Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was clipping one of my beardies nails yesterday, and she moved her foot right as I was clipping. Thankfully, not enough to get her toe, but the nail did get clipped too high and bled a little (maybe two little drops). My question is how concerned I should be about infection or some other complication. She seems fine today, if a little bit angry with me.

I would suggest its probably something along the lines of clipping your dogs toenails... get to the vein and they bleed a little. assuming your tank is clean there shouldn't be too much of a threat of infection. I'd add a little neosporin to the cut just in case though.

Derek

Whoa!!! bad call about the "Like a dog if they bleed"

OK first a reptile is not even close to beeing a dog.

a breaded dragon is a whole lot smaller for one thing!

so how much blood is a "Little" ?

now no need to panic, but do be careful.

handle a bd or other small reptile like you would a bird.

when a birds feather bleeds or a nail bleeds if it is a small bleed then use the same treatment.

"Styptic" powder can be got from a vet , or many better pet supply stores. if that does not stop the belleding or of the bleeding is to much get to a vet if you can, you may try pressure like a person but the size makes that difficult.

infection is also an issue.

the thing is a BD is not going to have a lot of blood.
the same problem as with a parrot.
so a few teaspoons for them can be a *LOT* of bood to lose.

in your case it stoped so I imageine no harm has been done long term.

but do check with a vet or a person who has clipped birds or reptiles.

you can learn how to avoid any bleeding by knowing where to clip.

you need to look at the nail under a strong light and see the end of the live vein. you normaly can stay a good way from it ..

the bd (or brid or other animal) should not be over cliped for several resons (other than bleeding)

*) they use the claws to climb
*) they should have rocks or other items to help them wear down naturaly as much as possible
*) bad cliping to far up the nail can lead to a deformed nail
*) cliped at the wrong angle could allow the nail to split or break and have a major bleed.

I hope that does not scare anyone. you can safely clip nails. Just get some good info and training on what is safe to do for the animal, dogs are different.... don't try to assume stuff. get the facts.
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You're right obviously they are much differnt than dogs... i was simply using it as an analogy to clipping a dogs nails( since its most commong to clip a dogs nails short and hit the wein running through) sorry for the confusion. I ceratinly didn't mean to imply that Bd's are exactly like dogs

and the loss of blood.... while a small loss won't kill it can put a bird or a herp into shock very fast...

and that I think is the thing that I was most worried about.
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Just to let eveyrone know, TG, the beardie in question, is fine. I can't even tell today which nail it was that was clipped too close. No signs of infection and she's doing fine, and even fell asleep last night on my shoulder, so I think I've been forgiven too.

np