Does my baby beardie have an infection?

Hi guys!
Long story short my baby beardie, Draco, got attacked by our kitten 3 days ago.
He seemed in a bad way when we found him and he had two small puncture wounds either side.
We got him an emergency vet appointment for an hour later and in that hour wait he perked up and regained colour.
The vet said he looked fine and gave him a small dose of steroids to help fight off any internal bruising and also gave me some silver sulfadiazine to apply twice a day to fight off any infection.
He wasn’t confident in giving an antibiotic injection due to Draco’s size and age.

Now fast forward 3 days and Draco’s appetite has understandably gone down, didn’t eat at all on the day of his attack, ate two wax worms and a cricket the next day and then only one cricket today.
I understand this may be due to stress.
I’ve applied his cream for the second time tonight before switching off his lights and have noticed the wound sites have discoloured into a shiny grey/pink colour where I’ve been applying the cream, it looks as though it’s bruising?
The small
Punctures have gone from bright red to a black, they’re still small and haven’t changed in size, if anything they’re fading.
Can anyone confirm if this is a normal healing process or if there is a problem?

A few pointers that may help.
Draco is 14g and 7.5” has recently just had a full shed.
The reptile store said he was 4 months old which seems crazy due to his size so I wonder if they meant 4 weeks?
He is in a 3ft tank, hot end is always between 90-105 and the cool side at 70-80, has hides and things to climb on at both sides and a small water pool on the cool side.
I use wood chippings as his substrate (when I apply his cream I keep him out with me until the cream dries so nothing sticks)
Usually eats around 10-20 crickets a day, 1-5 calciworms and as an every other day treat 1-5 waxworms.
(He doesn’t seem interested in hoppers at all!)
He’s always perfectly happy, even now he’s running around and leaves me plenty of poos to clean up!

Apologies for the long read, I may be over paranoid as I’ve only had Draco 3 weeks and I’ve never had a baby beardie before.
He was bought for me as a gift to help fill the heartbreak of loosing my 12 year old beardie, Darwin back in November

I’ll try to attach images if needed!

The first image is when we got back from the vets and the the two images after are the ones I’ve just taken tonight.
Looking back at them now the discolouration doesn’t look as bad as I thought so it’s likely I’m being over paranoid because he’s my baby but better safe than sorry!

Poor guy. Hopefully the cat didn't hit anything vital and the wounds will heal. It looks/sounds like that is the case fortunately. I'd keep him warm (maybe up around 80 or so) overnight to reduce stress on his system. Hopefully his appetite will pick back up soon, that would be a good sign. Based on his size I'd guess he's no more than a couple months old. Still a little guy. Hopefully he will live as long a life as your Darwin did. I sure hope my dragon (also Darwin) gets a good run like that!

CooperDragon":3e042xd6 said:

Poor guy. Hopefully the cat didn't hit anything vital and the wounds will heal. It looks/sounds like that is the case fortunately. I'd keep him warm (maybe up around 80 or so) overnight to reduce stress on his system. Hopefully his appetite will pick back up soon, that would be a good sign. Based on his size I'd guess he's no more than a couple months old. Still a little guy. Hopefully he will live as long a life as your Darwin did. I sure hope my dragon (also Darwin) gets a good run like that!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, has eased my mind!
Yeah when he first got given to me I thought he’d be around 6/8 weeks but when I went into the reptile store he came from a few days later to ask some questions I was a bit shocked they said he was 4 months!
I’m thinking they got confused and mixed up with what beardies they sold that day.

Yeah he would be pretty small for 4 months in most cases. Please keep us updated on his progress. I hope he makes a quick recovery. If you run low on the topical cream from the vet you can also use manuka (or raw/unpasteurized) honey. It seems to work pretty well to help heal wounds and protect against infection.

Hello,

It doesn't look to bad to me, either. It seems as though he got very lucky!
Are you giving any probiotics either, since he is on a sulfa based medication?
That would help out his appetite.
What type of cream did they give you to put on the wounds?
The raw, unpasteurized honey works really well also.
I hope he gets better soon, let us know how he is doing!

Tracie

Draco seems a lot better today!
Took him out of his tank to put his cream on and he wasnt as skittish as he’s been the past few days and happily sat with me in bed and had a nap for an hour - beardie cuddles are the perfect way to start the day!
When putting him back I filled his worm dish up with 18 worms (mix of waxworms and calciworms) checked on him an hour later and 4 have been eaten, offered him some crickets and he happily chased the fattest one and ate it but didn’t want anymore.

Thanks for the reply Tracie, I wasn’t given any probiotics just the silver sulfadiazine cream and a steroid shot.
I’m wondering if the discolouration might be a cream build up between the scales? I’m going to give him a long soak later and get some squash baby food to get more nutrients in him!