Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so my girlfriend bought a bearded dragon from a company a week ago friday. she had her tank set up a week before she got her dragon to make sure temps were good. temps during the day were upper 70s to 80 on cool side, and upper 80s warm side with the basking spot that ranged from 100-110. at night the temps havent been below 70. she didnt get a little guy, but got a good sized one of about 7-8 inches to start with. when she got it i had her pick out one that was alert. she did that. the day after she bought it, it ate about 8 medium crix no prob. but since then in the last 6 days its eaten one cricket, and a couple bits of greens that she tricked into eating. she soaked it once and it drank from the container while in there. she also mist it lightly and it licks the beads of water off its face. the lizard basks all day and sleeps in its rock cave at night. is alert and watches anyone in the room. the whole not eating thing has been baffeling me though. i no beardies are quite pigs.well yesterday she noticed a few red spots on his leg. me not looking at it thought it was just some brighter colors coming out after being warmed up. well today there are red spots all over its one leg and they have now spread along his back, another hind leg and on his head. i dont think they are mites (again i havent been able to inspect it, just looking at an email she sent which i will include the pic for you. if you can save the pic and then use your own picture viewer and zoom in, you can really see the red spots on other parts of the body a lot better). it almost looks like some sort of scale rot or something you see in snakes. i dont know, if you guys could look at the pic and tell me what you think that would be greatly appreciated. thanks

P.S. the store she got it at, the kid that was showing them to her was pulling them out of the tank by the tals and dangling them to show if they were male or female. AHHHHHh if i had been there.......!

here are some more pics of the red scales that have been appearing on him. they have just exploded all over this saturday. might be the reason he hasnt been eating, some kind of bacteria infection?

First off, I have never seen or heard of anything like this before and to me it sure looks like blood. I would take him to the vet, although I'm not confidant that they will be much help. I would also raise his basking spot temp. to 110-115.

Please don't take my following thoughts the wrong way. I was thinking that he didn't have the spots when you got him and after only a week something must have changed to cause them. I'm sure it's not temp, lighting etc. I feel it must be some kind of allergic reaction. Where are you getting the crickets? At the pet store you got the dragon from? If this is true, then the food is probably not the problem although I would still suspect it and change suppliers just to be safe. Also be sensitive to what you are feeding the crickets especially after this whole pet food recall thing. Remember that what the dragon's food eats the dragon eats too.

What is the thing that he is sitting on? It looks like it has moss or something on it. I would immediately get rid of that and get a piece of sandblasted grapevine and disinfect it with the Zoo Med Terrarium Furniture Cleaner. It's called Wipe Out 2. I would also immediately get rid of whatever substrate you are using and change to paper towels. I would also disinfect the cage. Do not use glass plus or other cleaners, these are toxic to reptiles. You can use a mild bleach solution, or Zoo Med Wipe Out 1 for this. I would rinse very well. Water and food bowls should also be cleaned and disinfected and rinsed well also. Remember the dragon will lick anything and everything so if he is out of his cage he is at risk if you use bug killers, etc. Also consider toxic fumes. Paint or cleaning fumes maybe?

I don't think this is a scale rot or fungus. Just seems to have appeared too rapidly and spread too fast. I have researched this on various sites but can find no similar syptoms.

I would soak him again, 15 mins. or so and look closely for and mites, etc. floating on the water.

It definitely looks like blood is seeping between the scales, or underneath them. ONly a couple things I can think of that could cause that. Scale rot can cause it, but unless the tank is unusually moist or humid, or very dirty )or they were on the dragon originally) I don't see it being scale rot.

The next thing that comes to mind is mites or ticks. These can cause bleeding under the scales. Though it is funny these spots would appear so quickly and not be noticed at time of purchase. Unless the mites were already in the house and went ecstatic at having a new food source show up.

The other thing that cames to mind are crickets left in the cage over night. These can prey upon sleeping dragons and leave wounds all over the body. However, crickets tend to attack the softer areas of the body such as the eyes.

It certainly could be some other form or parasite, ring worm perhaps? Fungus could be the cause too, though I think that is more unlikely but I could be wrong.

I suggest tackle the easy things first. Check humidity in the tank. If above 60% then it has to be dropped to below 60% (under 50% is better). Remove large water dishes, wood shavings or mulch and other moisture holding substances. Check for loose crickets in the cage, remove them as well. Soak the dragon in water to check for drowned mites (as these injuries seem to be near the arm pit, you may have to use deeper than normal water to soak your dragon. Don't leave him alone, as you will need to ensure he doesn't get too tired and drown)

If none of the above possible causes prove to be the cause, take your dragon to a vet. A vet may have to do a biopsy of the affected area to determine what is causing it. (note: a biopsy is just a removal of small piece of the affected area.)
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PHLdyPayne

yeah, they werent there at time of purchase. and she has only had the bearded for a week. no reptiles before that so i dont think mites would have been at her house already. i will have her take it out and inspect it closely but doesnt appear to be mites. the tank is used, but she cleaned everything with a mild bleach solution and it rinsed really good and let it dry in the cali sun. there is no moss in the cage like someone suggested, its just the design on the rock cave that she bought at the pet store. she is buying crix at a dif local then where she got the bearded so she will stiop that. the bearded is being kept on sand so i know the humidity isnt a prob. i told her about that before she set up the tank.........idk, its just odd. and its affecting his appetite since he hasnt eaten except that first day.......more ideas would be great. thanks

Mites could have been in the sand. I had a local breeder tell me that all his dragons got mites from sand bought at home depot. I would never use sand for dragons under 12" anyway.

Those are mites, no doubt about it.

We had a dragon from a pet store who had mites. (Never-the-less, we do NOT support this store anymore.) At first we tried to use Zoo-Med's Mite Off, but that wasn't killing anything. Someone suggested for us to buy Natural Chemistry's Reptile Relief instead because they had had success with it. We were skeptical so we tried an experiment. We took a cricket and sprayed it with the Zoo-Med Mite Off. Nothing happened. We took a different cricket and sprayed it with Reptile Relief. It died within 5 seconds. We were convinced.

So for the next two weeks (she had about as mites as your dragon does); we sprayed our dragon once a day from head to tail with Natural Chemistry's Reptile Relief every three days. On the fourth day we soaked her in warm water up to her neck and tried to pick off as many mites as we could find. We used a sewing needle but with extreme caution as to not poke the dragon too deeply or to have her squirm around and accidently poke herself. Some of the mites drowned while in the water. We dried her off and then bathed her in Betadine to clean any of the open bite wounds from the mites so that they didn't become infected. The next day we started over again.

We kept her by herself through the whole process. She was in a 29 gallon tank with no substrate and no furnishings. We cleaned out and sanitized her tank everyday to stop the spread of more. We used a 10 to 1 mixture of water to bleach to ensure that everything was dead. Make sure that you air out the enclosure thouroughly before putting your dragon back into it. Bleach fumes can be toxic. Eventually the mites disappeared and haven't returned.

We wish you the best of luck with this. Keep at it and you will win the fight.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Mites.html

If it is mites and not an allergy, there's lots of options for getting rid of mites. Check out the snake forms as snake get mite far more commonly than bearded dragons. I just had an out-break with my snakes.

First and foremost is that you want to wash the cage and stuff like everyone's suggested. I'd personally say use higher bleach contrate and just rinse more. But that's just me. Also when bathing the dragon use a tooth brush to scrub the dragon as it will help in getting some of the mite off more than soaking alone.

As for treating mites, the best stuff on the market it called Prevent-a-mite(have not personally used it). Most snake breeders live and die by this stuff. If they trust it with their $2,000 snake, then it's safe to use on a $65 dragon (typical pet store price). Just follow directions. Only draw back is that you have to order it.
Some other things you can use is this stuff is this stuff by JurassiPet called Jurassi-mite and that's worked great for me. You can get it from Pet-Smart.
But if you need/want something now, then head over to Wal-Mart and get some Equate bed lice spray. It's like $4 a can with all the active ingredients. This one I have not personally tried, but quite a few snake owners have.
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Glutany- German Giant Mix)
0.1.0 Okeetee Corn (Okatee)
1.1.0 Spotted Python (Hotdog and Shoelace)

If it is mites and you treat for it everything is going to have to be treated. Your friend is going to have to take out the sand, if she still wishes to use it then have her rinse it really well and then bake it to be used after the mites are gone. (I do not use sand for my substrate but if she insists to keep useing it, every time she buys sand she needs to rinse and bake it no matter where she buys it from.)
Until she will have to treat the dragon and all cage furnishings and the cage as mentioned b4. Have her use newpaper for substrate while treating and after treatment is over clean everything again.
The Prevent a Mite stuff I have not used myself either but have read and talked to many people about it and yes it is the best and safest stuff to use. It actually stays active for like 30 days so it keeps killing the little buggers. Spray the cage, the furnishings and the dragon with it if you decide to go that route!

Good luck!

M
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Mike & Wendy

1.0.0 Siberian Husky
0.0.1 RTB
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.1.0 Leopard Gecko
1.0.0 Beardie
3.1.0 Future Herper's