Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey how's your lil guy with tail rot? Been thinking bout him.

Thanks for thinking of him.

He's a difficult story. I got him a 2 weeks ago today. He was cold at 12:30 pm when the kid handed him to me. The only thing that the kid told me was that he used to belong to an old man (probably over 40 like me lol) and he died and that the guys wife gave the dragon to his friend who then gave it to him. They called the dragon skank. They wouldn't give me anymore information than that. I don't even know if he had an enclosure or not and have no idea his age.

He is a male dragon and I named him Brutus since his old name was completely unacceptable. He has a very large head and was obviously once a large healthy dragon. He is completely skin and bones now. He has some movement in his back legs but cannot or will not use them. He drags himself along by his front feet. His tail as we tallked about before has a dry gangrene.

The day I got him I took him to the Univ. of PA Vet Hospital for a shot of calcium. The following Tuesday (Monday was Labor Day) I took him to my vet about the tail and to get the liquid calcium which I now give him .25 ml morning and night. The vet and I decided to wait a week on the tail so maybe I could get some food and calcium in him. During that time, I noticed his spine has an almost 90 degree curve as if he was curled up to one side to sleep (even though dragons don't sleep that way) It seems he cannot straighten it.

This past Wednesday I brought him for the tail surgery and had an x-ray done. It seems that his vertibrae are fused together. Hard to tell but the vet thinks his back may have been broken in the past. I'm not so sure about that. Either way his bone density looks pretty good. Certainly not as I would have expected.

Now my quandary. Do his back legs not work because of the back injury? or is it a calcium deficiency as I originally thought?

I'm open to any and all opinions.

Overall he's a poor eater but had put on a little weight prior to the surgery. As of yesterday he had not eaten since the surgery. My vet was pushing me to force feed but I am reluctant to say the least. Either way I assembled what was required just in case. This morning I got him to eat 3 newly molted superworms and 2 butterworms. This evening he ate a hornworm so I dodged that bullet for now. lol.

I'm just hoping for the best. Last night I showed him my big female rescue Simone and amazingly his beard turned dark and he held himself high on his front legs to bob his head vigorously and drag himself over to try to get to her. I promised him that if he ate and improved somewhat I would find him his own GF since Simone is already spoken for. lol. Maybe that was the motivation for his eating today. You never know.

Aww...you choked me up! Go BRUTUS! Can't help ya with your quandary as you know, but I'm sure sending positive vibes his way! Please keep us posted!

I thought about the vertibrae fusing all weekend and decided to take him to another very experienced reptile vet. She is pretty much retired now and only comes in to do reptile surgery. She did not take an X-ray and knew exactly what i was talking about from my description. She said she has seen it many times in lizards and snakes and there is no known reason why this happens. She felt that this may be the cause for the poor use of his hind legs. It seems that the buildup of bone starts to restrict the spinal cord.

Now the bad news. The tail amputation did not work out well. An additional amount of tail is now dead tissue. She felt this was causing systemic bacteria throughout his body and he must be started on antibiotics. He will have to undergo further amputation of his tail and she feels he is too week to handle anesthesia again. I am also into his care for $500 so far and she felt that I may be looking at least double again to do it through normal hospital channels. She owns 10 of her own BD's.

Her solution was that I would give her the dragon. She would provide him the care he needed outside of the Vet Hospital setting and when and if he became well enough we would work something out where I could take him back.

It broke my heart to leave him there but I cannot provide the time and expertise that a semi-retired reptile veterinarian can. So it was the best decision for Brutus. I miss him already.

Aww BD I'm sorry. I know how much you love Brutus. It's a great thing you're doing tho. Will the vet keep you up to date and stuff?

I'm glad that he'll be getting great care. Thanks for sharing his story with us.

*off to hug my beardies*

She said she would. We'll see.