please help me...im scared for my beardie

[stangbanger]

ok well as you all might know when i got my beardie in october he was a couple months old and i found a bunch of yellow patches on him

i took him to the vet and had him looked at for yellow fungus, and the scrapings came back negative and it didnt show anything was wrong

the vet said it was most likely just bad shed


sure enough, he shed and everything went away....then the yellow came back and he shed it off again, etc

its been a cycle like this since october, and hes now a year old and has been doing great....hes active, eats well, basks, not lethargic....perfect example of a healthy beardie

i just wrote the yellowing off as something he did before a shed since, and since its been so long i figured it couldnt be anything too bad since hes about a year old now and still doing great


well his last shed was awful...its like he shed, but none came off, he has a bunch of dried up nasty brownish skin that looks ready to shed but hasnt shed yet

he had a bunch of hard stuck shed on his leg (you know when it gets hard like a rock and sticks on his spines)

well i was trying to pick it off of him since it was stuck, and i wasnt pulling at it just peeling at it kinda (he has had a problem like this before and it came right off, its like it already shed but was stuck to him somehow

i noticed an open wound on his leg where i was messing with the stuck shed

im praying that its from me messing with it that maybe i tore his leg right there...but im scared to death that its yellow fungus

could a beardie live with severe yellow fungus for a whole year and never appear to have any ill affects? i thought yellow fungus worked from the inside to the outside, meaning by the time its visible on the outside its too late, and he couldnt just shed it off?

has anyone ever heard of a dragon yellowing before a shed?

i feel like the worst reptile owner in the world right now for letting him go unattended like this for so long....i mean, i took him to the vet, but i feel like i should have done something more....

heres some pics

heres the place where its open

heres some more of the yellowing

more

im so terrified im going to have to have him put down....i really hope the cut is just from my picking at his shed too roughly....this guy is my best friend in the world, im falling apart over this right now...

i found a herp vet site that lists all the symptoms, and he doesnt have any of them

Symptoms of Nannizziopsiosis

Decreased appetite.
Reluctance to move.
Patchy yellowing of the skin followed by fragility of the yellow patches and/or dysecdysis.
Yellow skin goes from thick and dry with adhered dead skin to moist and macerated in appearance, especially when upper layers of dead tissue are removed.
Yellow areas begin to slough or turn brown or black and slough.
Spread of the yellow and subsequent necrosis until the animal dies of secondary infections and/or shock.


the area under the yellow has always been normal and he shed off the yellowing like it wasnt even there...it never got soft or brown/black, it never spread in any kind of pattern, just pops up in random areas....his appetite has decreased some when it comes to greens, but he eats them as frequently as my other one does...i figured since hes older he just doesnt need to eat as much as he did as a baby....literally everything is perfect with him, aside from the new open wound i found

the skin over that wound isnt soft, its very hard and dry

 

[AHBD]

Hi Stang...I'm sorry about your beardie +the stress that this is causing ! That does look like Y.F., is your vet a reptile specialist ? Hopefully it's NOT Y.F., but for now you can apply Lamisil cream on those areas. Also, keep him on newspaper for now that can be thrown out every day. If he's on tile, wipe it well every day. You can also apply watered down raw honey [ unpasteurized , found in some supermarkets and most health food stores ] to his wound, it works very well as an antibacterial wound dressing and is soothing. Those are a few things that can help, there are dragons that recover [ if this truly is Y.F. ] , so don't give up ! You might try another vet for another skin scraping if you want to get a second opinion.

 

[stangbanger]

both vets in that office are certified to work with herps..i had both look at him because i wanted a second opinion...they both said the same thing

if it was YF, wouldnt he have succumbed to it before now? its looked like this (minus that open spot) for at least 9-10 months now, and hes only a year old give or take

 

[AHBD]

I'd be super glad if it isn't that, and I think it looks like it, but not sure myself. Hopefully it's just something odd that looks like Y.F. [ To me, just the underside looks like it, not really the other areas.] So I hope your vets are right !

 

[stangbanger]

ttt

 

[RockHound]

The first thing I thought of after seeing the pics was fungus as well. Is there a way to culture it and find out for sure?

Also really hoping it isn't that. It can take a while to take hold in a healthy dragon, but I wouldn't want to wait around for that to happen. The stuff is nasty. Just look at poor ole Yoshi's thread.

 

[stangbanger]

im going to try and find a more qualified vet and get him in first thing monday morning....


i found my original vet here

http://www.herpvetconnection.com/ohio.shtml

but theyre no longer listed...i wonder if they had issues...


is that site reliable?

i found this place on it
http://www.animalcareunlimited.com/

and the one doctor profile says

Dr. Cormany was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from The Ohio State University in 2004. Following graduation, she relocated to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where she spent 2 years at a 6-doctor small animal practice, and the following 4 years at a mixed small animal/exotics practice. Dr. Cormany returned to Ohio to join Animal Care Unlimited in December, 2009. Her special interests include soft tissue surgery, reptile medicine and surgery, internal medicine, preventative medicine and senior pet care.


sounds promising? should i try calling them?

 

[Mediabandit]

I would give them a call for sure. Hopefully they tell you it is not YF either. When you try picking off the stuck shed do you do it in the bath when it is nice and mosit? You can also take a damp cloth and gently rub that over him to get it off as well. You sound like a great beardie keeper so I am sure these are the things you do, but it was not mentioned in your post, so I was just making sure. Good luck with the little guy and hopefully this new vet will be able to set your mind at ease. Keep us posted.

 

[Esther19]

I sure would. That yellow fungus is nothing to mess around with. If that is what the yellow spots are, you may have caught it in time to get rid of it. And that's what it looks like to many of us, but I'm not a vet. I would absolutely get a second opinion. Dr. Cormany sounds promising, and she did go to OSU. Go Buckeyes!

 

[stangbanger]

stupidly, no i didnt do it in the bath....i know thats the proper way, but this wasnt normal "stuck shed" like shed that hadnt come off....this guy has frequently in the past had shed fully detach but turn hard like a rock and cling to him...it isnt attached to the skin anymore, its just molded around his spikes...he had this problem moreso when he was very small....the stuff flakes off and falls off etc, you dont even have to pull at it really since its already detached...i thought thats what was on his leg, and there was a bunch of it because it was flaking it ....i wouldnt even try to take off normal stuck shed while hes not in the bath....but i wont be messing with this stuff anymore either

im really hoping its that stupid mistake that caused the rip in his skin, and it not being related to the yellow spots

also - the yellow spots are nowhere neat as noticable in person...the flash on my camera really brings them out.....in person you wouldnt notice any of the ones on his back and stuff unless he was in the bath (the water changed them a different color)....the camera makes it look worse

i think i will try and call that vet and see if i can get an apt monday....when he was very little and i brought him home from the pet store, he already had this....so hes looked like this since he was very tiny and all the way back since at least october.....so im really hoping it is something else less severe...ive heard of them dying very quickly from YF, and i would think after so much time, if it was YF it would be much more severe by now

im going to do everything in my power to try and get him back to health....this little guy is my best friend in the world, and if i had to choose between keeping him and giving away all my other herps, or keeping them and giving him up, i would keep him.....hes not a normal pet, i really love him

 

[stangbanger]

heres how little he was when i got him

and heres how it looked then

hes now this big (about 19-20")

so it hasnt really gotten "worse", at least it doesnt appear it has to me...and hes growing excellently

 

[Mediabandit]

If it has been going on since the beginning, I highly doubt it is anything too serious, keep positive and see what the new vet has to say about it. I am sure your little buddy will live a long healthy life and give you many many more years of companionship. Good luck.

 

[stangbanger]

ive been having a lot of hydration problems so far for both of my beardies ever since i moved to my new apartment....and now some shedding problems

i think im going to work on upping my humidity in the tanks and see if it helps....i may add a small dish of water near the basking spot to put off humidity, and i might block off one of the vents or something....going to put my gauge in there tomorrow so i can get an actual humidity reading instead of guessing.....my humid basement i never had problems like this


talked to someone i consider an expert and they seem to think the open wound is a "crack" from it being too dry in my tanks, which got agitated by the stuck shed and my picking at it....im going to pick up some neosporin and put it on the wound, and im going to try and figure out if im drying them out


they used to have daily bowel movements and shed very easily....now they only have bowel movements once every 7-10 days and shedding is tougher for them....i wrote it off as them eating less greens causing it, but im going to start exploring other options too


as for the yellowing - im not too sure, i will still be seeing a vet for sure.

but i think the open wound is a crack, and i need to find out why my beardies are so dried out

 

[Esther19]

Do you bathe your beardies? If so, how often, and for how long?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is surprising your dragon has had the yellowing for that long. It could be fungal, but that is a long time to have those problems with the skin.
I would definitely get a culture of the skin to see what it could be.
The humidity in the tank shouldn't be any higher than 40-50% though.
Does he have a good appetite & does he eat greens regularly?

Tracie