Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i tried to post this once but it got lost somewhere in cyberspace
helga's feet turned black in parts so i took her to the vet and she said she has pretty bad infection in her toes so she is on a macro and a micro antibiotic. she seems to be fine otherwise. the doc said not to put her on substrate. does that sound ok to you?
i feel so bad for her. is it absurd to think about having her toes removed? no one has mentioned it but i don't want her to keep getting infections. i mean the toes are half off. there is no chance of saving them. does anyone have any thoughts on this or have you seen it before?
on a good note she gained 50 grams in a month and is at 243.5
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

Get her off the substrate ASAP. She should beon paper towels. The sand will keep getting in and be filled with bacteria that will reinfect her or agrevate the infection. If the the antibiotics don't clear things up losing the toes is better than losing the whole foot. My Winnie is missing several toes.

Another thing you can try in addition to the medication is packing her foot with honey and wrap it in gauze for 24hrs, let it air for a day, then repeat for upto 2 weeks after it looks like it is all cleared up. Infections in reptiles take an aweful long time to clear up (months in some cases). BTW, the honey thing was reccomended to me by a very well know herp vet here as a last resort after try to save Winnie's foot using a variety of antibiotics(over 6 months). It was used in conjunction with sulfer, and in my case I had to use a suringe to pack the abcess with the sulfer and honey alternately. It saved her foot.

She's a great little chuck and I am so happy that it helped.

Listen to Angela, this lady knows what shes talking about Vonnie!

Took a long time for her chuck to heal, she was a good mom!

Sur hope Helga's toes will be fine, but I agree I'd rather them take the toes off and stop the infection from apparently spreading. :0(

I too would put her on paper towels until you beat this thing.
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Eve

she is definitely off substrate and it cracks me up that she digs into nothing. i wonder if she gets where she is going in her little mind!
well i will keep the honey thing in mind, will it still work if she is a uro? (i like you guys better than the uro forum) she does not really have a hole in her foot, just dangling toes.
she is my sweet girl and i have to show her off again

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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

I would try and pack her feet anyway at least for 24 hrs. The honey works because it is a supersaturated solution. Perhaps you remember this from high school science. Because it is so heavily saturated it draws out moisture from the skin surface area. This dries the skin out faster and kills off the bacteria that need moisture to survive and reproduce. I have also used this on a turtle with a skin infection. Works very well actually. If her toes are just hanging it will dry them out faster, so that they fall off cleanly, and it will kill off remaining bacteria at the that site. This will allow the area to heal faster. Since reptiles take sooooooooo long to heal anything that speads it up is important.

don't have my glasses on............

lol, i understand about trying to type without glasses so it is ok. thank you for the break down on the honey. although i was in honors in high school, i did just enough to get an A in sciences so i don't really remember them
so i would have to wrap her feet? any recommendations on type of wrap? sorry to bother you with all the questions but i really appreciate the help and so does helga
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

or just about anything that is clean and sterile. Guaze is good because it the honey sticks to it and helps hold it in place. You could make her little footies by wrapping her feet. Just don't wrap too tightly. You can use a bandage to hold the end in place. She'll shake her feet and try to get it off, but without substrate it's a little hard to do, especially of all her feet have to be wrapped. You can always put them back on if she get's them off.

Let us know how it turns out.

it doesn't quite have the same ring as abbot and costello but it was probably a scene just as funny as theirs. i live alone so it was just me to put the honey and gauze on. everytime i got it wrapped on i had to let go to get something to secure it and she would kick her leg and undo it and take off running, dragging honey all down my legs. i think i got it on good enough since she is going to sleep.
i think that i am going to try the gauze tape like they gave me when ivan got her neck bitten in a mating ritual. all you have to do is pinch the tape and it sticks to itself but not to the skin.
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

I never said it would be easy!
: )

I like the sound of the title. You should video tape it and see if you can win something with the funniest video! You might even be able to have enough to cover teh vet bills!

She looks great, so darn different than when you first brought her home.

Good Job on beefer her up!
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Eve