Possibly early yellow fungus?D:

[ecr1992]

Hello,
I have a 5-6yo (he was adopted as an adult last year from someone who couldn't care for him anymore) male beardie. He is in a 40gal tank with coconut fiber substrate (changed from sand about 6 months ago). His lamps are a 100w UVA/400w UVB combo bulb in his basking area and a straight 18in t8 15w UVB bulb on the cool side of his tank. All of his belongings get disinfected once a month. His tank is 40gal (saving to get him a larger one!)

A couple of months ago I had concerns he had mouth rot, and brought him to the exotic vet where she confirmed (he had to very small and almost healing ulcers in the corners of his mouth, activity and appetite went down. He stopped self soaking and was very dehydrated) and she at that time advised me to use UVB bulbs (I had not been prior). We gave hin subq fluids every week for 3 weeks and all seemed well, he is more active, holding weight, has an overall brighter appearance in general. He eats more of the things I offer and I had thought he was doing much better.

Now it appears those small ulcerations have returned, and I noticed about 4-5 days ago he had a small brown circular spot on the right side of his lower abdomen. I have been monitoring it, and it appears to have spread all the way to underneath his right arm. Some spots are darker, but the scales on that side seem dull to me.

I am curious if it is possible to misdiagnose the disease in early stages? Wondering if the "mouth rot" was really YF in disguise.

I am also concerned that perhaps the coconut fiber substrate is trapping in moisture and making the tank more humid than it should be and thusly causing the fungus. I do not have something to measure the humidity in the tank as of now .

I am starting topical treatment with betadine soak 1x a day, scrub with chlorahex and apply silver sulfadiazine to the area 1x daily. I am waiting to get paid on Friday, may be able to get him into a vet sooner if I can get the money together. I wanted to post pictures here and see if anyone can confirm this is what early YF looks like or if I'm just panicking. Everything I am reading about it says it is very serious and early intervention is key.

He still has plenty of energy, is eating everything he is offered (he gets fruits (right now he really likes watermelon and raspberries) spinach and kale and gut loaded superworms.

In the photo you can see the small brown spot pretty clearly. Please let me know if Im just being crazy and this is just normal shed or something. I work overnights and am at work right now but I'll take better pictures when I get home. His scales appear dull and blurry (for lack of a better term) on that right side. He also has some brown spots on his right knee that you may or may not be able to see clearly in the picture.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, sometimes early Y.F. can look like that but it could also just be off color shed area. Can you post pics of his mouth to show that area as well ? It's good that he's eating well, that's always a positive sign at any time. Your treatment regimen sounds really good, I would stop the baths though, even with betadine water can spread Y.F. You can just dab the betadine and chlorhex on that area and apply the Lamisil or silver cream after it dries. The coco fiber may be a bad choice right now, if nothing else it can stick to that spot while the cream is on it. A couple other suggestions, put the long tube uvb on the same side his heat bulb and switch from spinach to greens like mustard, turnip, collard, arugula, dandelion and some squash. Kale is good but spinach is high in oxalates.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I agree, your plan of action sounds good & thorough, too. Being proactive with the anti-fungal
creams & silver cream will hopefully help. It does look somewhat like yellow fungus to some
extent. I do see the the area on the knee you are referring to.
If you have time, definitely post more pictures of him along with his tank setup too.

Tracie

 

[ecr1992]

Thank you for the response!

I have added the pictures of the corners of his mouth. When he had this issue before I treated it by cleaning it daily with a chlorahex solution. They did resolve and go away then but have reappeared, he does have what looks like some yellow and possibly a raw spot on one side and then another crusty part on the other. If you try to lift or brush them away, you can see fresh pink skin underneath so I dont want to pick them off and hurt him.

Since posting I did give him a betadine soak so I will discontinue that. I also thoroughly cleaned all of his belongings (food bowl, water bowl, rock perch), disinfected his tank with chlorahex and took out the coconut fiber and threw it away. I replaced it with just paper towels for now to keep everything cleaner and easier to maintain. I kept his rock perch/hide out and have replaced it with a cardboard box hide, which he actually seems to like more than the other one.

He took a big drink that I saw today, and also ate a full salad of kale, raspberries and his wormies.
Thank you for all of those suggestions I will make the changes to his diet and his lighting asap.

I got hygrometers, and on his hot side the humidity is 16% at 96.8 degrees (I read that upping the temp in the tank can help fight the infection?), but on the cool side I realized his temp was at only 71 degrees, and the humidity was at 90%! After turning on another lamp, it went up to 76 degrees and the humidity fell to 67%. I did have the hygrometer close to his bathing bowl, so I am wondering if that is why it was originally so high.

 

[ecr1992]

Thank you Drachea613 for your response!

I have been doing a lot of (disheartening) research, and I actually work small animal ER (very rarely we treat pocket pets and even more rarely reptiles, however, my doctors are also doing a lot of research as well)

I am on night shifts at the moment so when I get home I will upload clearer pictures of both Caesar(the dragon in question) and of what I've done to his enclosure for now, I will see if I can find one of what it looked like before.

I do have his long UVB in a fixture with a plastic covering and I am reading now that the UVB will not get through, so I will be removing that when I get home and also following ADHDs advice and moving it to his basking side.

 

[Terry15]

Mystic he’s 5 years old, looks like he may have some YF on the bottom of his foot. He is shedding, I wanted to bath him to get the shed off, but realized that’s not a good idea. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow and post them in a new thread.
Hopefully it’s not YF.