Ha Ha, I understand completely why you're asking me about my qualifications, as you shouldn't ever just take advice you get on the internet without double checking it...that being said, don't you ever not ask your vet or your human doctors any questions you have, or bring up alternatives to what they are telling you, simply because you "don't want to offend them", as you absolutely must advocate for yourself, your children, and your pets. Doctors are human, and unfortunately, especially in the United States, veterinarians do not require any special education or training in order to call themselves an "Exotic Vet", all that means in this country is that the vet is WILLING to see animals other than dogs and cats. That's it. The only designation in the US that indicates that a veterinarian has any specialized education or training in a specific species of animal is if they are a "Board Certified" vet, like a "Certified Herp Vet" or a "Certified Avian Vet". Other than that, an Exotics vet can graduate from veterinary school and call themselves an "Exotics Vet" if they want to see ALL types of animals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, rodents, etc. Then when they see an animal that they know nothing about (Veterinary school isn't long enough to educate students in the specifics of every "exotic" species of pets), the first thing an "exotics vet" typically does is leave the exam room and jump on the internet, lol...
Anyway, as far as I go, yes, I have a Bachelors Degree in Health Science, a Master's Degree in Animal Health Science, and I finished an additional classroom year of a separate Master's Degree to become a Physician's Assistant, followed by a year-long internship at Dubois Regional Medical Center...then I started into Veterinary Science and worked at the Animal Diagnostic Laboratory at Penn State University, doing mostly testing and diagnosis for all of the local farmers in central Pennsylvania. There is a huge lack of livestock veterinarians in central PA, even though from State College east, through Harrisburg, Hershey, York, Reading, Lancaster, and up into the Scranton-Wilkes Barre and down to Allentown is nothing but both small and large family farms and huge industrial farms. So many farmers in this area use Penn State as a huge resource for the medical care of their livestock, Penn State University is one of the top Agricultural Universities in the world. So farmers would take their own biological samples from their herds and flocks and send it in to the Animal Diagnostic Lab at Penn State University main campus in State College, PA, where I still live, and I would basically go over all of the issues with the farmers over the phone and in person at their farms, and would run any testing that we thought was necessary based on the signs and symptoms of the animals. Then we would do whatever else might have been necessary to determine a positive and definite diagnosis, then design a treatment plan with the farmers, etc. I also worked on many research projects that Penn State was running, and basically it's a great arrangement for the farmers and for the University, as the farmers get free medical diagnostics and the university gets free research herds and flocks. The Avian Influenza lab at the Animal Diagnostics Lab was a place I was working in when the first big outbreak of AI happened in the late 90's-early 2000's. Anyway, I got caught between wanting to be in human medicine or animal medicine, so I got the education for both...and I've also had my own pet bearded dragons for almost 15 years now, my first I got at a month old and he lived just shy of 13 years old, and I now have an 11 month old female and a 5 month old male, as well as a year and 3 month old male that I adopted from a family who had gotten him as a baby but had gotten horrible husbandry advice from Petco, never got him a
UVB light, fed him only mealworms, and used wood chips as his substrate...he came to me with severe MBD, stunted growth, and an impaction that had been going on for 3 months at that point and that partially paralyzed his back legs. I got him at 8 months old, and now he's doing 500% better, thank god..
After looking at the new photos I totally agree with what Tracie has already written, and I wouldn't call that a "bump" at all, it's not an encapsulated swelling but rather a dispersed swelling throughout his entire foot and into his toes, the first thing I noticed is the swelling of one of his toes. It looks to me that the swelling is originating from the ankle joint and radiating outward throughout his entire foot, into his toes and his heel, and most likely originated from the ankle joint itself. It could very well be the start of Gout, though it's odd that after a month he hasn't shown any swelling in any other extremities, nor is it causing him any pain at all, which is not indicative of Gout. That's not to say that his Uric Acid levels are just moderately high and that swelling won't suddenly pop up in his other extremities, or that he won't start experiencing a lot of pain and start limping and having trouble walking...either way, whether it's Gout or not, it's not a localized bacterial infection, as if it was he would be one sick and hurting boy after a month of it, and it would either be an encapsulated swelling (abscess), or he would have dispersed discoloration/redness after a month. Plus, for a localized infection/abscess there would have to be some type of external causation, like a wound or a bite, or an internal causation like a fracture or some type of soft-tissue injury, both of which would cause pain and bruising...
At 109 grams they may be able to run blood work to check for signs of both Gout and a bacterial infection. But honestly I really don't see this being a bacterial infection at all, it's simply generalized swelling of his entire foot centered around the ankle joint, that has lasted for a month now and that is not painful and displays no bruising, no redness, and no external sign of broken skin or injury. It could very well be a mass in the bone or in the soft tissue, such as a tumor or a cyst, as usually they start out being painless and show no signs of discoloration. If they are able to do blood work and it shows no sign of infection or Gout, then that's the avenue they need to go down. Either way, keeping him on a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is making him sick in the hopes that it is a bacterial infection is counterproductive, as not only is it making him sick, but it's putting off finding a positive diagnosis of what the problem really is. And as far as the parasites go, it's unfortunately EXTREMELY COMMON for vets to run a fecal, see coccidia, pseudomonas, pinworms, or any other number of bacteria, protozoa, or parasites and then they needlessly prescribe harsh meds that are completely unnecessary. It's upsetting that your dragon was displaying no signs or symptoms of having a gastrointestinal issue, yet they ran a routine fecal test just because he hadn't ever had one done, and then they put him on meds because they saw "parasites" that are normally present in their stools. That's why I asked you if you requested he have a fecal because he was having problems like consistent runny stools, blood in his stool, lack of appetite, lethargy, etc. that indicate a high-count parasitic infection. Your dragon was fine as far as his GI tract went, yet they put him on medication because some normally present microbes showed up on a routine fecal. It's unnecessary, and will only cause problems with appetite, his bowel habits, and can actually cause a secondary fungal infection...this is becoming a serious issue for bearded dragons, many are dying because the medications they are giving on a "Just In Case" basis start a vicious cycle that spins out of control...
