Recurring growths in mouth, vet is stumped

[PhoenixtheDragon]

My vet and the pathologist are stumped as to what is going on with Phoenix, so I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else has had this problem...

Phoenix is 3 years old, I've had her since she was a baby. In February of 2016 she yawned and we noticed a giant (like the size of a grape) growth in her mouth. She didn't give us any indication that she was ill. She was eating and acting fairly normal. The vet removed the growth and then everything went back to normal. The growth was biopsied, but came back as benign... I can't remember what the pathologist called it but was something like "hyper-something tissue". Basically nothing specific they thought I should be worried about.

In February of 2017 we noticed she was bleeding from the corners of her mouth. We checked in her mouth and sure enough there were two new growths on either side along the top gums, pushing down on the bottom gums causing the bottom to bleed. We tried an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic and chlorhexidine swabs to try and shrink the growths but neither worked so they were surgically removed again and sent to the pathologist again.

And yesterday we noticed her snapping her mouth open and closed like she had something stuck in her mouth. We checked her mouth and the growths are there again. I'm currently waiting to find out the results of the most recent biopsy.

My husbandry is spot on according to the vet, and I follow the guidelines recommended by this board. Has anyone else experienced this? Any insights?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, I don't have any helpful info to offer but I wanted to say how sorry I am that you + Phoenix are going through this. Something abnormal going on for sure, must be so frustrating that it keeps coming back. Hopefully you'll get some answers....but I wanted to send best wishes to you guys + Phoenix. Maybe Drache613 can give her opinion, she's usually on late evening.

 

[PhoenixtheDragon]

So the results are back and apparently the pathologist is calling these "traumatic lesions" which is fairly common in lizards. And she may be chewing on something she shouldn't be or chewed something in the past she shouldn't have and now they keep popping up. I don't notice her chewing anything, ever, except her food. I guess the good news is she is otherwise healthy and it isn't affecting her appetite or anything.

Now I'm waiting for the vet to look into it more and see if there is anything we can do about it.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's good news. Hopefully they won't cause a problem going forward. What is her main diet?

Is the vet concerned about the area becoming infected? You could use some MaxiGuard gel or some manuka honey on the area to help keep the area cleaner and help protect it from infection.

 

[EllenD]

This actually happens inside of human's mouths, that's where I've heard of it, but I've never run into a Beardie with the problem. Some people that constantly bite down on the inside of their cheeks because their molars or wisdom teeth have no room have this happen, and some people actually just have a horrible habit of biting the insides of their mouths constantly. As a result of the constant biting in the same spots the cells that make up the tissue in those areas actually changes and basically grows into areas of, well, overgrown tissue for a lack of a better way of putting it. I don't know anyone that has this issue, but I did see a few of these cases while doing my internship.

I don't know of anything horrible that can result in Beardies from this, I know in human beings they worry about the areas in the mouth becoming malignant, as cancer literally means "abnormal cell growth", but I think they have to continually do this over a very long period of time. Usually the cause of them doing this is removed, such as the wisdom teeth being pulled. I'd bet your Beardie is chewing on something he shouldn't be, which is what's causing the trauma to his mouth. Do you have any fake/plastic plants in his enclosure? Beardies tend to chew on those quite often...

 

[PhoenixtheDragon]

Diet mostly consists of some combination of collard greens or baby bok choy, butternut squash, zucchini and bell and sometimes carrots or cilantro. She doesn't have any fake plants right now and hasn't for the past 1.5-2 years. She doesn't really have anything​ in her set up she could get her mouth around to chew, nor have I ever seen her chew anything. When she sheds on her head I've seen her rub against her log. But the growths are on the top of her mouth where her teeth are towards the the back of her mouth. She takes metacam and has chlorhexidine swabs daily. The vet hasn't mentioned anything about being worried about infections. My vet is going to research more to find out if there's anything we can do besides keep doing surgery when they get too big.

 

[CooperDragon]

That diet sounds pretty good and nothing there should be causing this. It could just be genetic as Ellen mentioned. The Chlorhexidine should keep her mouth clean and help prevent the area from becoming infected.