A lizard never WANTS to drop off any amount of their tail, the only time a lizard will drop its tail is when they feel their life is threatened and its a last resort to escape the predator. When I mean last resort it really is just that, an iguana may try absolutely everything to get away before dropping its tail.
Things to avoid to keep your lizard's tail intact. NEVER hold your iguana by the tail, even with the body supported if you are holding the tail there is a possibility of it leading to the tail dropping if he/she becomes frightened. The best place to hold the back of the iguana for support is placing your palm of your hand under the base of the tail with your fingers running up the stomach and up the side in front of the hind legs.
If your iguana got loose and you are trying to catch it do not grab it by the tail, if your iguana is already panicky and you grab it suddenly by the tail its likely going to drop it in the frightened state.
If you happen to grab the tail the iguana will most likely do a few things prior to dropping it. The iguana should first wiggle the tail hard trying to get you to let go, then may start to try to run and roll.
No iguana wants to rope their tail and will do anything to keep from loosing it.
Other reason for a dropped tail. You don't have to grab a tail for it to drop off, the tail is long and for babies its very slender, the tail could get pinched in a door by accident. When this happens its often a small section at the end of the tail maybe an inch or two. If this happens you will notice a flattened spot where it got pinched, let the iguana body handle the rest but keep monitoring it (unless signs of infection occur, I will talk about the next). The section of the tail from the pinch to the tip will become rock hard in the next couple days, this is the section of the tail dyeing. Once the section is dead the iguana will then drop that section.
When caring for a dropped tail it may vary depending on how much of the tail was lost. Remember! Iguanas are built to withstand this type of injury in the wild where its far from clean. They are tough lizards, just keep the area dry and clean until the open tip has healed over. You can put an antibiotic ointment on it such as polysporn once a day to help fight any infection. If the drop affects more than half the length of the natural tail, please take the iguana to a vet to be checkout. The higher the drop the larger the blood vessels are and it will affect more nerves. The care is relatively the same, will just take longer for the pen end to heal over. Make sure the iguana has enough calcium in the diet to allow the REGROWTH to happen safety without having to strip it from other parts of the iguana's body
Another reason an iguana may drop its tail is from an infection. There are different ways an infection may occur, a cat scratch, dog bite etc. one common way an infection may occur is from the iguana hitting his or her tail off of something hard like a corner of a wall or an end of a branch/shelf in the enclosure. When an iguana whips his or her tail its very fast with a lot of power, if it hits something the wrong way it may cause a cut or some sort of injury that leads to infection. Signs of infection normally are swelling and a liquid yellow pus substance. As the tail swells the scales drift apart and you begin to see the pus between the scales.
The following pictures are not mine, I took them off of Google. However these photos show a tail injury on a green iguana and different ways they can look.
this photo shows a cut on the tail, this can be caused by another pet or smacking it very hard off an object.
notice both of the puncture marks on the tail, this was most likely caused by a bite, those marks are probably from a cat.
WHEN YOU SUSPECT INFECTION PLEASE TAKE YOUR IGUANA TO SEE A VET.
IF YOUR IGUANA GETS GAUNGRENE IT WILL NEED SURGERY TO REMOVE AS SECTION OF THE TAIL ABVE THE INFETION TO STOP IT FROM SPREADING.
When at the vet your iguana will most likely be prescribed an antibiotic and have the infected area wrapped. IF THE TAIL GETS WRAPPED, KEEP THE DRESSING DRY
A dropped or removed tail affects more than just the look of the iguana. Depending on the age it can be more serious. With baby and juvenile iguana it can be very substantial. If a baby ig looses a lot of their tail it also looses fat stores along with his way of defending him or herself. So a baby with a missing tail may be more flighty then it was before I dropped I as they may feel more vulnerable without it. Not only that but for the REGROWTH of the tail it takes a lot of energy, and nutrients. When your iguana Is regrowing his or her tail their diet is very important to make sure they have everything they need to stay healthy during this period.
REGROWTH
The following pictures are of my iguana's tails. Each picture will have an explanation bellow it.
First off when a tail REGROWS it will never look or act the same or grow as long as the original tail. Also the tail may not grow back at all. There are two types of breaks in the tail. Between the vertebrae and in the middle of a vertebrae. Depending on where the break is the iguana may not have any REGROWTH in the tail.
This is Pip's tail. When purchased him he was shipped to me. From what I seen it looked like when they were putting the lid on the container his tail got pinched in it. About an inch and a half fell off shortly after I got him. He has never had any REGROWTH, the tip healed over and that was it,
I accidentally pinched Billy's tail in his enclosure door and it got pinched, he lost about 3 inches from it. You can see in his talk a bit of a crook in the end, he had it pinched again but I have no idea what it was from as I didn't see it. It wasn't a hard enough pinch to cause it to die and drop off however just a little bend. ( I always watch so carefully know when I put any of my iguanas away, their tails are so thin on the ends they can slide through anything)
This is Phoenix's tail. She has about half her original tail, she was like this when I purchased her so I do not know how or why her tail was dropped. However she has some very slight REGROWTH starting in the tail. When I got her she had about 5 layers of stuck on shed on there tail which I'm assuming affected the growing process.
Lastly this is Sassy's tail. Sassy became scared one day and whipped her tail and smacking it off the corner of a door frame. It became infected and swollen, I took her to a vet once a week to have an antibiotic injection (she didn't do an oral antibiotic.) the tail was then cleaned and wrapped. unfortunately the wrapping got wet one day while she went to the bathroom causing it not to heal properly. She was scheduled to have it surgically removed since it wasn't healing and it was spreading up the tail. About 4 days before the surgery Sassy actually dropped the section of the tail that was infected (about 5 inches) the break was not straight up and down I was on an angle. I took her back into the vet for a final check up and she just healed normally at home. Due to it being on an angle her REGROWTH grew downwards but stated to curled and to the side since it was dragging on the ground all the time. This is about 3 years of REGROWTH and about as long as it should get.
SO IT GOES TO SHOW YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPLETLY AVOID A TAIL FROM DROPPING OFF AS ACCIDENTS HAPPEN HOWEVER YOU CAN LOWER THE CHANCES. LIMIT THE STRESS FOR YOUR IGUANA ANY WAY YOU CAN TO HELP LIMIT THE POSSIBILITY.
I HOPE THIS WAS HELPFUL!
ROBIN.
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