Hi Everyone, I have a 3-year old female chinese water dragon. About two months ago she lept out of my boyfriend's hand and landed on the hardwood floor. (he's 6'3"). The next day her forearm and front hand was quite swollen. We took her to the vet where they did x-rays and there seemed to be no broken bones (I got a chance to see the x-rays too). We were told that it was badly bruised and that it would be really swollen for quite a while. Well, "quite a while" went by and her arm and hand really never went down in swelling. It basically looked like a surgical glove filled with air and her pinky finger started falling off (I assume because it was getting no circulation). So this time we took her to a different vet who removed the dangling pinky and put her on a 2-week course of antibiotics. The swelling in her forearm went down but now there is a soft, round bump on the top of her hand (it covers the whole top). And her wrist is a little lumpy. We took her to the vet again today after the antibiotics didn't seem to do the trick. Now it appears as though we may have to face surgery to completely remove the abscess. The vet wants to dig out the wound to clean it out completely (as it appears it is filled with puss and bacteria). I'm worried about her going through being anesthetized and the surgery. I don't know how water dragons deal with these things. Also, are there any other alternatives that anyone knows of? Is there anyone else who has faced something similar?? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, OtisIsMyCat
Well I have no doubt that it's going to need surgery but unfortunately I don't know much about water dragons and how they would handle the anesthetic. I hope everything turns out okay.
As long as your vet has experience doing surgeries on reptiles your water dragon should be fine. I am a vet tech and the clinic I work at does reptile surgeries pretty frequently. We actually just removed an abcess from an iguana today and everything went fine. Ask what type of anesthesia they will be using - gas or injectable or both? From what we have found most handle gas anesthesia very well and have a quick recovery, plus they usually are willing to eat that evening. Injectables can be questionable depending on what is being used. Some will wake up in a few hours, some will be groggy for days, some don't want to eat for a few days. I agree that your water dragon needs surgery as soon as possible. It's not going to go away on it's own, it will only get worse. There is always a risk with anesthesia no matter how careful, but the risk is pretty small. Hope all goes well. Keep us updated. Michele
my female had a mouth abcess and had surgery under anethetic, she was fine, took a few days to recover but she is as well as cen be now. The vet told us providing they weren't uder for too long and their weight/health etc is kinda ok they should be fine. as wideglide said above there is a risk but it is small.
