Fungal infection? Or..???—Help

We’ve had this guy for about a month — it’s my daughters love. She does everything to keep this guy healthy. This black spot has grown from just a little grayish tint. Tank is set up with great temps now but was waaay too cool when we got him. Fresh uva/b mercury vapor bulb. He eats collards and kale. Occasional wax worms and super worms. Poops about once a week. He seems a little lethargic but still awake and basking during the day. Any ideas— how do I treat this?

We were told just over a year old. There’s no yellowing on him anywhere so I’m hoping to rule out yellow fungus. It’s so dry here right now it’s hard to believe any type of fungal thing could start ?

Is he kept on any type of particle substrate? Sand, gravel, rocks, eco earth, jungle mix, calci sand, crushed walnuts ect?

What type of MVB do you use, wattage and brand and how its positioned. If you can please post pictures of the entire setup, lights, enclosure everything so we can see what living conditions are.

Also I suggest getting a more proper UVB setup, MVB's are way to narrow for the health of beardies so they mostly work only for portable basking spots or back up lamps.
They are also really dim, while tube lights are more bright and produce a better lighting in the enclosure along with better UVB in a way as its wider and less narrow and you can have high levels, low levels and moderate levels of UVB areas throughout the enclosure instead of just one area with only one single UVB level as if you get it too close to try to provide more levels the beardie can have over exposure when it basks as they do produce a lot of UVB... but only in a narrow beam that doesn't spread out evenly.

Personally i'd go with a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 for the minimum, i do however like the Arcadia T5 HO 14% lamps and use them for my beardies now in their 75 gallons. With these bulbs generally they need to be replaced every 6-12 months. the 14% Arcadia bulb possibly to 12 months mostly.

We have the Exo Terra Solar-Glo High Intensity Self-Ballasted Uv/Heat Mercury Vapor Lamp. 125 watts. Its brand new. The person we got him from had an old small tube uvb but no heat at all. He is on a liner (like drawer liner) -- no substrate. He has a basking hammock. I can grab the ReptiSun 10.0 and switch up his lighting but is there something to do to directly treat this spot? Does it look fungal or like something else. I've had Beardies before who lived healthy lives for 8 years under this same set up and never experienced this.

Hello,

It does look like some type of fungal infection. I would highly recommend taking him to the
vet so that they can do a skin scraping to culture, for help in analyzing the area. In fungal
cases, it's best to catch it early! What you can do now, is get some betadine & dilute it down
until it resembles weak tea, to clean the skin area. Then, you can use some topical anti-fungal
cream such as lotrimon or monistat to put on the skin area until you can get it analyzed. Has
that area shed at all since you got him?
As far as your lighting goes, the Solar Glo is a nice, bright light actually, I like it. However it is
not a very strong MVB bulb. I would suggest that you go ahead & get a T5 tube bulb which would
complement the MVB light beautifully. Either the Reptisun 10 or the Arcadia D3 12% or 14% are
good. That way, he has the combination UVB + heat in one area, along with some extra UVB
throughout the tank. You only need a tube bulb long enough to take up about 2/3rds of the
length of the tank. It will also help to brighten the entire tank up as well.
What type of thermometer are you using to measure his basking temperatures?

Tracie