Early Sign of Mouth Rot?

[wesgtp]

My 3-year old female beardie has some brown plaque on her teeth along with a small build up of brown in the back corner of her mouth. I was able to get pictures showing this spot on her very back upper teeth. We have been scrubbing her teeth gently with a zinc and Vit C oral cleansing gel that is safe for animals (a blue gel, Maxi/Guard brand). I read that this cleansing gel is a great preventative for oral problems and that it is totally safe on beardies. We clean her teeth weekly and sometimes small amounts of this plaque will come off. The spot in the pictures has not gotten any larger than when we first noticed it about 2 months ago. At first we thought it was a scab but I think it is more likely to be plaque build up. it has gotten a bit smaller since we began cleaning her mouth. Does anyone know if this could be mouth rot? If so, I have read that Reptaid is very good at healing/preventing mouth rot. We began a one week regimen of Reptaid when we first noticed it and the spot got slightly smaller in size, but not much smaller. The Reptaid was then stopped. We found out she had a moderate amount of roundworms in her fecal a month ago so she has just been treated with panacur (three out of four doses so far, one dose per week). Her appetite has been inconsistent but has not lost any weight the past few months. Is there any possible connection between the spot in her mouth and the roundworm infection? Thanks for any help!

 

[CooperDragon]

That looks like buildup or stuck food to me rather than rot. It's good that you're using the Maxi Guard. It will help reduce bacteria buildup which will help prevent infection. Perhaps using a curved syringe with some warm water will allow you to put a bit more power behind cleaning the teeth out. Kind of like a waterpik for people. You could also try some harder/crunchy foods which may help. Things like buffalo beetles or even large dubia roaches should have tough enough shells to be chewable but cause enough abrasion to help. If it continues to build up an experienced vet should be able to do a good cleaning and get the buildup out.

 

[wesgtp]

That looks like buildup or stuck food to me rather than rot. It's good that you're using the Maxi Guard. It will help reduce bacteria buildup which will help prevent infection. Perhaps using a curved syringe with some warm water will allow you to put a bit more power behind cleaning the teeth out. Kind of like a waterpik for people. You could also try some harder/crunchy foods which may help. Things like buffalo beetles or even large dubia roaches should have tough enough shells to be chewable but cause enough abrasion to help. If it continues to build up an experienced vet should be able to do a good cleaning and get the buildup out.

We were also leaning towards it just being food build up. We have just been using a q-tip for cleaning her mouth so that idea should work a lot better. I actually have a dubia colony so I will try to feed her more of those. Thanks for the suggestions, they were very helpful!
One other question, does the color of her gums appear healthy? I know mouth rot can discolor their gums but I am not sure to what degree.

 

[CooperDragon]

Her gums look pretty good to me. Mouth rot often looks like wounds or sores. One of my dragons had it and I wish I'd taken some photos to use as an example but it looked much more irritated and his mouth was a bit deformed.