Cautionary 'tail' as Bearded Dragon goes under the knife

A 10-month-old bearded dragon has roared back to his best after undergoing successful surgery at a leading Hampshire vet practice to amputate part of his tail.

Young Ivar was admitted to Linnaeus-owned Barn Animal Practice in Lychpit, Basingstoke, after attentive owner Kinay Sari had noticed his prized pet’s tail was turning black.

Barn Animal vet Emily Winter, who is experienced in looking after exotic pets, took charge of the case and identified the problem as dysecdysis, caused by an abnormality in the shedding of Ivar’s skin.

Emily explained: “Ivar’s owner had noticed a blackening of the tail and called us because he was very concerned.

“The problem was immediately clear when we made our clinical examination. There was a constriction injury to the tip of the tail, likely from dysecdysis, which is an abnormality in the shedding of skin.

“He also had necrosis (death of body tissue) of his tail tip leading to a spreading, necrotic infection which was extending up the tail.

“We operated to amputate the infected part of the tail, plus a further 2cm as a safety zone to ensure we had halted the danger.

“It is the first time this procedure has ever been undertaken here at the practice and everything went very well.

“One of the challenges was gauging the right amount of general anaesthetic for Ivar.

“I’m used to exotic pet care so took the lead but it was a fun learning experience for the rest of the team.

“It was quite a quick procedure, around 45 minutes, and the main challenge was stitching the wound closed, as the skin of reptiles is not very elastic.

“Everything went well, though, and Ivar made a speedy recovery from his operation, coming out of the anaesthetic in just 30 minutes which was excellent.

“There were no complications and Ivar was soon safely back home with his owner successfully medicating him with some oral pain relief and antibiotic injections every 72 hours.

“He’s healing very well, is behaving as normal again, so it is an extremely pleasing and rewarding result.”

Owner Kinay is delighted, too, and is pleased his prompt action in contacting the vets has helped Ivar backed to health.

He said: “Every day when I come back from work, I go to see Ivar and say hello and check he’s OK.

“One day I looked at his tail and could see it was turning black and obviously I was very concerned for him.

“I immediately rang Barn Animal Practice and arranged to take him. They were excellent.

“It was a shock to hear he needed part of his tail amputated but, although I was worried for Ivar, I had no doubt he was in the best place and would get the best care.

“Sure enough, everything went well and incredibly he was pretty much back to normal in a couple of days. It’s surprising how well he has coped with only half his tail!

“I’m really grateful to the team at Barn, everyone helped out really well and I would definitely recommend them.”

For more information about The Barn Animal Practice, visit www.barnvets.co.uk or search for them on social media.