Hey guys, so this is my first post on here because I am in desperate need of help with my beardie and I'm hoping that these beardie forums will be able to give some clue about what's going on. So he has mbd which might be a cause of this but I'm still not sure. What happened was last night, I was looking at him in his enclosure and I noticed his foot was completely gray but immediately I just thought he was shedding, but upon further look, I noticed that there were black specs on the gray area so I opened his cage in poked a little at it and I realized that his foot was rock solid, he couldn't move his toes, and his ankle seemed fused to the rest of his leg almost as if his foot is completely dead. I am scheduling a vet appointment soon but I'm hoping that some people who have experienced the same thing will be able to help me understand why or how this is happening because I'm very confused and scared for my beardies health.
Goodness, that doesn't "sound" very good, but a picture would be helpful. I am not sure why
that would happen unless there is some type of injury or infection there.
When is his vet appointment?
Infections in the limbs of lizards take a LONG TIME to develop to become as severe as you describe , principally cause dragons have low metabolic rates and are cold blooded.
If this is an infection it's needed weeks to get to this stage - this dragon is critically ill & likely also has a systemic infection (blood poisoning) - a REPTILE VET assessment with xrays and bloods and small needle aspiration to examine under the microscope to see what germs are there, perhaps culture them to determine best treatment plan if it's not gone too far and an amputation is needed.
If this is an injury , it's possible this might have happened overnight and the swelling and stiffness is due to inflammation of the soft tissues , AGAIN - a REPTILE VET needs to assess ( Xrays ) to determine if
a) a sprain
b) a joint dislocation
c) any broken bones
b and c require resetting under a GA.
Your dragon WILL BE IN AGONY and this needs URGENT attention by a REPTILE VET ( today !!).