karlys":bme4vsnr said:From personal experience when Ive had to take antibiotics and when we had to give them to my bf's beardie, I'm not surprised Pablo feels better after a couple doses! That's often the trouble with antibiotics. People will feel better quickly so they don't think they need to take the full course and they stop before the bottle is finished. Enough of the bacteria is killed to make you feel better but it's not usually 100% gone. The person either gets sick again as the bacteria multiply and/or the bacteria learns from the encounter and becomes resistant to the kind of antibiotics you took and you pass it along to somebody else. Like those scary antibiotic resistant MRSA cases you hear about sometimes on the news.
GermanGiant3":37wf1pgp said:karlys":37wf1pgp said:From personal experience when Ive had to take antibiotics and when we had to give them to my bf's beardie, I'm not surprised Pablo feels better after a couple doses! That's often the trouble with antibiotics. People will feel better quickly so they don't think they need to take the full course and they stop before the bottle is finished. Enough of the bacteria is killed to make you feel better but it's not usually 100% gone. The person either gets sick again as the bacteria multiply and/or the bacteria learns from the encounter and becomes resistant to the kind of antibiotics you took and you pass it along to somebody else. Like those scary antibiotic resistant MRSA cases you hear about sometimes on the news.
I definitely imagined that to be the case, I'm just not certain if it is necessary to put him under general anesthesia if he can improve via medication. Quite indecisive here.. Could 30 days straight of Baytril and an entire bottle of amoxicillin not kill what is ailing him? I'm not 100% sure if there is even an abscess in the leg for when they cut into him...
EllenD":23s1l74j said:I'm glad he's feeling better, but that's to be expected if you got the new UVB tube on him...There is a massive difference between a T8 UVB tube on top of a mesh lid and either a new T8 tube unobstructed and within the correct distance of him, or a T5 UVB tube. They do usually perk up very, very quickly after getting adequate UVB light after so long without it. I highly doubt the antibiotics are the cause of him perking up yet...
Did your vet do blood work or a culture from his leg, or is he just waiting to open him up to do this? Honestly, instead of putting him under, I would request a full blood panel and a needle aspiration from his leg and a culture and sensitivity on the fluid he gets. #1) He won't have to be put under for either, #2) The blood work will confirm or rule out Gout through the Uric Acid level and also confirm or rule out a septic infection through the blood cell counts, and the culture and sensitivity from the needle aspiration of his leg will show uric acid crystals and/or the exact bacteria that is causing the encapsulated abscess he definitely has in his leg, along with the correct antibiotics to treat it, instead of just putting him on broad-spectrum antibiotics that may not treat the specific infection he has...
I don't believe he has a "systemic infection" at all, because he's had this localized, encapsulated infection and/or swelling in his leg for so long that he'd be extremely sick by now had it spread to his bloodstream, and a systemic infection would not spread from a ling-time localized infection in one leg to another, second localized infection in a toe on another foot. He'd be extremely sick if he was septic, he'd be extremely lethargic and not eating, and since it's gone on so long he may even have died by now.
If they do a needle aspiration on his leg along with blood work and it comes back as Gout, this explains the swelling in his tow as well. Then you know you're simply dealing with Pseudogout due to the husbandry issues, which is causing the usual, random swelling in different extremities along with a resulting localized infection in his leg. Then they treat the gout with short-term Allopurinol and give him one specific, confirmed to be effective antibiotic to treat the localized infection in his leg that is secondary to the Pseudogout...
Why did your vet so quickly rule out Pseudogout as the cause of the random swelling and the localized, encapsulated infection and go right to a "systemic infection" that he needs to put him under for in order to cut open? I hope he didn't base that on the x-ray, as Uric Acid crystals rarely show up on a flat x-ray. You have to do a simple blood panel to confirm or rule out both gout and a septic infection, so that would seem like the logical next step to me, not surgery...Not that I think he's in any danger if you choose to follow what the vet is saying he wants to do, I'm sure he'll be fine. I just don't think it's at all necessary.
Just my opinion, I'd rather give it than not so you can hear all the sides of this and make a decision. If this was one of my guys, I would not have the surgery done that he's wanting to do, I'd request blood work be done to look at his current blood counts and his Uric Acid level, and I'd request a simple needle aspiration to remove some of the fluid in his arm and have it cultured to determine what specific bacteria is causing the infection. He doesn't need to open him up to look for Uric Acid crystals, the blood work definitively confirm or rule both Gout and a systemic infection. No need to take this huge jump that presents more risk to your dragon when these simple steps that will most likely give you the answers you need are being skipped . Just my opinion...
Drache613":3mkgdxx8 said:Hello,
I truly believe that is gout. It is a classic look, plus, it is affecting more than just one
foot, etc. Gout will cause club looking feet. I highly doubt that it's an infection, but
a blood test really needs to be done, immediately before surgery, in my opinion.
All of his feet/hands are going to be swelling & out of control soon, if it's gout. The
antibiotics are going to make it much worse.
Can you get a blood test done?
Tracie
GermanGiant3":25m5l9qr said:Drache613":25m5l9qr said:Hello,
I truly believe that is gout. It is a classic look, plus, it is affecting more than just one
foot, etc. Gout will cause club looking feet. I highly doubt that it's an infection, but
a blood test really needs to be done, immediately before surgery, in my opinion.
All of his feet/hands are going to be swelling & out of control soon, if it's gout. The
antibiotics are going to make it much worse.
Can you get a blood test done?
Tracie
I am having a hard time figuring out what may be causing this since it has been ongoing for about 5 months now. The left leg is definitely not as swollen as it was even back in August.
He is currently on the surgery schedule for Tuesday, I have already been to 2 separate vet visits both trusted vets who did not end up culturing/aspirating for a blood-test.. I wish they just did it that day when I asked about aspiration. He seems to be doing well on the antibiotics right now. Is it a possibility that the one toe on his back left foot is/was broken since I am unsure how long it has been like that, and he has something localized in the front left leg? I'm just having a very hard time figuring out what this may be, but I definitely don't want to be doing the wrong thing with him being on antibiotics.. Ugh :/ - it has improved in appearance since the photo taken on June 23rd by a lot, seemingly calloused over or something of the sort. He is very alert, I am just so torn. He has been to 2 different vets, I don't know if antibiotics are right or wrong, if surgery is right or wrong.. This vet has been in practice for a very long time seeing beardies and other reptiles and almost immediately ruled out gout after seeing him. I know he could definitely have it. I'm so lost on how to approach this. I know for a fact that the leg was infected back in August at the least when pus came out of the same spot that is now somewhat swollen and not normal looking. :/
Drache613":3m32enec said:Hello,
I truly believe that is gout. It is a classic look, plus, it is affecting more than just one
foot, etc. Gout will cause club looking feet. I highly doubt that it's an infection, but
a blood test really needs to be done, immediately before surgery, in my opinion.
All of his feet/hands are going to be swelling & out of control soon, if it's gout. The
antibiotics are going to make it much worse.
Can you get a blood test done?
Tracie