periocular lesion in a bearded dragon

Re: periocular lesion in a bearded dragon

Sara Ramsey — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 22:44:56 GMT

Thanks for the advice. The owner cancelled the revisit as said the eye was better! (Typical!) But I've put a plan of action in the file and will call tomorrow to see how much " better" it is. The power of hypromellose ! ?

Re: periocular lesion in a bearded dragon

Gerbil — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 23:41:28 GMT

Im would biopsy straight away. Another disease to rule out is canv which is a primary systemic fungal infection of bearded dragons usually diagnosed by biopsy. A husbandry check is a good idea, some mercury vapour bulbs have caused neoplastic changes. I would be giving antibiotic eye drops, meloxicam for pain relief and recommending early full thickness biopsy in a case like this. All of the above differentials may be elucidated by histopathology and this obviously looks already to be a chronic lesion so I would get on with a full thickness biopsy in a case like this

Re: periocular lesion in a bearded dragon

Marie Kubiak — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 19:30:47 GMT

Hi,

common causes are:

local parasitic irritation (errant snake mites like eye folds)

Localised infection (bacterial/fungal)

Localised trauma (inflicted by companion, foreign body, inappropriate thermal/UVB exposure - make sure UVB is raised above the lizard at all times, even when basking on elevated structures)

Self-trauma (any of the above primary causes leading to secondary rubbing resulting in increased shedding frequency which then causes excess rubbing and a vicious cycle develops)

Less common causes are:

squamous cell carcinoma

Microsporidiosis

Virally induced papillomas

Vitamin A intoxication/deficiency

Contact irritation (disinfectants, owner hand products)

Cleaning and gradually removing the shed is definitely the right first step, and once you have all that excess removed you can see what is left and decide whether cytology, biopsy or empirical treatment is appropriate (or even if it all looks normal and little else is needed). You can do cytology on removed skin but it may not be representative if old and opportunistic bacteria/fungi have settled into the dead tissue.

Marie