Mizzy is very sick, vet not helpful :(

[Caesura]

Hi everyone,

My beardie has some really nasty lesions that have gotten much worse in the past couple of weeks.

3 months ago another beardie attacked her while they were having playtime outside the cage (not housed together and the other beardie has since been rehomed). The attack was so savage she ended up losing some toes. Otherwise it appeared to have healed well.

Fast forward to today. She developed a big bump on her lower jaw, at the jaw tip. It's swollen looking, NOT mbd. She gets lots of healthy oxylate-low greens daily, superworms, dubia, miner-all (not vit d added) and has a 3 month old reptisun long bulb mounted where she can bask close by.

I wish I'd taken pics of her lesions before going to the vet, but she had the bump. She also had a pencil eraser sized one on her side and one on her chubby cheeky jowel thing, same size.

So I took her to the vet and he said it was definitely an abscess and bacteria. He cut open the fleshy thing on her chin but couldn't find any pus to remove. So then he prescribed sulfodine silver cream and .1 ml daily orbax for one month.

I gave it all faithfully to her. Applied cream 2x daily, soaked her, hot washcloth on her chin, gave her the oral meds, etc.

2 weeks later her lesions are MUCH worse. The one on her chin has tripled in size and there's a new bump starting further up her jaw. The tiny dot on her side spread to her stomach and over her entire left side, even onto her back a little. And the one on her jowel is the size of a dime now.

I could cry. The vet still insists it's bacterial and that I continue giving her the orbax. No scrapings or cultures were ever done. I stopped giving orbax one week ago. It's been three weeks since the first vet visit. My thinking is that since it flared up SO badly after the antibiotics, it's probably fungal. So I started putting topical miconadazole (vagisil) cream on the spots after soaking her in betadine water every day. And the spots are getting better, but the giant horrible lesion on her jaw is not. I'm scared she's probably going to need oral anti fungal meds but have no idea how to get them because the one "reptile" vet within 40 miles insists it's not fungal. And I already spent over $200 with that guy.

Does anybody have ANY suggestions? I really want her to get better. The good thing is that she is still super active and has a great appetite, and decent weight (I'd like her tail fatter but she's stable). Are there any oral antifungals that can be obtained OTC? I've got experience with some basic medical things, like I've done subcutaneous fluids on sick newborn puppies, tube feedings for newborn animals, injections, etc. but I'm not a doctor. Just at a loss.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....I'm sorry about your beardie's condition. ! Are these areas that were bitten in the attack ? Can you post some pics ? To do so, just upload to a site like Photobucket and then copy/paste the img here. Can you possibly take the beardie to a sympathetic, cooperative vet that might just take a culture and prescribe [ if needed ] either itraconazole or voriconazole ? Those are the meds. generally used for fungal infections. I would imagine that an honest vet, even if not very experienced with exotics, could send a culture to a lag and then proceed according to research available. By the way, you might try raw honey [ like from a health food store ] on it as well....it works very well as an antimicrobial.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Wow I am sorry to hear your dragon has had so many skin issues! That is too bad.
I agree, the unpasteurized honey should be very helpful for skin issues. Some pictures would be great if you can swing getting them uploaded here.
At least her appetite is doing so well, that is great news!
Most vets could do a culture for you & send it off to a lab so you could at least know what you were dealing with in order to give the correct medication. The oral anti-fungals are harsh but are very effective. Many times that is the only way the fungus will get taken care of.
I would continue giving a bath with the diluted betadine & use the anti-fungal cream daily, too.

Let us know how she is doing. I hope that you can get that area cultured.

Tracie

 

[beardieX0]

You should definitely ask for cultures. That is the only way you will know for sure what it is. Go back and tell the vet that you want a culture done, that's it. Tell them it has gotten worse. It's the same with us, if we demand something like x- rays the doc will give it to us. You may just have to demand it to save your baby's life :/ If they don't do it then you may have to go somewhere else. It really frustrates me that they didn't do that! Grr.

 

[Caesura]

Sorry it took so long to get pictures here. The bad sore on her chin is the same as ever. I think she may need an oral antifungal to deal with that. All of her original lesions healed except the big one behind her chubby cheeks, but it's black and dry, and feels like it's getting ready to fall off the same way the others did when they were almost healed. She's started getting some new ones on her stomach though. I am just going to apply the topical all over as much as possible.

The unhelpful vet refused to do a culture, so I'm trying to find someone that's not a reptile vet who will do it. If I need to I will drive to Portland. It's a few hours from here but there should be a reptile vet in a city that big.

She gets soaked in plain water, then betadine solution afterward daily. Then topical antifungal. Her appetite and activity level is still great. She ate a giant salad with vitamins this morning. I'd like it if she was fatter but overall she's doing okay, except the lesions.

 

[Caesura]

Oh, and these are not areas that were injured in the attack. She lost three fingers on her left hand and three toes on her right foot. That giant open lesion on her chin was just a small fleshy bump until the vet cut it open.

 

[beardieX0]

My friends beardie had something like that. He just leaves it alone and it heals and peals off. I'm not sure if it's the same thing. Call a herp vet near you and ask advise. They usually will give you some over the phone for free

 

[beardieX0]

Also, if you keep crickets in there through the night, I would cut that out. They tend to pick at stuff like that and make it worse :/

 

[Caesura]

She never gets crickets because they're gross. She eats superworms and dubia, and I only feed her insects outside the enclosure because I don't want them escaping into her bedding.

I should mention that her substrate is brown paper grocery bags cut to lay flat. They get changed when she poos on them, but she usually poos in her bath.

The whole problem is not being able to find a reptile vet near by. The only one that I could find was 40 miles away and made the problem infinitely worse, after charging a lot of money.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Wow that area on the chin is not looking good at all. You can get some unpasteurized honey to put on it daily to help keep it from getting infected or an antibiotic ointment.
That entire growth should be removed, really.
The skin issues do look somewhat like a fungal issue. Which cream, are you using?
The brown paper is fine for substrate. I am glad you feed her out of her tank, too.
I simply can't understand why they wouldn't do any culture or anything to figure out what the issue is.

I hope you are able to find another vet.

Tracie

 

[Caesura]

Thanks Tracie, the cream I am using is a generic brand Miconazole, I'll find out the strength in a little bit because the bathroom is occupied at the moment.

I was worried about the chin especially. The smaller lesions are healing, albeit slowly because that's just how reptiles are. The original one that was on her side is completely healed. She's missing some side spikes on that spot but I'm hoping they'll grow back some day.

Does any unpasteurized honey help with fungal infections or does it have to be special stuff like manuka honey? I have some locally raised raw honey. She would love it if I smeared honey on her face at any rate. lol.

 

[AHBD]

Aw, poor little girl, but she is pretty nonetheless You can put your local honey on it and if you want to order Manuka honey that's fine, but I've use local raw honey on my dragons with great results on wounds as well as eye infection. It's good that she eats well, if you can get her some hornworms that will help put some weight on her, unless she will eat a bit more o the other bugs for you to gain a little weight.

 

[Caesura]

Horrible news everyone.

Mizzy is still alive and fighting hard. I have a diagnosis now. Yellow fungus. The vet recommended euthanasia.

I'm not ready to do that yet, but looking at her today she IS in pain and now I wish we'd done it while we were at the office. This is so hard. I keep having hope that she'll get better. The giant lesion on her chin is waaay smaller now BUT now her stomach is covered in horrible bloody lesions too, and it'll just keep spreading. It's probably all over her organs by now too.

Any advice? I'll make the appointment for this week so we can say goodbye. Still not sure how to tell my daughter about what's going on. She has a horrible time saying goodbye to any pet, much less them dying.

How do I go about disinfecting everything so that no other lizards that come here will catch it? How do it disinfect her cage? Are my ball pythons in danger? Obviously they're housed separately. They have no symptoms right now.

 

[AHBD]

Aw, I'm so sorry to hear this. It's sad that the chin area improved but the stomach lesions are spreading. And you feel that she is in pain ? If you really feel that there is no recovery and that her quality of life is just not there, then it's the right thing to let her go. I hate the thought of a child having to deal with it.....even many of us as adults can barely keep ourselves together when a pet goes. Sometimes the kids get over it more quickly than we do. But....my heart goes out to you !

As for disinfecting, I think bleach solution would do it, or a quat disinfectant, but you must be really diligent about rinsing afterwards.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I am so sorry to hear that you are having to make this type of decision, that is horrible.
Too bad one area improved & other areas got worse. Is she losing weight also?
It is never easy to deal with losing a precious dragon & most times kids deal with it better than we do. Nevertheless, it is so heart breaking.
You really feel she is suffering terribly?
We support any decision that you make. Let us know how things are going.

Tracie