Browning of the tail.

Question
Hello,

I'm going to try to hop right to it as to not keep you bust forever. :)

ive had my iguana for about 3 maybe 4 months. when i first bought him i noticed that the last 2 1/2 maybe 3 inches of his tail is reallly dark brown almost black. ive researched as much as i can and im not getting any closer to a result because this problem is apparently not posted about much.

anyway.
it doesnt seem to bother him and he really didnt care when the last inch of his tail broke off after whipping my bf's arm really hard.
at first i was really worried but when i realized that it had no noticable effect to his daily mood i kinda stopped freaking out so much.

its not fuzzy like a fungal infection and it doesnt hurt him when you touch it at least he doesnt act like it does.

idk if i should worry or if this is normal.

what do you think it is??

Answer
Hi Sylvia,
It sounds like your igs tail may have dry gangrene. This happens when the tail gets injured...usually from whipping.  The piece that broke off may have been "dead" also or it is what started the gangrene.  When something is injured the blood supply can stop to that area and it causes the dry gangrene.  Does that part of the tail feel dry, hard and brittle?  If yes, then dry gangrene and your ig needs to see a vet to have part of the tail amputated.  If the "dead" part isn't removed properly, the gangrene will continue on up the tail and also possibly go internal.  The vet will remove the dead part, needing to go up into live tissue...in most cases it doesn't require anything more than a local anesthetic.
If the tail part that is black isn't as I describe(dry, hard, etc) a picture would help greatly. With a picture, I may be able to tell if it is  gangrene,  new growth or even normal color.  If it is re growth, it won't feel dry and brittle but will lack scales for a bit and feel like a pencil eraser for lack of a better description.