Help, Help, Help!!!!

[Rajah]

I just came home, and my poor little leo's tail is all red and shriveled at the end! She was shedding today, and I noticed a little coloration at the end of her tail, but I thought it was just her natural colors developing. I noticed she was having a bit of trouble with the tail, and she had it sitting in her mouth for a little while, but she eventually got the skin off, and it looked FINE, just a little pinkish. I just got back from my evening class, and I find her tail looking so freakishly awful! It's like a nightmare.... I was only gone for a couple of hours... What do I do?

PLEASE help, if you can! Is there any way to salvage her pretty, fat little tail?

By the way, I took her to the vet just last week, and she's fine. All he had me do was give her worms medication and gatorade.... Geez....

 

[acpart]

She will probably lose that part of her tail, but she looks young and may grow it back nicely. Is there any chance she could have gotten it caught somewhere or burned it? If the degeneration contiues up the tail, take her to the vet ASAP.

Aliza

 

[Rajah]

I was so worried about her hast night, I cut off that little part of her tail. I had read a thread about a crested with a partly dead tail, and that's what most people said to do. So, I did. It was so hard to do, but, oddly enough, it didn't seem to phase her. No blood, no mess, just a cut with a clean razor blade, some neosporin, and she was back to her old self. Is there really a chance that that part of her tail will grow back? That would be wonderful. She is young--about three months or so--and she looks a little odd missing the tip of her tail I thought, though, that the tail only grows back if the tail is dropped (and, as I understand, the new tail isn't so pretty). I do hope it grows back. It was only a little less than an inch that I cut off.... If it was to grow back, does anyone know about how long it would take?

Oh, and to answer your question, I don't have a heat rock or anything, just an UTH and a ceramic heating lamp overhead, so I don't think she burned herself. As for other injuries, there were maybe two crickets in the tank at the time, but there was a big piece of broccoli in there, so I doubt they bothered her much. I think it was a bad shed, however that works. Odd thing is, the tail looked okay after the shed skin came off, the tip was just a little pink. I don't know. It was quite a shock when I found her.

 

[acpart]

Just to be sure, do you have a thermometer and a thermostat and are you sure the temp isn't getting above about 92 on the warm side. I had a gecko a few years ago get tail burns because she was hiding under a planter in the tank on the UTH and it got up to 106 in there.

Aliza

 

[Rajah]

The temperatures on the hot side usually range from 90-95 degrees F (the vet actually told me to keep it just below 100 degrees). There's nothing in the tank that could heat up like a planter... Just a humid hide made from a cool-whip container, a fake log on the cool side, a big wooden climbing branch (which she typically climbs to get even closer to the heat lamp), and some plastic dishes. I don't think it was a burn. She was having trouble shedding. I don't know what happened, but I hope she regrows that part of her tail.

 

[Stormphyre]

The lower 90s are going to be better than 'just below 100'. Make sure you're using a digital thermometer with a probe. The stick ons are totally useless. Mine was 20 degrees off when I used them to start out on. Also becareful with feeding too much broccolli to the crickets as it can cause calcium binding in the gecko. Also, their tails do grow back, though it may not look the same as it did before.