Baby beardie seems "off"; discoloration under arm

We got a baby beardie about 3 weeks ago and things seem to have been going fine for the most part. For the past day or two I've felt like she's been a little off. Just kind of lounging around a bit differently, maybe a bit lethargic? For example, when we give her crickets she'll eat up all of the ones right near her but she doesn't pursue them if they hop away. She just ignores them all together. That's a bit different I guess. But her appetite has been increasing in the past few weeks, so I think that's good.

Today my son was holding her and we noticed a discolored patch under her arm. I have two concerns- 1: what is it?? Of course I googled and it talked about a fungal infection which could be fatal?? But I don't know what all beardies are capable of getting so I sure hope it's something minor. 2: my son is young and will sometimes still put his thumb in his mouth. Of course today IMMEDIATELY after holding her and before washing his hands he put his thumb in his mouth. If this is a fungal infection can it be passed on to humans?

I don't know how quickly beardies are supposed to grow but I don't feel like she's gotten much bigger. Maybe 3 weeks isn't long enough to see a change? She had a bath 2 days ago (her first) with just lukewarm water. No soap. Her terrarium is a 40 gallon with a few different basking areas and a desert sand mat where all the sand is glued down (no loose sand at all). She eats mostly crickets, some mustard greens, and sometimes I'll put in juvenile bearded dragon pellets and get them wet, but that's mostly to attract any crickets that may be hiding so I can get them out. She always has fresh water with a few drops of reptisafe.

I'm calling the vet first thing in the morning but I don't know when they'll be able to see her. Hoping to get some answers soon!!

Thank you!!

Hi. He is a looker Can you give a more specific rundown of the set up? Lights used? Brands? Temps and how you take them? That looks like it definitely could be a fungal. Maybe yellow fungus. You can start him on monistat. You definitely want too see a hero specialist and they can take a skin sample.

It's kind of hard to see the set up because her "night light" is on right now. She sleeps in the back left corner. I bought the Zoo Med 40 gallon bearded dragon starter kit and have used everything that came included.

As far as wattage goes,I'll have to look at all that stuff in the morning. I was moving everything around and disturbing her while she slept ?

Thanks so much for your reply!

Thanks for answering. Those red lights are junk. They disturb their sleep. No heat source at night unless your house gets below 65. Then you want a CHE. They give off heat and no light. You want a good thermometer. A temp gun or a digital with a wire probe. You want a way better uvb light. A reptisun 10.0 t5 you can put on top of the mesh. If you get a t8 those aren't as strong and need to be mounted in the tank 6 to 8 inches away above the basking spot.

Thanks for the replies.

We saw the vet today and she thinks it's yellow fungus. Our beardie is too young for the biopsy to diagnose it and too young to do antifungal treatments. Since we can't know for sure if it's yellow fungus we're trying antibiotics to see if they'll help. Praying for the best, but her prognosis isn't good. If we see more spots then we know it's yellow fungus and we'll have to put her to sleep. I'm absolutely crushed. We already love her so much.

I'm sorry to see that. Yeah antibiotics make it worse. So idk why the vet perscribed that. Do you have a herp vet near you? I wouldn't do those antibiotics as not only will it make it worse, but also she will probably loose her appetite do to the antibiotics.

The vet we went to is a herp vet. She prescribed the antibiotics because she can't diagnose our beardie as having yellow fungus without the biopsy so she thought we could try the antibiotics with the hope that it might be something different that antibiotics will help. There's another herp vet about an hour from me and I'm going to put a call in to them tonight. I don't want her to suffer. And I definitely don't want to give her medicine that's going to make her feel worse if her time with us is short. We're so heartbroken ?

Hi Kimmi....I also think it;s Y.F, and I'm so sorry that's what your baby appears to have. You might try some antifungal cream like Lamisil or Monistat on it, that can sometimes clear up the skin for a while. Destiny is correct that antibiotics will not help but will make it worse. Your vet is probably not too familiar with Y.F, and that's why they gave you antibiotics. An oral antifungal med. called Voriconazole is what is generally prescribed.

I'm so sorry you're going through this.

Hopefully the next vet can help. Really sorry this is happening Wish more treatments were available for YF.

I called 3 different clinics tonight trying to get information about what we can do for her since she's so young. I think I'd like to get a second opinion on how we can keep her comfortable. For right now she seems fine other than the discoloration. But we are going to be watching her extremely closely and will not let her suffer if she shows signs of this spreading internally. I still can't believe she's sick. She's just a baby, she doesn't deserve this. Thank you for all the replies.

That sounds like you have a good grip on things, and hopefully it won't spread too quickly or may even disappear rather than get worse. It can seem to go away + then come back but I think I remember cases that it cleared up when caught very early. And yes, it's so sad that they get this horrible disease, just so frustrating and it's so common anymore. Best wishes to your little one.

Any update on your baby? I'm going through the same thing! We got our baby from a pet store 10 days ago. Recently I noticed a spot under his chin and after research feel like its YF. I looked back at pictures from the day we got him and there was discoloration when we got him, but being new to all of this, we didn't notice.

He was in a viv with 3 other babies. I'm calling them today to let them know because of how contagious YF is. Ours is too young to treat as well so it's kind of a waiting game here, too. It's crazy how fast we can get attached to our pets.

Hoping for the best for your baby!

I happened to look back at photos of when we first got our babies (we started with two together!) and noticed a yellow spot. She's the beardie on the right.. I'm not sure who the pic is sideways. The spot is a bit lower than where the current spot is, and when I look at her now I don't see the original spot. I'm not sure if YF would come and go that rapidly.

As for our other baby, the two of them were in the same viv when we bought them and they only stayed together for about 3 days after they came home before the one started trying to show dominance over the other... like the picture shows. We separated them right away due to the dominance issue, and our other baby has appointment at the vet tomorrow to check for YF since they were likely living together while our one baby was sick.

Thank you guys so much for the support. It really helps ?

Poor little sweeties, at least they are in a very good home with someone who cares. Hopefully it is not serious and if caught quickly there's a small chance that it may resolve.