My story of Yellow Fungus

[lauraj1055]

Here I am, a year late writing my heart breaking story which has also been a year long journey. Last April, I have 9 gorgeous healthy dragons that I love more than anything. I had a Wit who was only 10 months old that came down with Yellow Fungus after purchasing a hammock off of etsy. The package came brand new, never thought about washing it, instead hung it in the tank excited for Sophie to use it. She immediately loved it.

About 2 weeks later I noticed her not really eating, wasn't super concerned, I thought she had a weird shed on her stomach so I sent a picture to my friend who breeds dragons. The news she came back with dropped me to my knees, telling me it looked like Yellow Fungus. I was in shock as there is no way, someone as anal as me, who is diligent on cleaning tanks could ever have a dragon that had yellow fungus. I was carrying her around the house, had her on my clothes, floor, bed, whatever. Along with having 8 other dragons. I took her to the vet, and found out it was indeed YF. My heart sunk. In 2 weeks she went from a fat crazy girl, to losing 100 grams, yellow patches everywhere. I had to put her down immediately. I had 2 other dragons test positive for YF. They are both still alive today. They were put on Terbinafine and voriconazole. They were on it for 45 days. Little Ron seems to be doing just fine, no breakouts, however Onya has now had a breakout on her mouth and foot. Her toe just recently fell off too. I just put her back on the Voriconazole because the Terbinafine was making her sick.

I have also done a ton or research and I have put her on 2 drops of grapefruit seed extract, Echinecea, tumeric and collidial silver, which I mix and give 1 ml of daily.

I just got Silver gel from Tracie, that I can't wait to try.

I was ready to put her down because of the most recent outbreak, but I feel like I am not ready to stop trying yet. She is still eating, acting crazy, but she does still lose weight which is upsetting. She drinks water from her bath every other day also.

If anyone else has any other helpful advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I am posting Pics of Sophie RIP, before and 2 weeks after the hammock was put in her cage. The last 2 pics are of Onya's recent break outs.

Sorry for the long story, but I also want to bring awareness to anyone who ever purchases ANYTHING for your dragons tank, or even a used tank, please please please, take all proper precautions, and clean it, scrub it, before putting your dragon near it.

2 weeks after the hammock was put in:

Onya's mouth:

Onya's foot (her toe has since fallen off)

 

[HippieLizards]

Hello,

What a heartbreaking story. I'm so sorry for your loss. You definitely took good care of treating the Y.F. I'm sorry that your other dragons have that as well. Definitely do keep doing those treatments for your remaining beardies. The voriconazole will definitely help.

As far as the hammock goes, I Would probably throw it away or let it soak in bleach or betadine overnight. I Definitely will keep that in mind next time I purchase something from Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, etc.

I Hope your other beardies will make it through.

Good luck,

-HippieLizards.

 

[AHBD]

Sorry to read this sad story, I hope that Onya will do well + maybe live a much longer life than Sophie did.You are a very conscientious owner and no doubt if your girl has a chance it will be a good chance with your care.

I though I'd post this article, one point of note here is that all reptiles actually may carry small amounts of CANV naturally on their scales. I never knew this before reading the article. That would explain why it may pop up in dragons that have good living conditions and show up seemingly out of nowhere. So the reality is, most beardies actually carry it already but something unknown can cause it to flare up. Of course weak immune system, dirty conditions + low temps. would be catalysts, but many dragons [ like yours ] don't have these strikes against them.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4199725/

And just an F.Y.I., the Wiblits has only been bred in the U.S. for a short time, and there were a lot of problems getting them established. They were weak + problematic, some developed respiratory
and fungal infections easily.

 

[Drache613]

Hello Laura,

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry about your dragon contracting yellow fungus like that, how horrible!
How devastating to lose her like that.
I hope that the others recover from it. Yellow fungus is so debilitating. Let me know how the
gel works out for you.
Yes, the witblits are not widespread yet & are probably inbred to some extent which does tend
to weaken the immune system.
I am sorry you are having to go through all of this!

Tracie