Swollen foot with black spot

Hi everyone,

I noticed today my girl's back left ankle and foot are swollen and there is a small black spot on her ankle. It doesn't look like a puncture wound..it's a bit dry/crusty looking. She has been very restless the past week or so and I'm wondering if she strained her ankle somehow running around her enclosure, or if this could be something internal or an infection of some type? She had an xray a month or so ago which didn't show any signs of MBD or broken bones. I can take her in tomorrow for another xray but the closest reptile vet is about 2 hours away and closed today.
Edit for more info - her foot are toes are very firm and swollen to the point where there is not much range of movement in her toes and ankle. It's difficult to see in the photos but the area with the black spot is raised slightly as well.

Hi. That swelling looks like it could possibly be gout. And the spot could just be a blemish. My dragons have those.

I agree, the spot looks harmless but the ankles look a bit swollen and may be gout. See if your vet can draw some fluid out to check for crystals that indicate gout. Hopefully it's not that, but if it is you might catch it early + be able to help her. Offer lots of fluids and greens for now and go easy on the protein.

Thank you for the replies. After doing some research gout sounds pretty likely considering her diet lately. Over the last half year or so she began eating less and less greens, and the last few months she won't touch greens at all. She will eat a few crickets or roaches here and there but mostly she is only interested in hornworms. I've been having to syringe feed squash baby food mixed with a powder herbivore diet. I've been doing about 5ml once a week which I'm sure is not enough, but the force feeding seems very stressful for her and she won't lick it off her nose either. I recently got a blender so I plan to stop using the herbivore diet and just make a slurry of her salad greens, and try to give a few mls of that daily. She is a bit dehydrated so I gave her some pedialyte mixed with black cherry/cranberry juice, since I haven't found any plain black cherry juice yet.

I still plan to take her to work tomorrow for an xray and to see if we can get any fluid out as suggested. Thank you!

Hello,

Were you able to take her to the vets & did they draw out any fluids?
I think the addition of the fluids in the slurries will help a lot. Try to get that into her several times per week.
Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie

Hi Tracie,

I haven't take her in yet due to bad weather and the fact my vet isn't very experienced with reptiles. We could still do an xray, but anything more and i'd have to find a way to get to a reptile vet. I decided to see how she does on metacam, so she is getting a small dose of that once a day, with a salad and pedialyte slurry 1-2 times a day. She actually ate some of her greens on her own yesterday which she hasn't done in months! She also did a little head bob for the first time yesterday. The swelling has not gone down but it hasn't gotten worse, and overall she seems much more comfortable. I plan to monitor her and do a couple more days of the metacam, and then go from there. Thank you!

Hello,

That sounds like a good plan. How much metacam are you giving him?
Extra fluids will hopefully help. If you can find the black cherry extract that could help with uric acid levels also. You can try some alfalfa meal for a protein source that is low in purines.

Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie