Unfortunately, I ended up putting Dodger to sleep at my follow-up appointment. When I made my initial appointment I thought they had scheduled me with the vet who had tons of experience with Beardies, but I ended up seeing someone else. She looked him over and was going to send me home with some meds (which I spoke about earlier in one of my comments on this post). Before I left I explicitly asked her if she thought it was yellow fungus. I told her I heard it was fatal (even with treatment). She said she didn't think it was yellow fungus. So I paid a couple hundred dollars and took him home for about 5 days. When I went back, I got the same vet again. She said he was getting better, but still needed treatment. She said he was losing weight and was going to send me home with some special food I had to mix with water and feed him the paste. I again asked her if she thought it was yellow fungus because I was so concerned. She again said she didn't think it was, but would send a picture to the other vet (who I wanted to see from the beginning) if I wanted. I said yeah, just to see the other vet's opinion. So they get me all set up to leave. I was so hopeful that everything was getting better for him. Then the vet comes back in and told me the other vet said it was for sure yellow fungus. I was so livid. I wasted almost a week..several hundred dollars...and almost got sent home again having to pay another couple hundred dollars. So I had to make the decision to put him down after believing he was getting better. It broke my heart.
I'd love to have another bearded dragon sometime. But after this experience, it will be quite a while before I consider buying one again.
I want to say thank you to everyone for the help and support. It really, truly means a lot. Thank you.
I'm sorry that Dodger had that terrible disease and it was pretty obvious he woudn't survive. I'm shocked that the first vet knew nothing and waited before consulting with the other vet. You should be refunded for wrong diagnosis and paying for antibiotics which are never prescribed [ they can make it worse ] He wouldn't have survived no matter the treatment but you paid for the wrong treatment to begin with.
Anyway, maybe one day you'll get a happy, healthy beardie or go for another reptile that is very hardy like a uromastyx [ but they need VERY high heat ] a fire skink or armadillo lizard. These last 2 are inexpensive and VERY hardy.