Help! Tail breaking off!

[mascutt]

I just got home from and found this (pictured below). I don't understand, she was fine this morning before I left for work?!?

Is the tail going to come all the way off? Or will it stay as it is (half way through,) and heal up? I thought when a gecko loses its tail it loses it at the base and it snaps off all at once?? This is half way down her tail, and only half way through its girth.

Anything I should do or watch for? I'm so stressed out about this now!!

<8...(

 

[mascutt]

I guess I don't need to worry about whether it's going to come off or not... she is seeing to it that it does. She biting it and pulling...just like when she sheds. It's no longer half way.. it's now just hanging by a quarter. I just don't understand what happened

 

[acpart]

Usually if a tail comes off it's because it got caught somewhere, the gecko got bitten, something fell on it, or there's some kind of irritation. I don't know if any of those apply. She may not have started off biting it, but it may be bothering her now. I am temporarily taking care of a pair of geckos, one of which had taken off her tail at the base the day before. She passed some pieces of the particle substrate she was on so in her case I think she may have been having stomach pains from the particles and ended up taking off her tail. Geckos don't necessarily lose their tails at the base. I wonder if she didn't get her tail caught somewhere (is it possible she could have gotten it caught in the slate pictured in the cage?) and injured it that way. The best thing to do for her is to make sure she's by herself, that the floor is clean and there are no particles or dirt to get into the wound, and to leave her alone and feed her extra if she'll take it.

Aliza

 

[Hiccup]

Aw, poor thing, that is terrible. Keep us updated, hope she is ok.

 

[kylem1024]

thats not good, dont tails regenerate?

 

[GeckoGathering]

Tails, ahhh yes.

I just got home from and found this (pictured below). I don't understand, she was fine this morning before I left for work?!?

Is the tail going to come all the way off? Or will it stay as it is (half way through,) and heal up? I thought when a gecko loses its tail it loses it at the base and it snaps off all at once?? This is half way down her tail, and only half way through its girth.
Anything I should do or watch for? I'm so stressed out about this now!!

I would really need to see more of your
setup for her..I'm assuming it did not get
rough handling....
so this is some what of a guess,
based on your rough edge slate and one I
had that dropped a tail getting out of the top
hole of a humid hide.
At my time I wasn't sanding and smoothing
entry holes. Your rough flooring would point
me there, knowing no more than I do. Even
if it was caused by something else I would
be a little leery of it causing problems.
They want to rub stuff.
Other things to watch now would be
prey food(crickets mainly) getting
on the open wound.
Take care...HJ

 

[mascutt]

Well, it's morning and the tail is off. I've been racking my brain all night over this.

The flooring is ceramic tile on top of play sand, and with sphagnum moss pressed in between (which just happened naturally cuz it gets dragged around. There's no sand on top of the tile, and I clean the tiles constantly to ensure against that. My geckos have been on this since the end of March.

I do not have the traditional cliimb-in hides, instead I have two cardboard hides they just crawl under (from a printer) they sort of look like little mud-huts, and you can see one in this picture. Also one hide from the pet store which looks like a giant Egyptian Sphinx which they also crawl under, not in and out of. My tank is a large Exo-terra front opening with a climbing wall against the back....and she is a the climberr... always trying to get as high up as she can.

As far as rough handling goes, it's a possibility. She is my jumper. I have to be extremely careful with her always as she has in the past jumped out of my hands, off my shoulders, even from the top of my head at various times.

I also looked for any signs of fighting with her tank mate, but I've never seen anything. They usually sleep together in the same hide. There are no bite marks on the tail, and Lola is the larger and more aggressive of my two females anyway??

But I was at work all day yesterday and no one was home... so I really have no idea. She usually spends 90% of her day laying on the styrofoam shelf on the climbing wall...but I can't say for sure that she did so yesterday

 

[mascutt]

Another thought...or question: Could she drop her tail due to stress? One of my sons has been home from college for the last 3 weeks. Usually it is just my wife and I here and it is very quiet. But my son being home also means that other kids have been over almost every day. They don't touch the geckos or anything, but i have noticed both geckos hide every time a fourth person is here.

She is a high-maintainance gecko. She is the one I post all my questions over... she is the one who stopped eat for 6 whole weeks after I built the climbing wall in March. But she started eating regularly a few weeks ago. My wife says Lola is definitely higher-strung than Sela is ???

 

[Northstar Herp]

Tankmate? Bing! That's my guess. Who knows what happened while you were away, even though she's the more aggressive of the two. Definitely not because someone new was in the room, though.

Whatever it was, it sounds very random and would drive me nuts wondering about it, too.

 

[mascutt]

You're right.. It is driving me nuts! She had such a beautiful fat tail... now it will regenerate as a stump

 

[Northstar Herp]

You're right.. It is driving me nuts! She had such a beautiful fat tail... now it will regenerate as a stump

They remind me of a boob.

Here's my re-gen, MR. Bill. She's a chunky boob-tailed sweetheart...

 

[thegeckoguy23]

Usually if a tail comes off it's because it got caught somewhere, the gecko got bitten, something fell on it, or there's some kind of irritation. I don't know if any of those apply. She may not have started off biting it, but it may be bothering her now. I am temporarily taking care of a pair of geckos, one of which had taken off her tail at the base the day before. She passed some pieces of the particle substrate she was on so in her case I think she may have been having stomach pains from the particles and ended up taking off her tail. Geckos don't necessarily lose their tails at the base. I wonder if she didn't get her tail caught somewhere (is it possible she could have gotten it caught in the slate pictured in the cage?) and injured it that way. The best thing to do for her is to make sure she's by herself, that the floor is clean and there are no particles or dirt to get into the wound, and to leave her alone and feed her extra if she'll take it.

Aliza

+1

 

[GeckoGathering]

Tail Stubs, ahh no.

You're right.. It is driving me nuts! She had such a beautiful fat tail... now it will regenerate as a stump

Even though there is a very good chance
you will not be sure of the reason.......
It's certainly worth your effort to check
a few things before passing over one drop,
and then coming up with a second.
Check sharp edges on that thing she climbs.
Check the edges on that slate.
Might want to eliminate housing the 2nd one
with other geckos.
Careful of that open wound(especially with crickets)
Ask ( gently, not making them think they are in trouble)
the kids if they handled her?
If they did....from the way you talk of her
spooking....probably a bingo.
Some die from dropped tails, so it's not
automatic that they live and grow a stub.
The vet caused my Prize Gecko to drop his,
by stressing him. 5 hours later he died.
The one dropped from the unfinished
entry hole also died.
Sometime it's not our fault, but hey we are
responsible anyway for their lives.
The vet blundered and caused mine to die.
But I STILL felt responsible.
Take care. Good Gecko-ing. HJ

 

[mascutt]

The thing she climbs on on the back wall is all styrofoam, there is nothing she could hurt herself on, and the styrofoam shelves she sits on are attached to a self-adhesive cork-board which they can climb...but is still flat.

The edges of the ceramic tile I sanded/buffed down... there's nothing sharp I can find.

The son I have at home right now doesn't touch the geckos at all... he's sort of like my wife.. he looks through the glass at them but has no desire to have them crawling on him. My other son likes the geckos, but he leaves Lola alone...because she's such a jumper. So he only plays with Sela because she climbs into his hand willingly and likes to be held.

I hope she doesn't die from this though. Other than her tail breaking off, she is acting her normal self. She walks around the tank, finds different spots to lay in, like usual. Plus she is alert. When I go near the tank she opens her eyes and looks at me. She lifts her head up when I pet her, but doesn't run or anything. It's like she's not behaving any differently than she does any other day. She did not eat this morning at all, but she doesn't eat every day anyway, and she pigged out yesterday.

As far as crickets go, I take them out of the tank after about 15 minutes. But lately they've been eating mealies and ignoring the crickets, so I haven't really given them any for about 3 or 4 days now.

 

[rubym]

We had to have one of ours tail amputated. He now has a fat little ball on the end but he is quite healthy and happy acting. We did isolate him in another tank by himself until the tail began to heal and I also only fed mealies until it did heal. Good luck with your little one.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

I have never been a fan of community tanking. They may do fine together till something happens.... Even if the other had nothing to do with this incident, you can't be sure. As for the slate pieces, even if there are no sharp edges, it looked like there were spaces where maybe her tail could become slightly wedged and to pull loose could cause a wound. Or perhaps she was doing acrobats on the decor. If it were my animal, I would minimize all risk for further damage.

Good luck with your girl, I hope she does well and makes a full recovery

 

[mascutt]

I would put my money on acrobats before spaces in the flooring, only because of her need to always be on the highest point of the climbing wall, but she doesn't climb back down like my other gecko, she jumps off the top shelf when she wants down. I mean, I can't be sure cuz I wasn't home, but I've seen her do it enough times before. However, it's only about 15 inches from the shelf to the floor, but it doesn't mean she couldn't have jumped off a different point and maybe hit the sphynx or something???

But it still doesn't seem like 15 inches would cause her to drop her tail when she kamikaze's off my shoulder and the top of my head without injury. But she's such a jumpy gecko.

 

[Northstar Herp]

I don't think "hitting" something would have done it, "catching" it on something maybe... like if it got stuck on the sphinx on the way down, nut I still put my money on a tank tussle.

 

[mascutt]

I'm wondering about a tank tussle too. The sphynx is rounded... nothing to get caught on. But I'm watching them like crazy but I don't see any different behavior. When I woke up this morning, they were both sleeping next to the water dish...and Lola was resting her head on top of Sela's. They follow each other through the various hides as well. So if they got into a fight, it must have been over something petty? LOL.

Lola likes to be hand-fed, but Sela is a good hunter. Her eye catches any and all movement. Makes me wonder if she might have bit Lola's tail by accident while it was moving?? That seems highly unlikely to me, but, right now, it also seems anything is possible.

 

[rubym]

We have a 55 gal with 3 females in it...it used to be 4 females but Pandora went postal one day for whatever reason. She took a chunk out of Merriks tail and made a little bite on Shys back. They had been together for over a year without an issue and that day something set Pannie off. You just never know and they usually do the fighting when we arent there to see it or stop it.