Advice!? Exposed bone inside mouth

Sorry if this is long I just wanna explain everything.

So I took my bearded dragon to the vet today thinking it had mouth rot due to the excess saliva and swelling. The vet opened her mouth and it turned out the gum on the left side of her mouth had somehow split open and the bone is exposed. My lizard hadn’t had any other symptoms besides a slight drop in appetite and didn’t really seem bothered by it and continued to act normally. He prescribed my lizard these antibiotics; Trimeth/Sulfa Oral, Metronidazole, Metacam. The vet said it would take up to a week for me to see any improvement. I also have to swab her wound with Betadine on a Q-tip.

I’m taking her to another vet for a second opinion just because I wasn’t satisfied with the care I received at the first vet but I honestly just wanted some of your guys opinions and if this has happened to anyone else, what helped your beardie recover? It broke my heart and I’m hoping for the best so whatever advise you have will help and I’ll honestly do anything if it means he’ll improve.

He is two years old
I’ve had him for the entire two years
I believe he is a male
Tank size is 40 gallon breeder
Substrate is newspaper (planning to switch to tile)
I use a Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 UVB Compact Fluorescent Mini Reptile Lamp, 13-Watt (Planning to change to a tube tomorrow so suggestions for what type would be appreciated)
UVB bulb is a week old
Basking temp is 95F
Cool side is 87F
I take temps with a digital thermometer
I feed him crickets, mealworms, waxworks, clover, kale, parsley (I’ve tried fruit but he doesn’t seem to enjoy it much)
I feed him twice a day (morning and night) with a mixture of everything
I gut load every insect
I started him on liquid vitamins last week and dust the insects with calcium
The brand of vitamins is Fluker’s liquid vitamins and the calcium powder is Exo-Terra Calcium
I dust them every other day but will reduce it to 3x
He’s having regular bowl movements
I bathe him every other day since he really only poops in the water
I do not mist him
He went to the vet today and is going again tomorrow to a different one. A fecal has not been done
He is in the enclosure by himself

Hello,

Poor thing! I wonder how that happened, he must have bitten down on something somehow.
Is it infected a little bit? I am sure that it definitely doesn't feel good though. Between the
daily mouth cleaning & the antibiotics he should heal up fairly quickly. I would give softer
foods for awhile though so he doesn't have to chew anything real hard or solid right now.

If you are looking for a good tube bulb, you will have to order online most likely. The two
best brands are either the Reptisun 10 tube or the Arcadia D3 12% tube. You can get either
one from Amazon.com or the Reptisun 10 from petmountain.com

Has his appetite been good then, or decreased since his mouth issue started? Your tank set
sounds good, the temperatures are optimal for him. Since he has this going on, you could
consider increasing his basking temperatures to a bit higher, maybe around 98 or so, if he
would tolerate it. That can help in the healing process for him. Be sure his overnight
temperatures stay over 75 too for help with healing.
Feel free to post pictures of him with your tank setup too.

Tracie

I really don’t know how he did it myself. The only thing I can think of is that he might have slid off the couch and tore the gum in the process somehow? I’ve been trying to think what could have caused it all day to be honest.
The vet that I took him to didn’t really tell me much beyond what to give him interms of medication. I’ve been scouring the Internet looking for something similar to his case and I can’t really find any information since it’s such a strange situation, so I don’t really know how to tell if it’s infected. I would assume that it would be seeing that it’s an open wound and bone is showing but I honestly don’t know.
I will definitely be giving him softer foods and watching very closely! I’ve sterilized dang near everything to reduce the risk of spreading anything else to him in the mean time.

Thank you for the bulb recommendations! I’ll definitely be buying one tomorrow no matter what and hopefully that’ll make him improve even more. Also, can I use any light fixture to screw it into? I heard that it’s best to have it actually inside the tank on the back wall instead of on top.

His appetite decreased enough for me to take notice . He would eat some worms in the morning and some of his greens but wouldn’t eat crickets and clover at night so that instantly set off alarm bells. That was what lead me to believe that something was wrong because at first he just had excess saliva and a very small amount of swelling so i thought maybe he had rubbed it on his log wrong and irritated it. I started researching and all his symptoms lead me to believe is was mouth rot. I honestly didn’t pry his mouth open or anything like they did at the vet because I was afraid that I was going to irritate it even more. If I had known he had exposed bone I would have freaked and took him to the nearest 24/7 emergency vet right then.

I’ll up his temps in the morning and see if he can stand it. I didn’t think to get any pictures because I was in such a panic but I’ll make sure to get some tomorrow of his wound and tank setup.

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!

This needs to examined and treated by an experienced reptile vet.