How to prevent the spread of yellow fungus.

[Noella]

For $65, I lost my Baby. :*( It's still hard for me. But I can't beat myself up over it. I know she was happy and had love.

 

[jarich]

That's terrible, I'm really sorry to hear that.

 

[Noella]

Allie was worth more than her salary. She was a citrus dragon and according to some people on another site said that she was the most expensive dragon I could ever have. Females are more. I checked around some breeders who breed citrus dragons and they come around $500.00.

 

[diegothediggy]

Regardless of her bloodline or price she was a beautiful well loved beardie n wot happened to her cud have been avoided. So ppl in this world r selfish and dnt deserve the level of control they have in their jobs. but ita gud 2 hear ur gettin a newbie soon cant wait

 

[Noella]

The breeder and I were talking about a red one but she's not for sale. Breeder for next year. She said that she has plenty of yellow babies that are amazing and I'll have the first pick or one will pick me.

 

[ariel.e.best]

Thanks for all the responses sorry I hadn't gotten back. I will try boiling and baking the items in the enclosure. I also have an industrial strength janitorial fungicide so ill use that on the surfaces in my home.

 

[smokejunky]

Soooooo Yellow Fungus....
Yellow fungus is no bueno. Of course it's a fungus and not a virus and is found in the natural environment sparingly. Once yellow fungus is in a facility/property/colony/ etc. it is next to impossible to eliminate.
Breeders have had to totally move to new facilities and buy all new equipment. No amount of sterilizing a room and equipment will get rid of it.

Once on a bearded dragon the fungus attacks tissues both internally and externally causing tissue deterioration /necropsy. There is no med that cures yellow fungus. There are treatments that can help to reduce it and there have been a few claims of meds and combinations of meds that "cure it". However, to my knowledge none of these actually work.

YF can be internal or external. Often times it is found around the dragon's anus. Sometimes it can be treated to a degree that reduces the necropsy but again, it can not be cured. Luckily YF is fairly rare, I haven't seen it in the message boards or as an issue for several months.

Breeders seem to get the basics of YF due to it's seriousness which has helped to eliminate it's proliferation.

Just as eating fireflies may kill a dragon there are a few serious threats to out there. Bringing up YF tends to panic people. Suddenly, posts of a single freckled scale or a tiny piece of shed get posted as potentially being YF. As with any animal, when something develops that you personally wouldn't want on your own body, you consider taking it to a qualified vet. Sometimes dragons get burnt from sitting too close to basking lights and their scales end up looking YF-ish. I encourage everyone who thinks they have a dragon with YF to wear gloves and isolate the dragon and ALL the equipment associated with it. Unless a vet provides a response dragon ownders who believe they have YF should not have other dragons near the same equipment.

It has been said that there is a connection between using Albon and Yellow Fungus. Some have noted that people who use albon end up having dragons with Y.F. To my knowledge this is still unestablished as a fact but in my opinion is cause for concern.

 

[jarich]

Soooooo Yellow Fungus....
Yellow fungus is no bueno. Of course it's a fungus and not a virus and is found in the natural environment sparingly. Once yellow fungus is in a facility/property/colony/ etc. it is next to impossible to eliminate.
Breeders have had to totally move to new facilities and buy all new equipment. No amount of sterilizing a room and equipment will get rid of it.

Once on a bearded dragon the fungus attacks tissues both internally and externally causing tissue deterioration /necropsy. There is no med that cures yellow fungus. There are treatments that can help to reduce it and there have been a few claims of meds and combinations of meds that "cure it". However, to my knowledge none of these actually work.

YF can be internal or external. Often times it is found around the dragon's anus. Sometimes it can be treated to a degree that reduces the necropsy but again, it can not be cured. Luckily YF is fairly rare, I haven't seen it in the message boards or as an issue for several months.

Breeders seem to get the basics of YF due to it's seriousness which has helped to eliminate it's proliferation.

Just as eating fireflies may kill a dragon there are a few serious threats to out there. Bringing up YF tends to panic people. Suddenly, posts of a single freckled scale or a tiny piece of shed get posted as potentially being YF. As with any animal, when something develops that you personally wouldn't want on your own body, you consider taking it to a qualified vet. Sometimes dragons get burnt from sitting too close to basking lights and their scales end up looking YF-ish. I encourage everyone who thinks they have a dragon with YF to wear gloves and isolate the dragon and ALL the equipment associated with it. Unless a vet provides a response dragon ownders who believe they have YF should not have other dragons near the same equipment.

It has been said that there is a connection between using Albon and Yellow Fungus. Some have noted that people who use albon end up having dragons with Y.F. To my knowledge this is still unestablished as a fact but in my opinion is cause for concern.

What is your source for this information Smokey, because it seems a little outdated.

While it is contagious, its only somewhat contagious without injury or immune deficiency. In one study where they tried to infect healthy chameleons with it, only about half caught the infection (12 of 20), and of those most had to have abrasions to the skin before the infection occurred. Of those without direct skin contact (in other words by simply being in the same room), only 1 in 20 was infected. For this reason, if one has a single animal with it, that animal should be removed from the house entirely as soon as possible. However sterilizing equipment is very possible and fairly easily done (sorry I did post the wrong temperature before for sterilizing, I should have said over 38 C, not 35C)

The etiological agent for yellow fungus is CANV (in bearded dragons it seems to be N. guarri specifically, as it seems to be a species specific infection) As for Albon, I would guess the connection to be that unhealthy animals (who are given Albon as treatment for other things) seem to fall prey to the fungus readily as compared to animals that are healthy and have fully functioning immune systems.

However, there is very good evidence that voriconazole cures the disease completely. Even itraconazole was effective in curing some cases in the past, though it seems only in around a quarter of the cases. If you would like to read up more on voriconazole as a treatment here are some articles for you (sorry I couldnt find a link to the full article for the last two online anywhere).

http://mmy.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/6/880.short

http://jcm.asm.org/content/51/10/3338.full

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...sCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

http://huveta.hu/handle/10832/1059

 

[smokejunky]

My source is Carolina classics and blood bank dragons

 

[jarich]

Sorry, I think maybe that last response came across as more challenging than I meant it to be. I need to start reading my text more before posting.

I would guess those breeders you mentioned have vets that treat their dragons whenever they have to deal with this sort of stuff probably. Guessing their vets would have knowledge of these newer treatments.