Dying Arm

[kari2014]

Hello, I am new to this forum. My bearded dragon, Piper, is a year and 4 months. She has a serious problem with her arm. I noticed that she was favoring it, holding it back, and her arm wouldnt shed with the rest of her body when she was roughly 3 months old, so I took her to the vet. They took x-rays and couldnt find out what was wrong, so they sent us home. It continually got worse over the next 3 months. Her hand started to deform and started losing fingernails and she looked in pain when she walked, so I decided to take her to a reptile specialist and all he did was observe her and say he thinks its just nerve damage and sent us home with no treatment or fixes. Her arm progressively got worse. Her scales have started just sloughing off of it, her fingernails have fallen out, her hand is deformed. Its bad. So i took her back to my local vet and it was obvious to her that there was something seriously wrong. We started her on Orbax antimicrobial because she had a bad infection and Metcam for pain and inflammation. We also started acupuncture once a week to see if it was nerve damage or not. It was not. She can feel her arm perfectly fine. However, we took her off of the antimicrobial and continued with the acupuncture. Her arm is still deteriorating. Also, an infection has started growing along her side where she holds her arms. It looked fungal to me, so I started applying Silver Sulfadiazine and giving her an antifungal that I used on my other beardie. It seems to be taking care of her side infection. I am at a loss and I am so mad because I brought her to the vet early on when I first noticed it to prevent it getting this bad. I do not believe we can save her arm and may have to amputate. I am just looking for advice as to what I could try, or how to deal with an amputee, anything! I know I am going to be asked about her environment, so here is her set up. Her basking side ranges from 90-110F and her cool side ranges from 75-85F. I have two reptisun 10.0 for her UVB at the front of the terrarium and a large basking lamp in her basking spot and another UVB light over her cool side. She has a very nice, very expensive cage that is 6'X2'x2' that she shares with another female bearded that is the same age as her, I got them together. They never show signs of aggression or domination, they get along perfect. I was using reptile carpet but I switched to newspaper and paper towels that I change everyday and I do a complete clean every two weeks. She always has had a great appetite until recently. I was giving them baths every morning where they would use the bathroom to keep the cage clean. I slowed it to every other day or every 3 days since her scales just slough off so easily. She is still regular though. She is loosing weight. I feed them a mixed salad every morning and vitabug superworms and dubbia roaches dusted every other or every 3 days with either calcium and vitamin D or a multivitamin. Please, I need advice!

 

[kari2014]

I have pictures but I am new to this site and am not sure how to upload pictures. If someone could explain how, I can post a few.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Kari, I'm sorry to hear about Piper's problem ! Hopefully you can get some help between this forum and your vet. To get pics on here, upload them to a site like Photobucket, then copy/paste the img code here. I just wanted to mention too, that if it does come down to amputation that most beardies get along very well with a missing limb, especially if they are not very overweight.

 

[kari2014]

Here are some pics of the cage setup:
http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...1_160833_zps6ab228dd.jpg~320x480?t=1419113733

http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...1_160845_zps1fb3287c.jpg~320x480?t=1419113733

Here are pics of piper
http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...loads/20141221_140658_zps52391e7b.jpg~320x480

http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...loads/20141221_140715_zps47f2f3fe.jpg~320x480

http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...loads/20141221_140629_zpsac69771d.jpg~320x480

http://rs1377.pbsrc.com/albums/ah53...1_140730_zps6aa236f1.jpg~320x480?t=1419113733

 

[AHBD]

Aw, poor girl. ! It's good that you started her on the siIver cream ! would discontinue the acupuncture, I'm sure it's expensive and there is not even a chance that it will help. I question why it was done in the first place, that arm may not be saved. I've raised 1,000's of beardies and that looks like a bite that has been happening at intervals, I'm pretty sure about that [ along with fungal problems ] Kari please believe me that you will not always observe the other beardie biting....they may show no aggression, but then suddenly see another arm or tail as food, and take a bite, with no malice to the other dragon. At any rate, it's best to separate them ASAP. I'm thinking that it should be removed, then she can start healing. Hopefully the fungal spots will clear up. Also, if it is removed, ask specifically what the follow up care will be. It would be good for the vet to also get a small sample sent to the lab to see what the fungal patches are. After amputation they generally only need antibiotics for a short time, so hopefully that will be the case and she will be on the mend and feeling better soon. You did make a very, very beautiful set up though, great job ! By the way, bathing can spread the fungus, you may want to just offer water via syringe or eyedropper orally for now and bathe her in a betadine solution [ make sure she doesn't drink ] that is diluted to look like weak tea or just skip the baths.

 

[kari2014]

Ok, I will put up a separator in the cage. I am taking her to the vet tmw and will discuss amputation. I do not think my other beardie, Baby, was biting. I see how it looks like that in the pics because her scabs from her scales sloughing off came off today and re exposed those wounds. I originally thought it was just bad blood circulation that killed the arm and then a bacterial infection made it worse. However, to be safe, like I said, I will put up a barrier between the two. Should I remove the water bath in the cage since fungus can spread through water? Baby and Piper love it and go for a soak daily. I clean it with antimicrobial soap every morning. I also spray then with warm/hot water that they love. Do you recommend stopping everything and only administerin water through syringe?

 

[PogonaTrainerAISP]

I agree: whether it is caused from the other bearded dragon or not, they should be separated. I feel it could be an infection, a bite, or both. It doesn't have to be a beardie bite, though. Could be a spider bite...inspect the wound for any marks, perhaps?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Poor girl, that does look like there are some fungal issues going on. I wanted to add that for some reason, the Silver cream or silver sulfadiazine does not help heal up fungal issues. The sulfa is a medication & hinders healing in fungus. I would go with an unpasteurized honey or manuka honey for help in healing it up, on the fungal spots. I don't know, maybe I am grasping, but the arm might be able to be saved if you can get those areas healed up, if she can still feel the arm.
Are you giving probiotics for her also, to help balance out her system?

Tracie