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Today has been a traumatic day for me. I took my 9 year old iguana in for a tail infection. She's lost some weight in her legs but shes still very active. Her appetite isn't the same but she eats a little. She has dry gangrene that has crept up to the start of her tail, and has infected her bone in the region near her legs, as shown by xray. My vet doesn't think that amputation will stop the infection and recommends I put her down now. What are some of your opinions on this? I know that calling this a long shot is and understatement, but I want to find someone who can treat this with maggot therapy along with amputation and antibiotics, since she doesn't believe she can extract all the bad tissue, but medical maggots are said to be able to target this much more efficiently than surgical means, not touching viable tissue.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16386439
What would you do :/

I am not familiar with maggot therapy, however I am familiar with dry gang-grene in iguanas. Having done rescue for MANY years when it has progressed beyond the tail region, I have never seen recovery.

My deepest sympathies with your pet. I know how hard it is to loose one.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Thanks for replying. Were the iguana treated extensively for this?

>>Thanks for replying. Were the iguana treated extensively for this?

Very extensively to the tune of hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately once the infection hits the spinal cord it goes full systemic very quickly... Once the infection hits internal organs, the animal is suffering.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Well, despite the odds, we are still treating her : /

Is there a reason why this infection occurs, like per say open wound or something like in humans?