stanjf
Member
My bearded dragon is about 4-6 months old. She lost an arm in a fight with a larger dragon in November/December which is when I took her home. Since then the arm has been well and she has been fine, learning to live without it. Recently, the "stub" has been getting larger and bubble-ish. I thought it was because she was molting (since this is what happened originally when the arm was healing) and that the rest of it was going to fall off once she had finished shedding her skin. However it didn't. I have now learned after taking her to two reptile stores and an animal hospital that her arm is infected. I originally didn't think this was possibly since it was so long after the original injury. I've tried feeding her antibacterial meal but she does not seem to want it. I'm going to try mixing it with something liquid that she does like and using a dropper or feeding syringe to give it to her. Hopefully this will help, but if she will not eat or, or does but the condition worsens, I need advice.
Someone at the reptile store said if I couldn't do anything on my own to bring her to the vet and have them either give her some kind of antibiotic or disinfectant in a shot or just have the whole arm removed. Most local vets that take reptiles are expensive so I don't know if I will be able to do this. Obviously in concern for her health I don't want to wait too long to take here there if it is necessary, but if anyone could give a suggestion on what could be done so she would not have to go to a vet, I would greatly appreciate it.
The person at the store also suggested sterilizing a needle or getting a syringe from a hospital and poking her arm to ease the swelling and get most of the infected matter out, then dipping or soaking it in a mix of hydrogen peroxide and water and putting a safe antibacterial cream on afterwards. I'm not going to try this yet because I don't want to make anything worse, but if it would work, please let me know.
I don't want to lose her
Someone at the reptile store said if I couldn't do anything on my own to bring her to the vet and have them either give her some kind of antibiotic or disinfectant in a shot or just have the whole arm removed. Most local vets that take reptiles are expensive so I don't know if I will be able to do this. Obviously in concern for her health I don't want to wait too long to take here there if it is necessary, but if anyone could give a suggestion on what could be done so she would not have to go to a vet, I would greatly appreciate it.
The person at the store also suggested sterilizing a needle or getting a syringe from a hospital and poking her arm to ease the swelling and get most of the infected matter out, then dipping or soaking it in a mix of hydrogen peroxide and water and putting a safe antibacterial cream on afterwards. I'm not going to try this yet because I don't want to make anything worse, but if it would work, please let me know.
I don't want to lose her