My juvi lizard has a broken toe!!

[Pineapplekitten]

hi all,

i just noticed that my 7 mth old boyds forest dragon has a broken toe on one of his front legs.. its shorter then the other toes and is missing the nail also it points upwards. on the underside of his foot there is a little bubble blistery looking thing and at the base of the toe it is real skinny.

it looks like an old wound as there is no blood and it looks like the skin has grown over where the nail was. it is sore for him though cos if i touch it he pulls his leg away from me, but he lets me touch the other toes.

is there anything i should do for him or will it fix itself up? is it normal for lizards to lose toes?

thanks

 

[smacdonald]

is it normal for lizards to lose toes?

I don't know that I'd say it's normal, but it certainly happens, in both the wild and captivity. The narrowing around the base of the toe sounds like there's something constricting it. This frequently occurs when the skin on the toe is not shed (usually due to a lack of humidity). The retained skin constricts the blood supply and usually causes the toe to fall off eventually. It happens commonly on blue tongues. I haven't personally heard of it happening on dragons, but I see no reason why it wouldn't.

Your dragon's not going to die from a missing toe, but you need to make sure that the toe doesn't develop an open wound and a subsequent infection. It might be worth snipping the toe off after appropriate anaesthesia.


Stewart

 

[Pineapplekitten]

ok, thanks for the advice..