Dino's YF... Rest Easy my Lil' Friend :'(

Hi Sue,
Yes on the fungus question, skin/scale scraping sent for culture will give a definitive answer.
Amanda

Hello Sue,

It normally takes 7-12 days for a culture to be run & to determine if fungus is growing once they do a skin culture/scrape. You can't always assume just by looking.
I am glad that she is breathing much better now, hopefully the respiratory issue is clearing up & wont be a problem anymore for her. I am happy to hear that she ate as well! I hope she is feeling better soon.

Keep us posted on her.

Tracie

I think where our regular vet isn't too concerened about it (I think it's that she's not familiar with it, actually) I may go back to see vet #2 about the skin scraping test.

Just wanted to give you guys an update: Dino is still doing fine so far. She's eating on her own. I've been leaving crippled crickets in her dish after she goes to sleep so she finds them there in the morning and gobbles them up. Just a few, then I feed her later after work and she eats again, but just a little bit. The betadine baths seem to be helping the vent area. Some of the yellowish skin came off in her bath yesterday. Always something different with her. Hopefully she will continue to improve! =) She's still being Fluffy with us. I feel so bad because I haven't had time to just hold her and give her some attention other than to bathe her, medicate her, what ever... Maybe tonight!

Hugs,

Sue

Hi everyone...
Just wanted to update you: Dino is continuing to improve. Her breathing seems normal now. She's eating daily. Twice now actually. She likes her breakfast! As soon as she wakes up and sees food in that dish, she's ON IT like a BOSS! Does Critical Care make them hyper or is it me?? She gets pretty busy after having some. Since her last vet visit, I've given her some twice to give her a boost and...WOW. She gets a boost allright! She's still getting daily baths with betadine. She wants to chase the bubbles... so cute. I hafta keep an eye on her so she doesn't eat them!! She still has the skin issue. I haven't addressed it yet at the vet. She isn't developing any MORE strange spots but the ones that she has aren't really clearing up either. The spots that the vet picked at aren't growing any more crud back so just keeping an eye on it for now. Her vent looks the same...Oh yeah, I said I would try to post a pic of that... Lemme get on that. Talk soon!

Hugs,

Sue

Belly & Vent pics... What do you guys think??? Yellow Fungus or something else? Just so you know, she lays on a porcelain platform thing that is kept clean. A towel is in the corner that she mostly uses at night to prop her head up on. She is on paper towels so yellow is NOT from a substrate or pewps. No misting is done in her cage since she's become very ill. She gets daily betadine baths. Could that be making some yellowing?

Hi Sue,
Oh my ....When you say some of the yellow skin shed off in the bath, what color was under it?....more yellow or white. I see a dark spot right at the vent area, and one below it. Are they sores? Did the vent area and tummy look like that when the vet said she wasn't concerned about it? ....I'm concerned about it! And I noticed the dark areas on her left hand and tail in the photos of her in the neb chamber. I'd have a scraping and culture done.
Amanda

Hi Amanda,

When some of the skin shed came off it was white underneath. If you look at page 2 of this thread, there is a tail pic there too from the beginning of the "shedding" problem as the vet refers to it. The spots on her tail have gotten much bigger since then. I didn't really get up close and personal to her vent but I can see the sore spot you're talking about from the pic. I actually noticed a reddish colored "sore" on her side yesterday and another on her throat, near the bottom of the skin flaps of her beard. WTF is this now?! Does Yellow Fungus cause sores???????????????? Calling Vet #2 on Monday. Screw Vet #1. There is a girl on here who lives in my area, gonna PM her on where else she took her beardie. Her beardie had cancer. She has been to Vet #2's office, I think that's the vet who did the surgery for her... Thanks for your input. I probably wouldn't have noticed the vent sore if you didn't mention it! I'll keep you guys posted... *edit: I just went back and re-read my PM's with the girl from my area, Vet #2 did do the surgery on her beardie. Gonna call them Monday to make an appt.*

Hugs,

Sue

Hi Sue,
Yes, Yellow Fungus progresses to darkened, cratered open sores. I don't believe the Betadine baths are the cause of that coloring. Thru 9 weeks of Betadine baths as part of fungal treatments mine never got stained. It's great you are continuing the Betadine baths.

You're taking her to the second vet? That's good! I think her tummy and vent do look like the "typical" yellow fungus you can see in photos on line as does the progressed dark spots on her hand and tail. Not being able to see the open wounds you found on her side and below her beard skin flap I'm going to guess they're related. I could be wrong and hope I am, but a fungus culture will tell for sure.

Don't despair! Aggressive medical combined with holistic treatments can work.

Hugs,
Amanda

I'm so aggravated with vet #1. How can she call herself a reptile vet and not KNOW WTH is going on with her skin??????????????
She advised me to stop the silver sulfazadiane cream because she looked at some deadened skin under her scope, charged me 32 bux and says it's not fungal. O.M.G. If this turns out to be yellow fungus, she's gonna hear it...BIG TIME. I don't think Yellow Fungus is that unheard of! In fact, I believe it's one of the 'common' ailments in reptiles. She SHOULD KNOW about it! Anyway, I will try to get a pic of the new sores on here. I will have my boy take pics while I hold her. They are not "open" YET, but they are red in color. The one on her side is a lump and red. Thanks again for your input! Always appreciated so, so much! Talk soon!

Hugs,

Sue

More pics of spots to be addressed with Vet #2:

New spot that's developed on her throat



Spot/lump on her side


Problem starting on her back toes


Front foot problem persists


This is what her face looks like since Vet #1 scraped away some of the dead skin, refer to page 2 of thread for earlier pic
Under the dead skin, the scales are not there!

Oh my poor poor girl... I fought long and hard with yellow fungus as well.... here's a link to an old thread of mine where I explain what I did to get rid of it.... http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=127192

It does look like the fungus though. If you look at pics of Sythe you can see the large amount of scarring he had after he healed, mind you he had HUGE hard patches of it, poor guy. I found that after using the diluted cream I saw results fairly quickly, (I could brush it into all his nooks and crannies and scales so well with a soft bristled toothbrush)...no new growths, scabbing of the old ones and eventually huge patches of dead gunk falling off revealing the scar underneath. Sythe did really well after it all, when we did lose him it was due to a tumor growth on his head which i posted as well.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask or pm me ok?

I will be following her recovery, she looks like such a sweet girl :love5:

Poor baby!! She does look alot better than before..I sure hope you get some answers and she gets better very quickly!
My thoughts and prayers go out to both of you!
Kelly and Puff

Thanks Lisa & Kelly for your posts! I've been complaining about this skin thing since February and the vet doesn't see it as a big deal! Looks like you had quite the battle with it. Glad to see you won the war! I will be calling the 2nd vet I saw tomorrow to have Dino checked out AGAIN. So frustrating that her regular vet has no frikkin' clue wth is going on with her skin. Dino has been on intraconazole, which is an antifungal, but it made her so sick I had to take her off of it. She was knockin' on death's door on that stuff! Poor lil' girl. I was treating her with a prescribed cream but didn't notice any change. It didn't get worse but I don't know that it was getting any better either. As always, I will be posting her progress or lack there of. Thanks again for posting! Any and all info is so appreciated.
Hugs,

Sue

no worries Sue, I read this entire thread and at one time felt as you did.....I did not want to read anymore, most outcomes were so sad and depressing I was scared away from internal treatments because of the high mortality rates I came across, dragons are so sensitive. The topical treatments, although time consuming are not expensive and I found worked really well. I bought the fungicide from shoppers drug mart, it was the no name brand used to treat athlete's foot, I found the sprays could not get right in there and were toooo cold. I would bath Sythe every second day to clean the old cream off him( even though it was so thin you could not see it, seems like it absorbed right in) Then would mix an 3/4 inch squeeze of cream into a shot glass of distilled water mix it up until milky and then apply. It may take awhile to notice a difference, a couple weeks even but we got ourselves into a routine of doing it and it became almost therapudic. I think he appreciated the attention and the snuggles

hugs to you too

Lisa

here's a pic of him after a vet visit eating his squash, you can see some of his scars here.