Yellow fungus?!

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Ok did something stupid last year and found a nice piece of bog wood in the charity shop and brought it home for my dragon. Soaked the wood and let it dry befor adding it to his viv. A few weeks ago I noticed an orange stain under his arm. Is this yellow fungus ?
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Have he got it from the wood or coming from a pet shop kept on sand there has he always had it?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there, the wood would not cause Y.F. at all, sometimes it's caused by dirty or damp conditions or other factors.

That may just be a stain of some sort though, not Y.F.. Rub a piece of paper towel on the log you're talking about to see f it's just stain coming off. Do that with anything else in the tank that might leave a stain.
 

Dragon2016

Member
Original Poster
Ok yes looks like there’s a stain still coming out the bog wood, thanks for the feed back I was having a bit of a panic
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
So the stain is coming off the wood then. Just to be on the safe side you might get rid of it + use something that doesn't leave a stain. I gather all my logs outside and I never soak them, baking for an hour at 250 kills all the potential pests so you can probably find another nice branch or log . :)

Give your guy a soak + see if that just comes right off, just in case it's irritating but I do think it's fine.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I agree, I don't think that looks like Yellow Fungus, at least I don't see any "scabby" areas like you usually see with Yellow Fungus. The orange area definitely isn't Yellow Fungus, it's a stain from something, like the piece of wood or if he was kept on sand the same color, etc. He does however have several yellow blotches in other places, which hopefully are just more stains or retained shed, but I would definitely give him a warm bath, and if you have a soft toothbrush, after he soaks in the warm water for 5-10 minutes then use the soft toothbrush to gently try to clean the stained and/or retained shed areas from him. I think it all will end up either washing off of him, or eventually shedding off if it's retained shed that got stuck, which often has a "yellow" color to it. If it doesn't all come off then you just want to watch it and make sure that new yellow spots don't develop, or that the current spots don't start spreading, getting larger, or become "scabby" looking, as those are all signs of a fungal infection. Also keep in mind that there are hundreds of different strains of fungal infections that reptiles can develop, not just Yellow Fungus, so even if he does have a fungal infection it's not necessarily Yellow Fungus.

As far as how they get fungal infections, well, there are a ton of different ways, it's just like trying to determine how a person gets a fungal or bacterial infection, most of the time you just don't know. The best ways to keep a Bearded Dragon from getting any types of fungal or bacterial infections is to use only a solid substrate in the bottom of his tank, never use any loose substrates like sands, wood chips, bark, beddings, etc. that breed and harbor all types of microbes and parasites; Keep his tank clean by removing any bowel movements or excess food or dead insect parts and then spot cleaning those areas with a vinegar/water solution, and then completely disinfecting his entire tank and everything in it at least once a month with a proper Reptile disinfectant, like F10, or with vinegar/water or bleach/water, and also keeping his tank very dry by wiping up any water spills that may happen inside the tank, and by completely drying your dragon off after baths.

Also, there's nothing at all wrong with finding tank decor like pieces of wood, rocks, stones, etc. outside or in thrift shops at all, but as AHBD already instructed, they have to be properly disinfected first, and you do that by putting them in an oven that has been pre-heated to 250 for about 30-45 minutes. Obviously you can't do this with plastic decor, but I get most all of my tank decor outside in the woods, along local river banks and lakes/ponds, the ocean/beach, etc. Any type of wood or stone that is porous can be made completely safe this way. I actually first soak/wash/rinse my wood and rocks in the bathtub when I first bring them home, in a mixture of extremely hot water and then something like F10, bleach, or vinegar, and scrub them to get all the dirt and muck off of them, then I bake them.
 

Dragon2016

Member
Original Poster
Thanks for your reply, I’m going to bath him after my kids in a bit. I keep both my dragons on news paper and get rid of pop straight away. When I soaked the bog wood it had quite and orange brown stain coming out of it so hopefully that’s what this is. Unfortunately Eddie has always had a problem shedding, he hasn’t shed now for nearly a year. He also only pops about once every 2 weeks too.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
It looks more like he's gotten stained by something on the wood, maybe the wood had been sitting in colored Calcium Sand, that's what it looks like. Either way, it doesn't look like a fungal or bacterial infection, just skin/scale staining and maybe some damaged scales/retained shed. It will probably continue to fade as you bath him, over time, and will come off when he next sheds that area.

Keep an eye on the areas to make sure that they don't get larger or spread to any new areas, as now you have gotten rid of the wood and any possible cause of staining, so if more spots show up, then you'll know something is up. So if you see it spread or he gets new spots, or the spots become "scabby", then he'll need to see a Reptile Vet for a Skin Scraping test, but I don't think that's going to happen. I think he's just been stained by the dye from some nasty, colored sand that the wood was in, and it's just going to have to wear-off...The orange spot does look like it faded a bit...
 
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