Exposed pink flesh at hip joint, painful, possible growth?

[PatsyB]

Another product that is even better than using neosporin is Curad's Silver Solution.

 

[Birdey]

Hi there, I looked at your pictures. I think I see bone, but even if there isn't it looks bad. If you haven't already what is your setup? And how high is the wattage, what color are the bulbs, do you turn them off at night? It could be a burn. I would recommend this website:

http://www.bug-de-lite.com/store/

And then go to Send Contact Message on the right side of the page. You send them an email and they can help you with what you should do with Cricket and give advice on what to put on it. Then you order. They have been great, friendly, nice, and don't try to sell you, which is good because I don't like that, I don't think anybody does. Include pictures, I think you can do that. I hope this helps you and Cricket.

 

[Canicke]

what's her status?

 

[dugost]

Hi there, I looked at your pictures. I think I see bone, but even if there isn't it looks bad. If you haven't already what is your setup? And how high is the wattage, what color are the bulbs, do you turn them off at night? It could be a burn. I would recommend this website:

http://www.bug-de-lite.com/store/

And then go to Send Contact Message on the right side of the page. You send them an email and they can help you with what you should do with Cricket and give advice on what to put on it. Then you order. They have been great, friendly, nice, and don't try to sell you, which is good because I don't like that, I don't think anybody does. Include pictures, I think you can do that. I hope this helps you and Cricket.

I really appreciate the recommendation but Cricket isn't suffering from a burn and there's (thankfully!) no bone visible. Someone suggested to us that it was most likely caught shed that was pulled off too soon and opened a wound. To answer your questions about lights, though, this is what we have for a setup:

A UVB bulb (10.0, 13 W CFL) and basking light (50 W, frosted white), both ZooMed, side-by-side at one end. These are on all day and evening, there's a distance of 7" or so between the bottom of the lamp shade and her flat basking rocks. I used a digital kitchen thermometer (best I could do on a budget) to measure the heat and found it to be 115 F just below the basking light and 79 F at the rock surface. So her body is getting something between those ranges while basking. We also have an infrared heat lamp (I think, looks like a black light) that we turn on when the other lights go out at night, as needed.

what's her status?

Thank you for asking about Cricket. I've been settling in after a move (to her home, she stayed put ) and she's been doing better. The rawness has gone away, it's still pink but it's thickening up some, and she's shed that area a couple of times at least (or scabbing perhaps). But she doesn't seem in pain, it's stayed clean and doesn't bleed, and it doesn't appear to be infected. I've been mixing water with an antibiotic cream to thin it for dripping over the area. She sometimes flips out but I don't think it's from pain as she's acted the same way after I've dripped fresh aloe vera juice on her other back leg with built up shed. That's to give it some moisture as we've been avoiding baths deep enough to get on her wound, just enough for her to drink and sometimes poop.

She has been acting weird, though, glass surfing and going stir crazy, it seems. I'm not sure what's stressing her out but as soon as we let her out to hang out with us she calms right down. I don't know if it's related to the wound, if it's the newspaper we put down (she had reptile sand before), or some other stress. Nose to tail she's about 16" and I think our tank is of a size that's suitable for her, 50 gallon I believe (48" wide x 12.75" deep x 19" high). We're simply letting her out more often, hoping it will bring down her stress levels.

 

[Birdey]

I'm glad Cricket is doing better! BTW the black light can hurt their eye's(actually any colored light will hurt their eye's)...she probably doesn't even need it, unless your house drops below 60 or so. Other than that sounds like your doing great! I hope she gets even better! I'm not sure what the surfing could be from...Mine did that for a while and now she has stopped, sometimes there are confusing...But so lovable!

 

[dugost]

I'm glad Cricket is doing better! BTW the black light can hurt their eye's(actually any colored light will hurt their eye's)...she probably doesn't even need it, unless your house drops below 60 or so. Other than that sounds like your doing great! I hope she gets even better! I'm not sure what the surfing could be from...Mine did that for a while and now she has stopped, sometimes there are confusing...But so lovable!

Yes, I never expected a scaly, cold-blooded little creature to grow on me but she has. I spoil her now. The black light is very dim, just a slight purple glow from the filament in the globe (it's not one of those CFL jobbies). We only turn it on for a bit after a bath and she feels chilled or all night when it's chilly in the house (with winter here the temps can go down quite a bit overnight in the house).

I think the glass surfing is due to her leg. Putting antibiotic on it initiates the behaviour quite often and then she seems fine if I let her out of her tank right after its application. I think she's trying to "get away" from it. I had a cat do that once too after applying an ointment. He'd run around trying to get away from it so I wonder if Cricket does the same. Maybe she does it the rest of the time to get away from itching or pain, feeling like it's something brought on by being in her tank and needing to escape? Who knows? I'm hoping it will subside once she's all healed!

 

[PatsyB]

Bearded dragons have a gland on top of their head that helps them sense light and heat. This glad helps them find heat when they are cold, which is why we heat them from above and not with a UTH. They also see shadows with it so they know if a predator is coming from overhead. Any kind of colored light at night is going to create a shadow and they are going to constantly think they are being hunted. The best kind of heat bulb for night is a CHE.

 

[dugost]

Bearded dragons have a gland on top of their head that helps them sense light and heat. This glad helps them find heat when they are cold, which is why we heat them from above and not with a UTH. They also see shadows with it so they know if a predator is coming from overhead. Any kind of colored light at night is going to create a shadow and they are going to constantly think they are being hunted. The best kind of heat bulb for night is a CHE.

Thanks! I had no idea. We're just using the lights that came with her when we adopted her from a vet assistant. I'll look into a CHE!

 

[dugost]

I thought I should post here in case someone was seeing similar symptoms with their beardie. I had many other photos of her legs, wound and growths if anyone may find them helpful.

I took Cricket to the vet but the prognosis was bad and she had to be euthanized recently. The vet explained that she most likely had been living with a fungal infection for a very long time. We were her third owners so we can't compare her behaviour or health while she was with us to when she was first cared for but her lethargy, lack of muscle mass, and weak appetite were due to her poor health, possibly from the infection spreading to the internal organs as well. We don't know for sure if it was a fungal infection but the vet said all of her energy was being used by her body to fight off an infection and she was steadily going downhill. No tests were done but the side effects of meds to combat an infection like that would have likely done her in anyway.

The missing scales on her leg were like the result of underlying infection, and the area simply would not heal. A similar "scab" or growth later appeared on her other rear leg. With time the result would have been the same: the surface growth would come off to expose the skin underneath. Poor Cricket was experiencing pain or, at best, constant discomfort. I feel rotten that we let it go as long as we did despite trying to help her by keeping it clean and applying antibiotic cream. It made sense to end her suffering and sadly we had to say goodbye to her. Her remains were donated to a vet college for study so maybe some good will come of it.

If anyone with a pet showing similar symptoms comes across this post, please don't do what we did by hoping your efforts to treat the open patch of skin yourself will work. It likely won't so seeking medical attention ASAP is important. Our vet said Cricket likely would not have survived even if we had brought her in at the outset of the symptoms but that may not be the case for a beardie with a new infection. I hope this is a rare thing for others to experience as it was painful to see Cricket go through this and to say goodbye to our little friend.

Thank you to everyone for your advice and kind words.

 

[PatsyB]

So sorry That was wonderful of you to donate her remains to for education. This is the only way we find out more about them.

If you have other reptiles or planning on getting another one, make sure you sanitize everything that Cricket was in contact with. Infections like this can spread between a colony.

 

[dugost]

So sorry That was wonderful of you to donate her remains to for education. This is the only way we find out more about them.

If you have other reptiles or planning on getting another one, make sure you sanitize everything that Cricket was in contact with. Infections like this can spread between a colony.

Thanks so much, PatsyB. I doubt we'll get another one any time soon but we've thrown away most of what was in her tank. Her rocks will be put in our garden.

We'll be selling the tank but only after we give it a very thorough cleaning and sanitize the hell out of it. We wouldn't want it to spread to someone else's pet.

 

[Lindsey-Star Duhe]

I thought I should post here in case someone was seeing similar symptoms with their beardie. I had many other photos of her legs, wound and growths if anyone may find them helpful.

I took Cricket to the vet but the prognosis was bad and she had to be euthanized recently. The vet explained that she most likely had been living with a fungal infection for a very long time. We were her third owners so we can't compare her behaviour or health while she was with us to when she was first cared for but her lethargy, lack of muscle mass, and weak appetite were due to her poor health, possibly from the infection spreading to the internal organs as well. We don't know for sure if it was a fungal infection but the vet said all of her energy was being used by her body to fight off an infection and she was steadily going downhill. No tests were done but the side effects of meds to combat an infection like that would have likely done her in anyway.

The missing scales on her leg were like the result of underlying infection, and the area simply would not heal. A similar "scab" or growth later appeared on her other rear leg. With time the result would have been the same: the surface growth would come off to expose the skin underneath. Poor Cricket was experiencing pain or, at best, constant discomfort. I feel rotten that we let it go as long as we did despite trying to help her by keeping it clean and applying antibiotic cream. It made sense to end her suffering and sadly we had to say goodbye to her. Her remains were donated to a vet college for study so maybe some good will come of it.

If anyone with a pet showing similar symptoms comes across this post, please don't do what we did by hoping your efforts to treat the open patch of skin yourself will work. It likely won't so seeking medical attention ASAP is important. Our vet said Cricket likely would not have survived even if we had brought her in at the outset of the symptoms but that may not be the case for a beardie with a new infection. I hope this is a rare thing for others to experience as it was painful to see Cricket go through this and to say goodbye to our little friend.

Thank you to everyone for your advice and kind words.

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I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Poor honey. What a wonderful memorial you have.