Sue Sue the juvenile female uromastyx

Question
QUESTION: About 1 year ago I rescued 3 Uromastyx female sisters from a petstore I won't mention.  It took alot of hard work, but all three are thriving now.  However, My most healthy one (who has struggled hard to survive parasites and worms) who now eats like a pig has a claw problem.  The skin on her fingers are growing over her nails on the front feet.  At first I thought maybe it was shedding skin that was hung up, but it is live healthy skin growing over the nails and it doesn't have far to go before it completely grows over the entire nails.  What is this problem and How can I fix it? Thank you in advance for your answer.  Camille

ANSWER: Hello Camille,

Great that you rescued 3 Uros & that they are all doing so well now.  Awesome.  
Wow that is really a bazaar condition, one that I have not seen.  Can you post a picture of that for me?  It is possible that it will have to be trimmed off at the vets, but that will be difficult to find a vet that is good who would look at that.  
Does it seem to be affecting her ability to move around yet?

Tracie



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Suey-Ornate Uromastyx   QUESTION: Tracie, I took a picture, but you can't really tell very much from the photo.  I have a lousy digital camera.  It is not affecting her ability to move around at all.  I wouldn't have even noticed it, had her nail not gotton hung up in the carpet last night and when I was checking it out to make sure she was okay, I noticed all the nails had skin growing around them and only tips sticking out of the ends. And like I said, at first I thought maybe it was dead skin from shedding so I tried to cut it away from one nail and it's not dead skin, and it bled a little-so I stopped. Then I thought maybe she wore her nails down digging-she loves to dig-. But she couldnt have-I have a total of 6 uromastyx.  They all dig around alot, but she is the only one with this situation going on. So, I am stooped on this one! I have never seen anything like it. Well, attached it the photo.  Please tell me what you think! Thanks so much and Happy Holidays! Camille

ANSWER: Hello Camille,

Yeah it is a little hard to tell from the picture but just a little bit.  That is so interesting though, I have just never seen that before.  
I would say if it is not really affecting her then as long as it does not continue to grow completely over her nails then it should not pose a problem.  It looks like she has a long cuticle, basically.  Odd that none of the other Uros have that.
Great you have 6 Uros.  How do you have them all housed?  How many are female & how many are male?
She looks very pretty.  :-))
Her appetite is good too?

Happy Holidays to you also!

Tracie



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QUESTION: Tracie, Hello! I was thinking-Do you think maybe it could be a fungal type thing? Now that I think about it, her face has a crusty surface, like she is going to shed but never does.  And you can't scrape the crusty stuff off. Could she have a fungus problem? What do you think and what can I do it so? I have 4 females and 2 males.  One of the males is a dwarf uromastyx and is over a year old now but only 6 inches long-and the most beautiful one ever-when my husband got him for me, he was the size of my thumb.  They sold him as a Mali, it seems like the pet stores sell all of them as Mali.  The other male is an egyptian and all of the females are ornate.  The three sisters and an adult female that is about 18 inches long and big!! She is in a 100 gallon aquarium but I am getting her a big cage for Christmas.  The others are in 20 gallon aquariums (with undertank heaters-uv lights and heat lights) because they are still small.  I use ground walnut shell substrate. Used to use calcium substrate for the adults and reptile carpet for the babies but all are big enough now for the walnut and it works better because they are so easy to get respiratory infections.  Anyway, they are my babies. I love them more than any pet I have ever owned. I keep rescuing from pet stores-like I did the three sisters. They would have died within days had I not bought them.  And the pet store still made me pay 110.00 apiece, but I didn't care, I had to save them!!! Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.  Sincerely, Camille

Answer
Hello Camille,

Well, that is a possibility.  What is the humidity in the tank that she is in?  Do you measure it regularly?
She is in a large tank for sure, so she is housed alone?  
Do they lick the substrate alot?  I ask because the walnut can impact them if they lick it too much.  Good you got the calcium substrate out of there now.  
Great you are rescuing them from the petstores.  It is a shame that they abuse them so badly in the petstores, I hate that.  
The heat lights, are they bright white basking lights?  They love bright light, plus it protects their eyes from the UVB lighting.  Which UVB lights do you use, a flourescent tube or a compact or coil?
If you want to try to treat for fungus, you can get some betadine, tea tree oil or witch hazel & lamisil.  Bathe her in diluted betadine, & then use either the tea tree oil or the witch hazel as an astringent on the affected areas, using either a swab or a cotton ball.  Then, apply the lamisil on the areas, daily.


Let me know how it goes.

Tracie