mouth infection maybe

[Allybee]

]My bearded dragon Mesa has always been in perfect health always eating properly (like a pig lol) and always pooped well, ate her veggies etc. Lately she hasn't been as interested in her food, which is weird especially for her. She is still eating a little bit. So i got her to eat a cricket and i noticed her tongue has a build up of some whiteish stuff. i touched it to see if it would just come off but it didnt
Anyone know what this is and what i can do to help her ive lost a dragon before and dont want to again

Sorry about the image being sidewyas

 

[AHBD]

Hi Ally.....I can see something, but I'm not sure what it is. Ive seen mouth rot where the cheesy whitish substance is along the inside gum line, but I'm not familiar with it being on the tongue. If you have a trusted reptile vet, it might be worth taking Mesa in. You might also p.m Tracie [ Drache613 ] to get her thoughts on it.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That does look like some type of buildup.
Did you try getting a swab & dipping it in some water or diluted betadine to see if you can remove any of it. Is that the only area in the mouth that looks like that?
Can you review your tank setup with us, such as your UVB lighting, temperatures, supplementation, etc to be sure it is all correct.

Tracie

 

[Allybee]

Were taking her into the vet asap to get it looked at. I just tried to wipe it off with a swab and it doesn't seem to be coming off at all, her tongue is looking pretty red and a little irritated too.

As for the setup we have a personally built enclosure we do have two dragons so we have two basking spots i dont remember what the watts were but one basking spot does need a new light bulb but the other stays at the proper temperature around 100 F. We have a reptisun UVB tube light across the tank so they can absorb what they need wherever. I dust the crickets in rep-cal calcium supplement and the crickets are fed calcium fortified food aswell. i do have sand at the bottom of the enclosure could that cause the buildup, she never seems to be in it.

 

[Allybee]

With further looking at it i realized its not on her tongue.. its a red spot with yellow on it and its quite swollen, swollen enough to look like her tongue.
Any advice on how to get her to eat, she doesnt seem interested but i know she needs to eat something.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Is there anything that could have bitten her on the tongue possibly?
You can get some betadine & dilute it down to a weak tea looking solution to try & clean her tongue/mouth out with a swab.
Does it look like it is getting infected?
She could have ingested some sand.
Usually sand isn't recommended due to impaction risks especially in the youngsters as well as harboring bacteria also.
You can try getting some chicken or turkey baby food with some squash or sweet potato baby food & feed her with a plastic dropper or syringe. Drop some food on the end of her nose to see if she will lick that off.

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

 

[Allybee]

i dont know if butterworms bite but she has one occasionally and also has superworms occasionally. I think it could be from the superworms, she just scarfs them down sometimes head first. It does look a little better since yesterday, seems like the swelling is going down.
Shes never in the sand and if she is only for a couple mins, it still could be the sand.
At first she didnt lick the baby food off her nose so i opened her mouth a bit and she seemed to like it. Shes eating that at least.