Ohk..for those of you who dont know what Sally is shes my oldest female Chinese Water Dragon...lol, Ive had many health problems with her..but never any shedding problems...shes never had a retained shed and she is in shed right now...but no problems so I dont understand exactly whats going on, the tip of her tail, for maybe half an inch is really hard and discolored...and for obvious reasons this worries me...what could be causing this..and do you think that part of her tail is going to fall off...since there is no reason why she would be losing her tail I think Im going to bring her to the vet....I must admit it has been a while LOL...temps and humidity...88-84, humid hasnt been as high as it usually is its only about 75% Usually its 80%..ummm as for food last week she ate one pinky, about 2 jars of turkey baby food and one jar of sweet potato baby food and half a jar of butternut squash...Ive tried crix everyday, and mealies..Ive gotten no response to them at all but as soon as she gets a whiff of the baby food she goes crazy lol..shes gone to the bathroom everyday and has been drinking alot of water lately..but I assumed that was because her humidity has been a bit low and for substrate I still have her on paper towels...im stumped

Regarding Sally's tail .. this does sound like perhaps the skin has been retained and this can of course mean a loss of the tail, as the skin cuts off the circulation to that point. In order for this to happen though the skin would have been retained for the past few sheds, not just one - are you sure she has always shed the very tip with no problems? If you are then it may that the skin has been retained this time but will come off in time, or that she has some kind of infection?

I'm not very knowledgable on Water dragons I'm afraid, I'm basing your problem on experiences I've had with bearded dragons.

Also, again like I said I don't know too much about WDs, but is it right to feed so much baby food?

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

What may have happened and is she got excited and slapped her tail against something and the tip was broken. It has died off and will probably come off.
The danger here is if dry gangrene sits in. Then the infection will travel up the tail and into the body of the lizard. This will kill it. Take a permanent marker and make a mark just above where the dryness is and monitor to see if it continues spreading. If so get to a vet immediatly. The infected area will have to be amputated to stop the spread of the infection.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

If Merlin is right then it may be beneficial to use something as a preventative of infection - over here we have something called Tamodine, which is basically diluted iodine. We have used this in the past on areas where infection might set in and it has worked well to prevent that. Good luck.,

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

If it is dry gangrene that won't help. The infection is inside the body and cannot be reached by topical antibiotics.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Of course, apologies, I should have made that clear - the tamodine can prevent infection through external factors, but not internal infection.. if this is the case then a vet visit will be necessary.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Tamodine, i beleive is generally called betadine here. it's about $9 a gallon, and there is no way you will ever use the whole gallon because to wash my adult male iguana who was 4+ feet long I used about a teaspoon and diluted it.
Looks like you get to go in for your bi-monthly check up...I would definitely be worried about it. Its always better to be safe than sorry. You might want to look over all of the others since it seems that once you take one pet to the vet another one ends up sick (atleast thats the way it works with me)

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No retained sheds on her tail at all, in fact she is the only one who never has any problems shedding, lol...I think I will be gettign her to the vet as soon as I can..I dont want any further problems with her, or for it to spread..I guess it couldnt hurt to get all of them checked out either...Jack is due for one same with Shock...thanks for the replies and I will mark the spot on her tail to make sure it isnt going up further

Ohk..I just went upstairs to mark the spot on her tail and she wont really let me touch it.. Im just gonna take her to the vet, she seems to be in alot of pain

Let us know what you find out!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!