# Bearded dragon scale damaged?



## Emaa (Jan 11, 2016)

My bearded dragon has recently shed and it looks like he has a damaged/missing scale?
No one messed about with him whilst he was shedding so it couldn't be that. I do have other pets (cats and dogs) but whenever he is out of his enclosure I have been with him so the other pets wouldn't have a chance to damage him in anyway.




















I was wondering if there is anything that I could buy to help treat this or what I should do about it. Thanks


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## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

Ouch that looks a bit sore. What insects are you feeding as they could have bitten him? Looks more than just a bit of scale damage due to a bad shed.


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## murrindindi (Feb 19, 2009)

Emaa said:


> My bearded dragon has recently shed and it looks like he has a damaged/missing scale?
> No one messed about with him whilst he was shedding so it couldn't be that. I do have other pets (cats and dogs) but whenever he is out of his enclosure I have been with him so the other pets wouldn't have a chance to damage him in anyway.
> I was wondering if there is anything that I could buy to help treat this or what I should do about it. Thanks


Hi, not easy to see, but it looks like the scale has gone, just gently dab the area with a diluted iodine solution; 10 (ten) parts water to 1 (one) part iodine, do that once per day for the next week (do not rinse off). If after that time the skin underneath looks clean it should heal without further treatment (the scale will not grow back but that`s purely cosmetic).


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## Emaa (Jan 11, 2016)

He eats crickets, locusts and morio worms, he is brumantating at the moment so I have something for him to climb under and in the morning there was a cricket in their with him, it could be that?
Is there anything I can buy to help it heal? Thanks


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

Emaa said:


> He eats crickets, locusts and morio worms, he is brumantating at the moment so I have something for him to climb under and in the morning there was a cricket in their with him, it could be that?
> Is there anything I can buy to help it heal? Thanks



Thats why Murrindindi has said about using an iodine solution, it will clean the wound and doing it over a week will help prevent (or clean up) any infection.

Beardies are slow healers, so once you have made sure its clean and healthy tissue its just a case of keeping an eye and let nature take its course.

Some people talk about using honey on the wound to help promote healing but i would do the iodine solution for a week and then if you want to try a "holistic" sort of approach then look at the honey idea.
However, i dont really think its a great idea is you are then putting live insects in for the beardie to eat.


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## Emaa (Jan 11, 2016)

Azastral said:


> Thats why Murrindindi has said about using an iodine solution, it will clean the wound and doing it over a week will help prevent (or clean up) any infection.
> 
> Beardies are slow healers, so once you have made sure its clean and healthy tissue its just a case of keeping an eye and let nature take its course.
> 
> ...


Yes I just saw Murrindindi's post, I went to the chemist and got some iodine so hopefully he will heal soon.

My beardie doesn't eat anything dead, I tried it before and it didn't work. However I have made sure his viv has no insects in it so they can't damage that scale anymore and I will be feeding him one insect at a time so none are left in there at night


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## Emaa (Jan 11, 2016)

UPDATE:
From what I know it looks like it has healed  
I used iodine on the scale until it looked clean then he shed where it used to be and other than it being a bit raised it looks like it was never there 
Wanted to make sure it had healed properly so here are some pics


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