My baby green iguanas scales are falling off!! help!?

Question

I have a baby iguana roughly 6 months old, and he seemed to be doing just fine until one day I picked him up by the tail and it came off. i know this happens so it didnt worry me. I am now very worried. that was several months ago and his tail hasnt grown back and is now black at the end about a centimeter and his scales on two of his fingers have died and he no longer uses them, but he continues to use his tail. I feel like I am killing him slowly!! WHAT DO I DO?

Answer 1

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it is very unfortunate when a tail breaks but youre right it will grow back. it will take time and you need to pay close attention to be sure there are no infections beginging
also please never lift by a tail again. there is a proper way to lift an iguana under the body with full support. then this will not happen. the black tip is regrowth and it will be black for a while. keep an eye on it though make sure it doesnt get hard and then it could develope into a bad problem

Source(s):

19 yr rescue and rehab reptiles

Answer 2

Yeah, so you just have a baby iguana.

Answer 3

i sugest you bring your iguana to a vet

Answer 4

A grown back tail has a brownish color that's not very attractive, so it could be that, but look for two things: does it look shriveled, and does the iguana feel it? There are nerves in a grown back tail, so if you pinch it gently the iguana will normally yank it out of your hand. If it's all shriveled and insensitive, then there is a problem. There is a thing called dry rot, where the tail dies little by little, and it takes an amputation a little ahead of the necrotic line, or the dry rot will keep creeping up and could cause a fatal infection if it reaches the fleshy part.
The fingers could have been damaged by another injury, iguanas are kind of prone to break fingers, if it tries to escape then it'll have pried at every crack at its reach, a cage's door is the kind of thing where its claws could have been stuck hard enough for the iguana's efforts to free its hand to break the bones, they're really tiny in the fingers.
Can you link a good, non-blurry picture of the injuries? We'd be more apt to tell what's going on with an image, or at least more description.