Chilli Pepper's treatment plan

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Hey everyone, I'm not sure who remembers me, if any one - the forgot password link wouldnt work for me so I made a new account. I've posted quite a few posts regarding my little bearded dragon Chilli, we got him when he was like 10 weeks old, he had a small nip on the very tip of his tail, as well as what looked like, a small nip on his eye lid. We didn't realize the eye until we got home and just figured it was a nip like his tail from the other tank mates.. But within a few days it started to swell up, and eventually was secreting green/yellow pus - it looked horrible and I was so upset. I called the place I bought him from but they didn't know anything about bearded dragons, heck I even showed one of the employees how to sex Beardies... Anyway, small rant over... They didn't know anything and I didn't want to "Return" him because of this. He's an animal, a soul. I just can't "return" a lil life that I rescued from a neglectful pet store. Anyway, it got worse and better and worse and better through the course of a couple months as I used Saline drops, and an antibiotic eye drop from the advice of a Veterinarian for 10 days. The skin around his eye was like a dark greenish color, only on one side (I posted about this with pics somewhere in Beardie ER i think). Eventually he started spreading (the yellow/green color) down to his bottom lip and on his chin. I knew in my heart this was yellow fungus. He is still active, eats well, poops n urates are all good... Everythings perfect, growing, etc... When I got him, on January 6th, he was about 6 inches long from nose to tail (even with a 1/4 inch missing :wink: ) Now he's just under 11 inches long. I don't have a scale yet but I will tomorrow - I want to start monitoring his weight. Especially now that I've seen a reptile vet finally, and we are going for the Voriconazole 10 week treatment. We are nervous because long term effects on the animals organs are unknown using this drug. However, I've talked to a few Reptile specialists on the phone, and in person about this, and we love him. We really don't want him to have to suffer from this fungus. If we can beat it now while its early and is only effecting a small part of his face and get a few more years I will be over the moon. I love the little guy, I don't want to give up on him and I can just pray that there are no long term effects on their organs. I've done a research online as well and this particular drug has been the most successful and safest so far for fungal treatment on small reptiles. Anyway, I started this medication today, I withheld food so he'd be hungry... then I get him some freeze dried crickets (as a treat, he loves them) with the medication dribbled ontop (its a liquid and not much - but apparently its LIVER flavor??) anyway, he ran over all excited, licked them a few times.. then just stood there in his dish, for like over 2 minutes, then looked down, licked them again, and then went up to his basking area... I duno how else to get this stuff in him. I wonder if I should see what other "Flavors" they have at the pharmacy...

Anyway... That's how me and my Chill man are doing... Wish us the best of luck and keep my lil man in your prayers!!
 

CooperDragon

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That's a rough diagnosis. I'm hopeful that you caught it early enough it can be treated. Thank you for giving it a shot! My dragon is on Voriconazole again now too. He has been on it for a 2 month stint before without any noticeable ill effects but as you mentioned there hasn't been a whole lot of research on it yet (although it appears to be less harsh than some other anti-fungals). If he's not opening his mouth for the syringe, you can try wrapping him in a towel, hold him upright with his bottom propped up against a table or your knee etc so his face is forward and he is kind of in the shape of a C. Then take your thumb and put it on the bottom of his beard and slowly but with a bit of pressure pull it downward using friction between your thumb and his skin to hold his mouth open enough to feed the syringe.
 

MiaLexiChilli

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CooperDragon":1bbpuk7y said:
That's a rough diagnosis. I'm hopeful that you caught it early enough it can be treated. Thank you for giving it a shot! My dragon is on Voriconazole again now too. He has been on it for a 2 month stint before without any noticeable ill effects but as you mentioned there hasn't been a whole lot of research on it yet (although it appears to be less harsh than some other anti-fungals). If he's not opening his mouth for the syringe, you can try wrapping him in a towel, hold him upright with his bottom propped up against a table or your knee etc so his face is forward and he is kind of in the shape of a C. Then take your thumb and put it on the bottom of his beard and slowly but with a bit of pressure pull it downward using friction between your thumb and his skin to hold his mouth open enough to feed the syringe.

Thank you! Yea, we just started it today and I've tried that maneuver on em and didn't succeed at all :( The pharmacist who did up the prescription is willing to do up another flavor for me they have Beef and Chicken. II'm telling him beardies eat veggies and insects mostly lol... I remember hearing in a movie that deep fried crickets taste like chicken.... Right now it's Liver flavor..... :puke: lol no wonder he jus licked it and put his nose up. I'm wondering if I should do chicken or beef, i think chicken sounds the most appetizing to me lol but also the least potent in flavor... Any suggestions? I'd love it if he just looked at it like a treat and loved it lol that way I could ensure the entire dose is getting in him.

Anyone else have opinions on what flavor might be the least yucky? Chicken, Beef or Liver? ew lol
 

CooperDragon

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Wow I didn't even know those flavors existed. The version I get is watermelon flavored and smells strongly of artificial watermelon. As far as your options go, you may just need to test them out. Hard to say which one will be favored because they all like different things.
 

AHBD

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Hi there...I'm sorry about poor Chilli, I know this must be so agonizing. :( I wonder if the Voraconizole can be injected in to an insect, like a wax worm or butter worm to be fed to him ? Maybe that would work. Is his eye still seeping ? Do you have any pics ? I just wanted to suggest using raw unpasteurized honey in it [ the kind from a health food store ] It's a natural antimicrobial that can be used directly in the eye. I've used it in my own dragon's eye infection and it worked quickly.....although I know this is a different circumstance. If you use it, dilute it 1 part honey to 3 parts warm water,that helps to soften the honey and apply it gently with a Q-tip.

I wish you the best with Chilli's situation.
 

MiaLexiChilli

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AHBD":3efeoini said:
Hi there...I'm sorry about poor Chilli, I know this must be so agonizing. :( I wonder if the Voraconizole can be injected in to an insect, like a wax worm or butter worm to be fed to him ? Maybe that would work. Is his eye still seeping ? Do you have any pics ? I just wanted to suggest using raw unpasteurized honey in it [ the kind from a health food store ] It's a natural antimicrobial that can be used directly in the eye. I've used it in my own dragon's eye infection and it worked quickly.....although I know this is a different circumstance. If you use it, dilute it 1 part honey to 3 parts warm water,that helps to soften the honey and apply it gently with a Q-tip.

I wish you the best with Chilli's situation.

Hey you! Yes, I've tried the Honey trick, you're the one who actually gave that idea to me a few months back when I was posting under my last name (Luv4Animalz I believe it was, however there was a weird mix up with the forgot password and I couldnt get it back so I made this account). We did Saline solution for a while, unpasteurized honey, as well as Polymixin? (not sure i spelled that correctly) There is nothing seeping from the eye any more at all. It started with a gunky looking eye infection, then the coloring in his skin started to darken around that eye, looking like a dark greenish/yellow color, almost as if he were wearing a mask. :? Then it started spreading and I noticed some yellow spots on his lip and under his chin a bit. So we took him to the vet, and I explained to him that I was pretty sure it's yellow fungus or a fungus of some kind. They took many pictures, and even took a biopsy to send away for culture just to see for sure (Which they didn't charge me for!!!! :mrgreen: ) then prescribed the Voraconizole. It's a 10 week treatment and we have successfully given him 6 doses over 7 days. The 2nd day was missed because he gave me a really hard time and I didn't want to hurt him so I let it be until the next day... Ever since day 3 tho, we've gotten every dose in him 100%! :blob5: woohoo!

Let's hope this medication works and kicks this fungi's behind! He's a really gorgeous guy, and we were planning on breeding him so I hope we can cure this fungus. Because as far as I know, yellow fungus is transferable between dragons isnt it?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Oh, that's good that you were able to get the meds. in him. :) Hopefully they will work ! Do you have some pictures of your beautiful boy, including a close up of his affected area ? And yes, sadly it is highly infectious and can go away for a while and at times come back so it would be best to not breed him. :(
 
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