Re: Bearded Dragon Skin Lesion

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 16 May 2014 13:42:39 GMT

I agree with Catherine - CANV has to be high on the differential list as that looks more unpleasant than simply retained shed. Other possibilities are deep pyoderma and neoplasia (SCC is not uncommon facially in beardies).

A negative culture doesn't rule out bacterial involvement, in fact given the wide range of bacteria and fungi on reptile skin a negative culture is odd though may be affected by treatment prior to sampling? Devriesea agamarum is one possibility given lesion location. This is a bacteria that is usually carried asymptomatically by beardies only causing facial dermatitis in other species following contact, however it can lead to clinical disease in beardies if the skin barrier is breached by injury. D. agamarum is very difficult to culture too.

I would opt to biopsy this for histopath plus culture (ideally with 'normal' skin biopsy also harvested and exotic-friendly pathologist used). Many pyodermas have a good prognosis but CANV and neoplasia have guarded-poor prognosis.

Marie

Re: Bearded Dragon Skin Lesion

CatherineThomas — Mon, 12 May 2014 14:54:34 GMT

I'd be suspicious of CANV, often called yellow fungus disease. For diagnosis you need a biopsy for histopath to identify the fungal hyphae. Articles I have found about it all talk about using itraconazole and topical miconazole, but mortality rates are reasonably high. It can also affect organs such as the liver which makes it more difficult to treat. I've not actually treated one so maybe Marie or someone else with more experience will be along with more advice.