I've got a 10 year old male beardie that has a mass on his chest about the size of a nickel. It is hard to the touch, and doesn't seem to move under his skin. I'm embarrassed to admit that we just noticed this today, despite fairly regularly giving him baths, and handling him. (We typically don't flip him over.) No idea how long it's been there, but I think we would have noticed the size and hardness of this lump before too long, so it's probably pretty recent.
Aside from the lump, he seems fine. He's eating his gut-loaded crickets, beardie-safe veggies, he's drinking, he's alert, and his color looks good.
Due to Covid, our vet is not seeing patients outside of emergency cases. The cost is $250 just to walk in the door, treatment will be considerably higher. I will pay it if needed, but wanted to reach out to the experts here first.
That doesn't look good, but it's hard to say if it's harmful or just a benign growth. Testing it would be a good idea, but given the circumstances and cost involved it might be best to wait a bit or even try e-mailing photos of this to your vet and ask for their thoughts and see if it warrants a visit. For now I would at least keep a close eye on it. Take frequent pictures so you can compare the size. If it is growing then I would treat it as more of an urgent issue than if it is staying the same given he is acting normal and eating etc.
I agree, definitely keep an eye it, that looks like an abscess to me. Does it seem to bother
him at all?
Is it hard or soft to the touch?
If you can, it would be helpful to get him to a vet for analysis so if it is an abscess it can get
taken care of quickly before it spreads.
Could he have gotten bitten by a cricket?
As far as I can tell, it's not bothering him. It's quite hard to the touch, and doesn't move under the skin. I don't think he got bitten by a cricket; there doesn't seem to be an opening, or any kind of bite wound.
Just to walk in the door of our vet will cost $250 thanks to Covid.