Brown soft spine on crest

Question
I have a 5 year old iguana that was a rescue, we have had him for about a year now and he has shed pieces occasionally but is just into his first full body shed. I have been checking his crest spines and along his tail since I heard those areas are sometimes hard for them to shed. When I checked one of the crest spines, a layer popped off like normal but I noticed underneath it looked brown. When I rubbed it another layer of came off. The top half of the spine is brown and soft, after I removed the second layer of shed it filled with blood, but the blood has since gone away again. I am a bit worried that it may be dry gangrene, but I have only seen information about dry gangrene on the tail and toes which talks about amputation. If there is an issue with the spine will it fall off on its own or will it need to be amputated?

Answer
Hi Nicole,
Thank you for rescuing the iguana.
I"ve seen what you described several times with my iguanas. Its never been a problem other than the tip of the spike possibly drying and breaking off.  The fact that you saw blood says its not dry gangrene. If it were gangrene, there would be no blood to the area. Just apply some Neosporin ointment to the area. It sounds like what happened is that the actual protective sheath on the spike also came off. The spike may turn brittle(generally not gangrene) and just break off or it may form the protective sheath on it again.  just keep an eye on it but chances are there will be no problems with it.
You want to be careful with sheds on the spikes because it is very easy to damage the spikes, especially the tips.  If you feel there is stuck shed on them, just apply some Vaseline to the spikes.  It may take several applications of the Vaseline to get the old shed off. Never force the shed though. Also, having a good humidity level in the cage helps greatly as does warm soaks in the bath tub.  I like using a warm mist humidifier for humidity but if you live where its warm, you may have to go with a cool mist as the warm mist may make the cage too warm, depending on the structure and size of the cage.