Incomplete drop or injury?

[Eilidh]

A couple hours ago there was an accident where my geckos vivarium fell off the counter, it looks like in the fall his tail was split clean open to the bone. It seems that this may actually be an "incomplete drop" of the tail, as it seems the nerves and blood vessels were vas-curated (no blood dripping anywhere)
He has no movement past the cut as the muscles have been severed.
Obviously, the first thing I did was place his hide back in to help him calm down while I phoned the vet.
Unfortunately I live in a small city and the vet admitted to having absolutely no experience with exotics and doesn't know anyone in the area that does, saying I'd have to wait untill 10am for her to be able to phone an exotics specialist.
So I phoned the vet that I had when I lived in Aberdeen (over two hours away from where I live now), he performed my geckos surgery a few years ago.
He advised me, knowing that I am experienced with animal first aid, to flush the wound. Unfortunately we both agreed that if it is an injury then the tail is not salvageable with stitching, as it is clear the nerves and muscles have been too damaged and surgery would be far too risky (anaesthetic and reptiles is dangerous) and would most likely prove effective.

So we are hoping that either he will drop the tail if it is an injury, or that he will complete the tail dropping if this is an incomplete drop. Despite the vet having no experience, she is the only way I can obtain pain relief or antibiotics for my gecko so she is consulting with my previous vet on what dosage and type to use, but can't administer it untill the practice opens at 9:30am (2 and a half hours)
Has anyone ever experienced an incomplete drop before?

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Any chance you can post pictures?

 

[Eilidh]

Any chance you can post pictures?

I'm on my iPhone and it won't upload them from here, I don't have a computer at the moment.
I can email them though?

 

[Eilidh]

 

[Eilidh]

Any chance you can post pictures?

That's a photo posted! It's been flushed with warm water since then to remove the bits of moss sticking to it

 

[Eilidh]

The tail has now almost fully dropped without complication

 

[Aimless]

ouch! from what you've said, I'd guess it will completely fall off on it's own? how stressful.

please let us know how he does.

 

[Eilidh]

Yeah about ten minutes after my last reply I checked again and the tail was off, so was Definately a tail drop and not an injury. I picked up some iodene solution at the vets to keep the stump sterile with.
It's crazy that I couldn't find any information on a delayed, partial or long-acting tail drop in any reptile. I eventually got a hold of a reptile specialist who said it would've been a "tissue retained drop" but that doesn't come up in any vet medicine manuals or Internet searches.... All I found was a very, very brief mention that iguanas can partially drop a tail but if its sutured together the tail will heal. No further writings on that, it was on a website and I think it's actually a load of crud, when animals initiate a tail drop they vascurate the bloodvessles, muscle and nerves, that's them closed off at the end pretty much, to stop bleeding and pain. Can't imagine their bodies would have any mechanism to reverse that action, no need to in the wild. Anyway, I hope other people who experience this find this thread and will know that it's possible!