Question
toe problems
Hey there,
I adopted a baby iguana about two months ago, by a friend of mine that would move to another country, which is about 4 months old! The iguana was quite healthy, except the fact that it lost a toe from its back leg. At the begining, its toe was dark in colour, and one day, as i was to bath it, i saw it was cut off. That happened 1 month ago. She has a quite healthy organism, and grows normally, as i take good care of her, but now 2 more problems have appeared with her toes. One of the front fingers looks like broken, or something like that, while it bend over the finger next to it... :( Also on the other leg, a finger started changing colour to like dark brown, and the end of it is thick where the nail is. Also the nail there, bends more than it should. I cant tell if its infected or not, nor the vet i took her too, while the vet told me to go to a herpetologist. WE don't have one in our area, so am desperate, and don't know what to do. I hope you can help me! I now you are not a herpetologist, but i have given you a detailed picture of what it looks like, so maybe you could tell me what to do, in order to heal it :(
see picture for more help!
Many thanks panayiotis :/
AnswerHi Panayiotis,
Missing and broken toes and nails are a very common occurance with iguanas in captivity (and perhaps in the wild as well). The toes are often caught in cage wire or artifical turf leading to this situation. My 14 year old male was missing two nails and part of one toe when I acquired him as a 2 year old. I would not be overly concerned about the bent toe. It will likely stay that way but will not have any significant affect on your iguana's ability to climb. I strongly doubt that it is causing any pain.
The finger that is turning brown is more of a cause for concern. It sounds like that tissue has died and this is an indication of a condition called dry gangrene. This site has some info on dry gangrene.
http://www.anapsid.org/gangrene.html
In some cases, (like with the other toe) the affected area may just fall off with no further complication. In other cases the infection can start spreading further up into the foot (or tail). In that case, amputation of the dead tissue is recommended. You can try applying an antbiotic ointment to the healthy part of the toe to try to prevent the spread and keep a close watch on it to monitor if the brown area is spreading further up the toe and foot.
Despite your vet's recommendation to see a herpetologist, a trained veterinarian is really your best choice if the toe needs to be removed. A herpetologist studies the behaviour, evolution, diet and behaviour of reptiles but is not trained or equipped to deal with medical problems.
Good luck with your baby iguana, I think that your question is my first one from Cyprus!
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