Bearded dragon toes bitten off help

[Justdragons]

I got home from work and went straight to my reptiles as always to find that one of my beardies has lost all the toes on his rear left foot bar the small one. they have good temps and have shown no signs of fighting or dominant behavior. i feed the three almost a whole tub of crickets a day and they are getting 12 hours a day of light. what do i do. right now im setting up a differen tank to seperate the biggest one who i assume did this.

they all started the same size but she(assuming) has grown in leaps and bounds and is almost double their size. could this have been a case of mistaken food?

please help i have little to no idea what to do. they dont seem all that upset right now but he has a bloody scabby foot and i feel i can see a tiny little bit of bone endings?? do i benadine the wound or salt water?

 

[GeckoRider]

I don't think there's anything you can do... Just keep the Problem Lizard away and make sure his foot doesn't get infected

 

[Justdragons]

cheers for the reply.. i feel so bad for him.

 

[souldoubt]

I would have to agree with the above post that I dont think theres much you can do besides move the problem lizard.
For the time being I would keep the toeless dragon off sand etc and move onto a cleaner substrate like newspaper or papertowel and clean the wound twice daily with a salt water solution or something like diluted chlorhexidine. Antiseptic preparations like betadine or savlon would definitely be useful since the wound is fresh.

I would also consider worming the smaller two just incase that have a parasitic infection, if they still dont grow any quicker it may be worthwhile getting the vet to do a faecal float to look for Isospora oocysts (Isospora is carried normally by bearded dragons but an animals growth can be stunted if the isospora population gets too out of control). It could of course just be that the larger one is consuming more food or metabolic differences between the individuals but it wouldnt hurt to investigate parasites in the smaller two.

 

[GeckoRider]

Have a look at this link... Female bearded dragon bit male bearded dragons toe off? - Yahoo! Answers

It pretty much covers what we have said plus how to stop this happening again

 

[geckoboy]

you should move the problem lizard and the toeless lizard in there own tank and have paper towel or newspaper for the toeless lizard and wait the lizards toes should re grow

 

[Bluetongue1]

Unfortunately Geckoboy agamids do not have the ability to regenerate lost body parts.

I realise this comes far too late to be useful here, but for future reference...
If the wound is still fresh, then soaking in lukewarm salt water (1 heaped tsp of salt per 1 L of water) will allow it to be thoroughly cleaned of debris etc. Use soaked cotton balls to gently wash the area clean. Then apply an antibacterial solution or cream. If using Betadine, it needs to be diluted at least 1 to 20 in water. Apply a little antibacterial solution or cream to a gauze wound dressing and tape in place to the affected area with micropore or similar adhesive tape. Then follow the advice given above.

If the wounds had already scabbed over and were dry, I would tend to leave it and keep an eye out for any signs of infection –swelling, redness or oozing fluid. If this occurs, do as above.

Blue

 

[Justdragons]

Unfortunately Geckoboy agamids do not have the ability to regenerate lost body parts.

I realise this comes far too late to be useful here, but for future reference...
If the wound is still fresh, then soaking in lukewarm salt water (1 heaped tsp of salt per 1 L of water) will allow it to be thoroughly cleaned of debris etc. Use soaked cotton balls to gently wash the area clean. Then apply an antibacterial solution or cream. If using Betadine, it needs to be diluted at least 1 to 20 in water. Apply a little antibacterial solution or cream to a gauze wound dressing and tape in place to the affected area with micropore or similar adhesive tape. Then follow the advice given above.

If the wounds had already scabbed over and were dry, I would tend to leave it and keep an eye out for any signs of infection –swelling, redness or oozing fluid. If this occurs, do as above.

Blue

Cheers blue, it was scabbed over and the wound seems to be healing. the suspect has been moved to her own tank and the other two are in their own tank. the suspect ( barbra ) seems to be sad now.. i know this sounds silly but she now just hides under her pot all the time and only comes out when i come up to her tank to feed her or pay her attention. i like that she seems to be forming a better bond with me now but wonder if having been with other beardies her whole life that now she will sulk for a long time. she is still eating but about 1 quater what she was before. does this sound normal??

cheers for the reply everyone.

 

[JasonL]

Starts with toes, then tail, then whole limbs.... ALWAYS raise BDs up separately... they don't need or want friends.

 

[Bluetongue1]

She will come good in time. She is just going through a period of readjustment like any reptile moved to new digs. Give her a week or two. Don’t have her in direct line of sight to the other two. She can still exert dominance and stress the other animals through visual signals.

It is hard to know if it was a feeding response or a dominance interaction that involved fighting. Males are usually the actively dominant animals and will fight other males that challenges that or cannot get away from them. However, some females will take on the role in the absence of a dominant male. My suspicions are that the latter is the case here and that the injuries inflicted were not accidental.

Pogona vitticeps are, as a general rule, less aggressive and more tolerant of one another than P. barbata or P. minor. A lot of the photos you see of multiple Beardeds housed together are usually P. vitteceps.

Blue