in a musty basement ending up with fungal infections. If the tail looks crusty get to a vet.

I would definately remove the water dish. They really don't need it and if the uro walks through it frequently, this could cause tail rot. Mainly, this is NOT something that happens to a healthy uro. The spikes disapearing was the first warning sign. Since it seems to have progressed, I would suggest seeking a vet's advice. They should give you an spray or cream for the tail rot, and this should heal quickly once medicated. But if left untreated, the rot will spread. Just some extra advice, check out www.deerfernfarms.com and make sure that your tank is set-up propperly to ensure a happy uro.