# NOOOOO!!!



## Kharnifex (Mar 5, 2009)

i did a horrible thing last night, joker my baby extreme giant who i got from bobby from the last hatch has just started waking up everyday and eating. he was chilling on his rock, and i was cleaning his water dish and his light fell on him!! he dropped 2/3 of his tail *cries* this cruushes me. i loved his tail, it was so beautiful!! makes me want to leave work right now and just go hold him i feel so damn guilty and shitty. this is horrible. he was just starting to wake up, had his first two sheds this week and really calm in the hand after an initial struggle.

so what do i do? i lined the inside of his tank with 4 layers of paper towels so he wouldnt get mulch or dirt on his tail, and cleaned the wound with Virosan (Nolvasan), but i didn't bandage it or anything nor did i cover it with neosporin cause i heard somewhere you need to let tail breaks breathe. but does anyone have any advice for me? this kills me. his tail was so pretty, snow white and coal black repeating pattern. 

also, he didn't seem to care that his tail dropped. infact i'm pretty sure he ate a roach like 15 minutes later. can they feel pain in there tails? i sure felt pain. when i seen it flip out autonomusly as soon as the light dropped i knew it was bad, then like 3 seconds later it just fell off. i feel like he forgives me, or he didn't figure out it was my own stupidity that led to his injury. but i'm enraged at myself for being so careless.

also, being the tough badass he is, when he decided to go to sleep he completely ignored the beautiful steril paper towel cave i made him and just shredded a hole through the paper towels back into his mulch where he is sleeping now.

so did i do ok? at first i had stupid thoughts of using medical tape to reatach the tail but my common sense said if they're made to drop so easy like that they arn't going to reatach.

i lovingly wrapped his tail up tight and put it in the freezer, so i can show it to him when he's older.

god this whole thing is so damn depressing


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## DaveDragon (Mar 5, 2009)

AWWW that sucks!!! But, what's done is done. At least you won't have to worry about him tail whipping you when he's older! :roll: 

I've had a few opportunities to do similar damage to a few reptiles and must be very lucky. :fc


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## crimsonrazac (Mar 5, 2009)

Thats what I'm always worried about. I rememebr when i was around 7 I tried to tape a lizards tail back on. thought it might had been like grafting a plant. Didn't work to well for me :roll:
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I would try to keep it out of the mulch untill the tail heals. Just to decrease the risk of infection.


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## ashesc212 (Mar 5, 2009)

Ah man, sorry to hear that. It's so easy for accidents to happen, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It's one of my personal fears when going near Lucky.


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## DaveDragon (Mar 5, 2009)

ashesc212 said:


> Ah man, sorry to hear that. It's so easy for accidents to happen, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It's one of my personal fears when going near Lucky.


I had 18 to worry about damaging!! I'm amazed I didn't pull off a tail or drop one! 

I've dropped a light into a tank a couple of times, luckily I didn't hit anything.


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## Beasty (Mar 5, 2009)

I had a similar experience not long ago.
I was ALL bummed out but just keep it clean and dry. I had the little rock iguana I had broken in a tank with only paper towels until the tip dried up and looked to scab over. Then I put mulch back and we went about our business. Dave has it now and I'm sure it's doing fine.
One "good" thing about this is every time I have met a reptile with some such "handicap" it has been a well mannered, sociable animal. So, if it makes you feel better, the chances of the lizard being ballistic when grown just went down.


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## DaveDragon (Mar 5, 2009)

Beasty said:


> I had a similar experience not long ago.
> I was ALL bummed out but just keep it clean and dry. I had the little rock iguana I had broken in a tank with only paper towels until the tip dried up and looked to scab over. Then I put mulch back and we went about our business. Dave has it now and I'm sure it's doing fine.
> One "good" thing about this is every time I have met a reptile with some such "handicap" it has been a well mannered, sociable animal. So, if it makes you feel better, the chances of the lizard being ballistic when grown just went down.


Exactly! As you've noticed, they don't seem to miss it!


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## ashesc212 (Mar 6, 2009)

DaveDragon said:


> ashesc212 said:
> 
> 
> > Ah man, sorry to hear that. It's so easy for accidents to happen, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It's one of my personal fears when going near Lucky.
> ...



I was very impressed by this! I thought for sure you'd be selling things with tail nips and stuff...like how bearded dragon breeders tend to do and I wanted to know EXACTLY what I was getting first hahaha. You did an EXCELLENT job!! A++


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## Kharnifex (Mar 6, 2009)

yea, he seems to have taken it in stride, if anything he seems a little less jumpy now that he has no tail to flaunt. he still has a few inches of it, luckly he kept the part that gets really thick so he'll still store fat. he's up every day, eating every day, looks like hibernation may be over. 

we had a photoshoot last night i'll post some pics soon of his new cropped look.


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## DaveDragon (Mar 6, 2009)

ashesc212 said:


> DaveDragon said:
> 
> 
> > ashesc212 said:
> ...


Thanks! As long they're fed alot they shouldn't attack each others tails.


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## Kharnifex (Mar 20, 2009)

here's pics of his loss. sorry i have no idea how to post a proper pic so you'll just have to wade through my myspace page to see em. he's totally fine. eating like a hog, if anything it seems loosing his tail snapped him more out of his sleepyness.


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## Red Earth Exotics (Mar 20, 2009)

saw the pics, sux man. still a good looking tegu though.


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## BOOZER (Mar 20, 2009)

1st pic........umm ow!


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## laurarfl (Mar 20, 2009)

that's quite a close up there, lol!

Last winter I accidentally closed the cage door with the very tip of my red's tail in the crack. He wiggle a bit and dropped about a 1/3 or 1/4 of his tail. I was bummed about it for days! The very end is always the most beautiful part with the nice banding. sigh. Anyway, the little black regrown nub is coming out. He wasn't phased by any of it. I moved him into a temp enclosure with only newspaper and a hide box and put Bactracin on the wound. After a week or so I put the yearlings back together and no one ever bothered the fresh tail end.

I don't feel as bad about it either and I've gotten used to his new look...


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## Red Earth Exotics (Mar 20, 2009)

That's something I haven't thought about yet for when I get mine. Gotta be careful and watch that tail!


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## Kharnifex (Mar 24, 2009)

lol, he doubled in size the last two weeks. his tail is neatly healed and he's eating anything and everything inside his cage. all the roaches that set up shop in his tank while he was hibernating are eaten, yesterday he ate two full size female dubia roaches about 15 mealworms and two chunks of talapia. i think he's gearing up for a huge spurt soon.


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