End of tail came off

[zendragondrew]

My snake was playing in the bathtub and the last half inch of his tail came off. He has always had an injury there so I've always been careful with it, but lately it looked very loose. I didn't even see it come off or where it went but when I was bringing him back to his cage I noticed it missing. Is he going to be OK? Has this happened to anybody before?

He seems fine right now, but I'm not sure if he is, I'm not very experienced with garter snakes. Any advice would be great, should I take him to the vet? It's only a very small piece of tail and it was already hanging off but I'm worried about him.

[zendragondrew]

4063

Here is a picture of how his tail looked last week, before the piece came off. Everything beyond that little gash is now gone :(

[zendragondrew]

4064

Here is how it looks now.

[zendragondrew]

Stefan A just helped me a bit on this issue, seems he will be OK. A great relief. If you guys still have any advice on this matter, let me know, I will check this thread when I wake up before I go to work tomorrow.

[GarterGuy17]

It was just some retained shed which made the tail rot which is why it came off , she or he will be fine just they will have a stubby tail.

[zendragondrew]

Thanks a lot. Like I said, he has had it for over half a year (at least) and has shed a few times since then. I thought maybe a rat attacked him on the streets of New York and it was a battle scar, but now that I'm hearing all this maybe it is from some past bad shed.

[chris-uk]

I'd go with the loop of retained shed that cut of bloodflow to the tip of the tail. It happens, and is one of the reasons to check that each shed is complete, although in this case it could have been a shed from long before you picked up the snake.
If it's not bleeding don't worry, you just have a stubby tailed snake. And in case you didn't ask Stefan... the tip of the tail won't grow back.

[EasternGirl]

I think everyone pretty much covered what I was going to say. If he should start having any other problems with the tail...let us know...but he should be fine.

[zendragondrew]

Yeah, thanks. I didn't ask if it would grow back, I was pretty certain it wouldn't. As long as he's OK, that's all that matters.

[EasternGirl]

Keep us posted and let us know how he's doing.