Possible burn or something worse?

[GeckoNub]

Bubba is my patternless male, almost 2 years old.

He seems to have shed yesterday and for some reason his tail is a mess.

It is all red and shrivelled on the tip, im guessing it will fall off, and the rest of his normally pink tail is a bit more purple colored. He also has a few lines of what looks to be blistered and peeling skin down it.

The rest of his body is fine, ive checked him all over and cant see anything wrong. Hes also not moving his tail normally either just sorta dragging it along and letting it thud when he climbs off his hide.

Is it possible hes burnt it on the heat mat or could it be something worse?

Hes been in the same cage for atleast a year with no problems and the temps on his hot side are normally between 90-100 so i dont understand how if it is a burn he has done it.

I cant find my camera charger atm but i will try and get some pics over the next few days even if its rubbish quality ones off my phone.

Any help or suggestions would be great. I dont even know if im supposed to do anything to help him heal or how to prevent it happening again

 

[Theinfidel]

sounds like he internally lost his tail but is just still hanging there? and i would guess something probably fell on his tail or something. But yeah a pic would help a lot.

 

[GeckoNub]

Most of his tail looks normal apart from the slightly darker color.

The tip does look like its been squashed and crushed and is just hard and stiff but red in color.

Its the lines of what looks like blisters that makes me think it could be a burn but i seriously am at a loss for how. They are in my living room and im seeing them all day so if something wasnt right id notice.

I just got up today and i always look in on them and he was sat in his cool side with his tail sticking out.

Ive checked all his cage, its a plastic breeder tub thing, and theres not much furniture in it for him to get trapped under. He has a coconut hide on warm side, some fake leaves, a plastic tupperware moist hide with moss in and a exo terra small hide on cool side, water dish and thermometer and thats it. Nothing sharp, nothing that moves, nothing he can get under. He's on paper towel.

He doesnt seem to be in pain as ive touched his tail and he hasnt reacted, he just wanted to be picked up as usual

 

[GeckoNub]

These are the few decent pics i managed to get of his tail...he was still as active as ever Doesnt seem to notice when you touch the end so it must be dead tissue.

He has been trying to bite the end off too.

It looks like its been squashed and scragged on the sides. Hes started holding it up in the air now too.

Hope someone can help with suggestions or advice on what to do next.

 

[Theinfidel]

looks pretty bad i suggest keeping the enclosure very clean until you can take it to a vet to chip that shrivled part off and give u some antibiotics.

 

[GeckoNub]

Today his tail looks pretty much the same except it looks more like its normal pink color.

I have noticed there is another mark on the side of his tail where the big one was yesterday. His temps are defo not too high so i can only think hes biting himself as it looks like a bite mark ive seen b4 when unsuccesfully introducing females to each other.

Why would he be mutilating himself so badly?

I am watching him a lot to try and make sure hes not doing anything when im up but he seems to be doing it when im in bed.

I cant get him to a vet till Friday as thats when we get paid

 

[M_surinamensis]

It's been three days since you observed symptoms, as far as I can tell based on the timing of your first post. Your camera seems to think it's 2008 though, so I'm not sure that's accurate.

He's got dead tissue at the end of his tail and spreading areas of infection, irritation or damage working their way towards his body, getting bigger, more numerous and worse; so whatever is causing his problems is ongoing and increasing in severity.

And you're going to wait another six days before taking him to a vet?

You should really consider setting aside some money and designating it for emergency veterinary care. It's a part of responsible pet ownership and you've got seven of them depending on you for timely and appropriate medical attention. Possibly soon to be six, given your lax approach to Bubba's current condition.

If he lives... and I very much stress the if part of that... you may also want to consider re-homing your pets, giving them to someone who's better able or more willing to provide them with necessary medical care, rather than waiting until it is convenient to get that whole blackened, rotting, raw, red, blistered, bleeding flesh thing looked at.

 

[GeckoNub]

First of all yes the camera date is wrong, it was my mums camera i borrowed and tbh i didnt care that the date was wrong. If you had bothered to look properly you would have seen i posted this yesterday.

As far as his tail being a bleeding, rotten, raw etc thing...if you had bothered to read my first post it isnt bleeding and im not sure if the areas are blistered, that was my guess as im not a vet.

As for calling me an irresponsible owner....you have no idea how wrong you are. My oldest cat is 12 years old and has probably had thousands of pounds spent on him for vets bills and general care. I have gone without things and borrowed money so that my pets dont have to suffer and can be properly looked after. If i didnt care about my geckos i wouldnt even be on this forum.

I have had my geckos for 2 years without any real problems and not all of us have the money to put away for such accidents.

I chose not to breed my geckos because of how many unwanted pets are out there and i knew i didnt have the means to care for them all.

No im not perfect, im just trying to get by with what i have and care for something that otherwise could have gone to someone far worse than me or still be stuck in a pet shop.

 

[M_surinamensis]

Hypothetically, let's say you woke up one day three fingers of your off-hand had turned black and crispy and dead. Further up your arm, you developed these enormous angry red swathes with broken and bubbling skin. The next day, it looked even worse and it was all you could do to hold it out from your body and avoid jostling it.

Would you wait nine days to get it treated?

Veterinary care is part of responsible pet ownership. Put the money away when you have it, so it is there if you ever need it. Your finances are your business, but the plain fact of it is that if you can't afford the vet, you shouldn't own the pet. Responsible people will only obtain that which they can support, recognizing that money is one of the limiting factors, alongside space and time.

The timeline you're facing, the condition your animal is in; he needs to see a vet now. Not next Friday. He's got necrotic tissue attached to a live circulatory system. If you're very, very lucky the red marks are simply him biting at the pain in an attempt to alleviate it. Or it has been caused by the same mystery condition that injured his tail-tip... which you seem content to let go unexplored. What's more likely, considering his condition, is that the dead tail tip is rotting and the bloodstream is carrying highly infectious bacteria all over his body while he's already immune compromised from the injury.

He needs a vet now. Today. If you can't provide that, you should recognize your own inability to care for him (and your other animals) and find someone else who can.

 

[M_surinamensis]

I cant get him to a vet till Friday as thats when we get paid

Friday has now come and gone so... How'd that go? Did any of the symptoms get worse in those six days? What was the diagnosis and course of treatment that the veterinarian arrived at? Were the red marks something relatively innocuous or were they indicative of something clinically significant? Did the vet remove the damaged tail tip? Is the animal on any medications?

 

[PaladinGirl]

Gosh I hope surinamensis didn't scare you off and that's why you haven't updated us yet! I try to listen to what he says but ignore the WAY he says it. If everyone on here presented their advice the way he does, nobody would ever post on these forums! Note to person who will probably delete this: Has his behavior ever been adressed???

Anyways, is there anyone that may have taken your leo out of his tank and you didn't know about it? That's the only thing I can think of that could've happened. I hope you were able to get him to a vet sooner. While it's important to try to have money set aside for these things, it doesn't always happen that way. Such is life, no matter what anyone says. I mean, people have kids all the time that they can't afford... I'm willing to bet that at least 1/2 of the world's gecko owners are pretty broke. But like you said, your lizard could be a lot worse off right now. Other than the tail, he looks very healthy.

Hope everything went okay. And I say kudos to you for coming here for advice!

 

[GeckoNub]

Thought id give you guys an update

We did manage to take him to the vets on the Monday, vet said it was probably caused by a bad shed. Gave us antibiotics for him and told us to phone back on Friday to make another appointment.

Bubba was fine through the week, no change in behaviour, normal eating, drinking extra water and we had to give him extra too and make sure he stayed toasty warm

Friday we took him back and his tail looked worse, more shrivelled up and discolored but the vet said this was ok as he was probably just getting ready to drop it. Said to keep with the antibiotics and if he hadnt dropped it himself by Thursday we take him in for tail amputation.

Well tonight i heard him shuffling around as usual and looked over to see a stump He has dropped the tail himself :main_thumbsup:

So tomorrow im phoning the vets again to let them know and to make appointment for a checkup and cos i think the vet said he would put something on his stump to help it heal.

So its not all doom and gloom and horror stories Hopefully it is just the bad shed. The vet said there was also a possibility of some kind of heart infection that caused the tail to die, but he said its unlikely because of how well he looks and acts. If it is its nothing we could have prevented or forseen, i asked the vet about it.

Hopefully it wont come back

 

[Franklinj480]

I've been following this thread watching for an update, very glad to hear that everything turned out okay for your leo

 

[GeckoNub]

Ill try and get some pics of him tomorrow

The tail went really dry and hard before it came off. The vet said the "blistered" looking areas were the infection comming out through the skin.

Ive not had a tail loss before and it is amazing how easy it seems for them to just detach it when things go wrong.

There wasnt a drop of blood on the paper and even though it looks raw atm the stump looks clean and healthy. The tail end that came off looks almost star shaped where it attached to his body.

Amazing little animals :main_thumbsup: