Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today I took my male & female BD out for there weekly bath and I noticed my females tail was all beaten up. I took a closer look and I noticed little bite marks all over her...almost like nibbles. At first I though it was shedding trying to come off. I'm always good at keeping an eye on shedding. So well I'm soaking I tried to carefully help it along and little pieces are coming off. I know what "having trouble shedding" looks like and this is NOT it. It was like her scales are coming right off her tail and exposing flesh, but it isn’t red. Then I noticed blood spots (tiny) UNDER the skin, all over her tail. Like bug bites almost. There is a little cut there but it is not exposing red flesh it is like white and brownish black flesh. It literally looks like she is biting at her tail and it's rotting from the inside out. I don't think my male would bite her because she is much bigger and more dominant then him and I have NEVER seen him bite. Only at breeding and even then he has never cut her. Do you think she sees her tail and think it is a worm? She is always seems like she is starving when I feed her. Little piggy she is. She always gets first at the food before my male. Don’t worry I make sure he gets enough too. Either that or she is biting her tail because it is rotting and she wants to take it off. Anyway, I treated it with some oil to still see if it was shedding then I poured Witch Hazel on it. It was the thing I had that wouldn’t sting. I’m going to buy some Polyspirn (sp?) today.

Any ideas? Think it will fall off?

Thanks,
Liz

I'll try to get a picture.

Could be fungus. Could be mold. Could be mites. Try mixing some pure tea tree oil with some oil base (olive oil for example, but not mineral oil or petroluem oil. Or baby oil which is the same thing as the before mentioned oils) Tea tree oil is a very good antiseptic. If it gets too serious....see a vet...
Jamie

i'd say the dragon is "scratching what itches" it hurts and is bothering the dragon ....

from what you said I'd get a vet check.

if for example there is dead tissue you can't see that can get very bad -- Gangreen for example.

kinda sounds like some mites are in the action....

but do call a vet and have them check it out.
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getting a vet to look at it is a good ideal. They can do bloodwork to see if there is infection. Also, I would separate her from the male, this way he can't cause any additional problems (if he did indeed bite her, or could simply be him tromping over her tail). The only other thing I can think of that may have caused the injuries are stray crickets in the cage coming out at night and snacking on her.

Switch her into a separate tank, on papertowel, while you treat the injury with neosporin and whatever else the vet recommends. IT could be old stuck shed causing the tail to die off, and that could be bothering her enough to bite at her own tail, but really hard to say. Could be all of the above too.
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PHLdyPayne