Scab on back?

I'm watching my little brothers Beardie Apollo, and he said this is just stuck shed. I'm pretty sure that this is not "just stuck shed". Any ideas? I don't know if you can see but it is raised, even a little bubbled...

That is definitely not stuck shed. It is either some type of fungal growth or a burn that has scabbed up in an odd way, but I'm leaning towards a growth. Can you post pics of the tank set up ?

Click to expand...

O.K, I just wanted to see if there was any way he could have been burned but it doesn't look like it. How long has your brother had Apollo and ask him how long the baby has been like that ? There is definitely something wrong and it should be looked at by an experienced reptile vet.

We both got one from the same clutch on the 7th of May. I'm going to have a long chat with my brother! He says it's been almost 3 weeks, but it started really small on a patch of stuck shed. It looks like the shed is stuck under the scab.

Some kind of abscess (maybe from some kind of insect or spider bite) ?
Does it feel kinda soft / like it's full of fluid ( puss ) ?
Does he tolerate it being touched ?
if it is it should be drained and he needs to be on antibiotics . This is what I think it is, definitely needs prompt vet attention ..

Especially since it's grown so fast from just a tiny speck to that in 3 weeks is pretty alarming (that's a big RED FLAG to me).

If it feels hard - like it is full of tissues of some kind .... this bad !
Worse case is some kind of cancerous growth , again , needs prompt vet attention , I hope it's just an abscess.

I agree, not stuck shed at all, he may have been shedding when it first appeared, but that's just a coincidence. You need to tell your brother that #1 stuck shed doesn't start out small and grow larger, because stuck shed is dead skin, it can't grow at all, and #2 it' been growing for 3 weeks, so it's only getting worse and worse, and a vet visit immediately will cost a lot less, the longer he waits to take him to a certified Reptile vet that knows about Beardies the more serious the condition will get and the more money it's going to cost him.

I'm voting for a fungal infection or an abscess that may have developed from a cricket or other feeder insect bite. Either way it needs to be either drained if it's an abscess, have a skin scraping test done if it's a fungus, or biopsied and removed if it's fibrous and most likely will need antibiotics and possibly pain meds depending on what they do.

Please try to get him to a good, experienced reptile vet asap before it gets any larger, he's just a young guy to begin with and not very large, so it's a pretty good size growth in relation to his body.

Thanks so much for caring and wanting to get this taken care of properly.