Severe Issue w/Major Beardie Leg Injury

[Kristubs]

Hello. I purchased a baby bearded dragon from the internet and he arrived without half of his hind leg. I have been caring for him for a few weeks now and it appears that his leg might have an infection. Should I be worried or will this go away? Is it even really an infection? Please help! I love this little guy! His name is Brock by the way. I will attach some images as well.

Thank You,

Kristubs


IMAGES:

 

[AHBD]

Hi there ! Oh wow, poor little thing ! Did you buy it that way ? Please explain the condition it was in when you received it....that is quite severe, and there's a possibility that it's yellow fungus. It may also just be a difficult shed, which can happen where there is an injury. For now you can put unpasteurized honey on it....it acts as an antimicrobial, antifungal. But you will need a vet scraping to determine if it's Y.F., that way a drug may be prescribed. Voriconazole is the type for Y.F., but it should only be given if it's a positive diagnosis. If you use honey on it, be sure to not leave any loose crickets in the tank, and also no loose substrate....just paper towels.

You might want to change your title to get more views as to the true nature of the problem, something like " leg wound after severe injury". I hope your little one will pull through, but it is pretty serious. All the best for a happy outcome !

 

[Kristubs]

Hello, thank you for the reply. Yes I did purchase him that way, although it was without my knowledge. He was meant to arrive as a perfectly healthy dragon but someone messed up somewhere down the line and sent me this guy. I wasn't about to get rid of him seeing as how he was a nice little guy and I felt deserved a good home. When I received him the leg seemed to be completely healed over as if this injury was from long ago.

 

[CooperDragon]

Oh man, poor Brock! I can't tell if that's YF or not. AHBDs advice is good. If you have a good reptile vet or veterinary school in the area, I suggest bringing him in for a visit to have that checked out.

 

[Kristubs]

I've already scheduled an appointment with my local vet tomorrow morning, will post updates here

Thanks for all the replies and good wishes!

 

[Brezzy99]

Poor baby. Hopefully the vet can help him.

 

[CooperDragon]

Great, please let us know how it goes. We're all rooting for him!

 

[Kristubs]

Thanks you guys. I really do appreciate the positive responses

 

[sue09]

How did things go at the vets? hope all went well and your little Brock is soon feeling better Sue

 

[Kristubs]

So the tip of his gimp leg is necrotic. Brock has been prescribed an antibiotic called Enrofloxacin. He is to be given a .01 mls dosage every 24 hours. He also needs to be soaked everyday for at least 10 minutes to help promote shedding of the necrotic portion. I also need to clean his environment more than usual because you wouldn't want him dragging his effected leg through any fecal matter. I haven't had the vet take a sample of the skin yet, I'm going to wait and see if this treatment is going to help. I just have to keep an eye on it daily to see if the problem worsens, persists or gets better. Based off the results I will go from there. I'm hoping that the daily baths (which I have already been giving him) plus the antibiotics will help get rid of this infection.

Thanks again for all the good wishes, really do appreciate it and I know Brock does too!

 

[CooperDragon]

OK, so it sounds like there is a good game plan in place now. I'm hopeful that this will help clear everything up. I suggest getting some probiotic (I use bene-bac gel, but there are other options) and giving him a dose ~6hrs after the antibiotic is given (or next morning if it's given at night), and continue for a while after the treatment ends. This will help replenish the beneficial bacteria in his gut which may be destroyed by the antibiotic.

 

[Kristubs]

I will look into getting some bene-bac gel. It is very difficult to orally give him the dosage. He doesn't want to open his mouth, I might just have to resort to taking him in every 3 days for injections. His beard started to flair up for the first time and I'm not trying to stress him out during a recovery. Also I'm not even sure how much of the dosage I was able to administer considering that some of it wound up on his beard. :roll:

 

[CooperDragon]

It really does take a lot of patience to force feed them anything. It sometimes takes me an hour to feed a 10ml syringe of food to my little guy, and that's with him opening his mouth to cough regularly. Apparently a lot of them like the taste of bene-bac so if you put a little bit at a time on his nose he may lick it off on his own. I've found that if it gets warm it kind of falls all over the place. A trick I use is to cut the tip off of a qtip and paste the dose along the handle of the qtip and let him lick it off a little at a time. It seems to stay in place better when it's on the handle of the qtip rather than sticking out of the bene-bac syringe.

 

[sammmycakes]

as sad as it is that they sent you this when you thought you were ordering a healthy baby beardie, i'm very happy he ended up with you!

good luck with everything, i'll be following along to see his progress!

if it ends up being yellow fungus i'm also dealing with it with one of mine right now,
theres some really knowledgeable people on here that can give you tons of advice!
some things are posted in my thread here
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=204750

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Brock is very lucky he ended up with you though, poor guy!
It sounds like you have a good game plan now. The Enroflaxin (Baytril) should help out with any infection.
I highly recommend using the probiotics for him to keep his system bacteria more balanced.
I hope he is feeling better soon.
Is he eating anything or are you getting some food into him with a syringe now?

Tracie