Tail Fungus Take Two

[Matthew Parks]

Originally Posted by Brian

Funny, I've had a few babies lately come down with this. Fungus appear to be confined to the skin and can lead to the tip skin sloughing off.

Funny thing is I rarely have added any Crested Geckos from the "usual sources". So I know I didn't bring any spores from other gecko people. I kind of beleived it was just present in the enviroment.

It affected most geckos in one group and only a gecko here and there in one other group. Shed skin get's stuck over the area. I first thought this was due to simply bad circulation.

Stopping it so far is fairly easy. Although they typically have lost the tail tip and the skin has sloughed off, in some cases it appears the deep layers too. I mainly just helped remove the skin and treated with a coat of Neosporin. I would have used a funglecide if I had one too although it doesn't appear nessacary.

Now what appears to help prevent it? The usual good ventilation and dryer conditions. Yes, I do not spray my Cresteds. I was spraying the poorer ventilated enclosures where it did break out.

.

Lets not start this rumor all over again! What you have is much more likely to be aggression between cage mates. Please read mine and Dorothys previous posts. This rumor started quite a panic 2 years ago (which is when this thread was started), and it turned out to be nothing more than geckos biting other geckos tails.

Originally Posted by Dragontown

I dunno, Dorothy. I'd buy that if it were just the abrasion.... but the tail is useless, the gecko is listless and even the animal's colors have become pale and lifeless. I fed her CGD and Calcium again last night, but there's definitely more going on than a tail nip.... fungus or not.

Perhaps what is going on here is a bacterial infection that started in the tail and has spread through the body. The tail does not look infected, it looks mostly like scar tissue with some open wounds, but bacteria could have gotten in and spread form there. Short of going to the vet you could try some fish store antibiotics like ciprofloxacin. PM if you want dosage and details.

[CrestedLove27]

Originally Posted by Dragontown

I dunno, Dorothy. I'd buy that if it were just the abrasion.... but the tail is useless, the gecko is listless and even the animal's colors have become pale and lifeless. I fed her CGD and Calcium again last night, but there's definitely more going on than a tail nip.... fungus or not.

Actually thinking back after listening to what Matt said, although it's not the same creature, I once had a fire skink who damaged her tail on a rock and the wounds looked very similar. It was dead to the touch, and the wounds were dry and whitish in color from where skin layers had peeled away. Despite me trying to treat it myself and keep her nutrients up (I was unfortunately rather uneducated on reptiles at the time) the wound got a secondary infection that I believe entered her bloodstream and it killed her. It paled out her entire body and she became very lethargic and lifeless over a very short time frame. I still get teared up thinking about my skink and I will never make that same mistake again. You may want to take her to a vet Mike. I wish you and your crested all the best!

[Brian]

Funny, I've had a few babies lately come down with this. Fungus appear to be confined to the skin and can lead to the tip skin sloughing off.

Funny thing is I rarely have added any Crested Geckos from the "usual sources". So I know I didn't bring any spores from other gecko people. I kind of beleived it was just present in the enviroment.

It affected most geckos in one group and only a gecko here and there in one other group. Shed skin get's stuck over the area. I first thought this was due to simply bad circulation.

Stopping it so far is fairly easy. Although they typically have lost the tail tip and the skin has sloughed off, in some cases it appears the deep layers too. I mainly just helped remove the skin and treated with a coat of Neosporin. I would have used a funglecide if I had one too although it doesn't appear nessacary.

Now what appears to help prevent it? The usual good ventilation and dryer conditions. Yes, I do not spray my Cresteds. I was spraying the poorer ventilated enclosures where it did break out.

.

[Brian]

Matt, I do not have aggression between cage mates in this case. I've seen bite wounds before. I actually looked into my guys problem fairly well. Sorry if this sounds a bit abrupt, but I'm offended since I beleive I know what I'm talking about and feel you just dismissed my observation. I don't really pay much attention to the "Crested scene" so I don't know if fungus was some big hoax or not. I could be wrong, but something was responsible beyond what normally occurs.

I have to admit i'm responsible for the outbreak. I kept them in conditions I guess were to stale and were very advantagous to mold and other things.

I had other evidence that something other then a say a bite and loss of circulation was going on. But no I did not look for the actual fungus under a microscope.

The pics posted are not even close to what my stuff looked like though.

[Matthew Parks]

I am sorry you were offended, I have a tendancy to be blunt and to the point, I was not intending to dismiss your observations, but I don't want there to be a bunch of people freaking out because they think their geckos have some fictional, mysterious, highly contagious, fungus that attacks only the tails.

A bacterial infection from stuck shed or cagemate aggression is the much more likely scenario, and the fact that you say neosporin got rid of it only adds to the probablility that it's not a fungus.

[Brian]

Neosporin did not get rid of it. I put Neosporin on the tail after the skin sloughed off to stop or help prevent any infection. In some cases the entire skin was removed leaving the remaining tail transparent. I'm aware Neosporin is not a fungicide.

The shed did stick sometimes, but not always. This did lead to what typically can happen then. It always happened after the tail looked a little black or white streaked.

I also kept animals individually so I don't beleive those were due to cagemate aggression obviously.

I actually watched it develop in a few once i knew what to look for. In some cases it spread up the tail a little bit , but not always.

Anyway, it's development was due to bad husbandry practice unfortunately I must admit so no one needs to worry about it sweeping through there Crested Geckos.

Maybe it wasn't fungus, but I stopped it so I don't really care at this point.

[geickoJR.]

Originally Posted by Brian

Maybe it wasn't fungus, but I stopped it so I don't really care at this point.

If i were you i would be making sure it didnt come back or something. i did not take the time to go through all these posts, but maybe you have already.

If it were affecting your geckos tails, and having their skin slide off the tail...why not just make them drop it?

[Matthew Parks]

That is the reason I feel compelled to continue responding in this thread. Most people aren't going to read all the posts and are going to think that there actually is a tail fungus going around. So I am going to sum everything up in this post and lock this thread. If anyone at any point in time actually ever has a veterinary diagnosed case of fungus of any kind in a crested gecko please start a new thread about it.


2 years ago someone noticed some nasty looking tails on their geckos, they told a bunch of people that it was a fungus that was highly contagious and aggressive. Panic ensued. Several people with geckos displaying the symptoms took their geckos to the vet and had expensive skin scaping tests performed......... there was NO FUNGUS. It was later figured out that the nasty tail tips were from cage mates nipping tails.

More recently someone resurrected this thread and again people started posting about these symptoms. And again this time there is no evidence to suggest it is a fungus.