Need to clean substrate from a dropped tail wound. Never had a dropped tail before...

[HoodieBeast]

Pleasant surprise, My blue tongues tail tip is gone. I assume it got caught under his hide whilst either he was digging around or mum accidentally put it down on his tail. It must be a day or two old as its starting to heal. My concern is it has A LOT of aspen caught in it. I'm not sure what to do. Is best bet to try and remove it with tweezers? I'm trying to do some research with little help, though I'm a little worried and impatient. Mums a nurse so we have plenty of supplies to mess around with too.

 

[JrFear]

id say clean it and a bit of benadine! spelling?

 

[HoodieBeast]

I think we have some handy, any idea on how I can get the aspen out or is it possible it might come out by itself?
It also looks like it has a hint of green in it I'll clean it up as best as I can, maybe get a quick photo before I head out... Thanks

 

[Jeannine]

clean with a cotton ball or cotton bud?

 

[vampstorso]

Do you mean it's stuck in the scab? In that case you might wanna soak his tail with a cotton ball of betadine, too make it soft and pliable, before removing the aspen?
Or ask your Mum how she'd go about getting gunk and debris out of a child's grazed knee that got infected whilst healing due to foreign bodies like gravel etc...or some similar related example?


Goodluck in any case

 

[Ramsayi]

Bathe the area to soften it then remove the aspen with tweezers and apply diluted betadine.Keep the lizard on paper or similar until healed.BTW why was it a pleasant surprise?

 

[Bel03]

BTW why was it a pleasant surprise?

I wondered the same thing.

 

[Multifoliate]

Sarcasm perhaps?

www.flickr.com.au/closerdeviation

 

[HoodieBeast]

It was most definitely sarcasm :shock:
Guess I'll tone that down here.
Thanks to those that suggested Betadine, I bathed the tail myself after posting and got a few pieces out and put some betadine on it. I talked to mum last night She's going to have a look at it and we'll soak it again and work some more pieces out. She assured me it's not at risk of infection.
I cleaned out all the aspen and put in some shredded paper so nothing else gets caught.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

I clean wounds with a brush, nail brush, tooth brush, whatever, it might be a bit painful but it is very quick when you dont muck around and just do it, then hit it with betadine and a bandage if needed..
Leave the patient on newspaper till it mostly heals, or release it straight away as for wild ones.

 

[camcamcam]

Bedadine is great, but its mainly for cleaning infected areas, not to heal them, so get an egg, remove the yolk, get all the egg white, whisk it a little bit and dip his tail in it every hour, for about 5 hours, then repeat the next day.