Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seven little hatchlings from last year caged together in a big aquarium. They all eat very well and seemed to be doing great. Growing and gaining wieght. However when I was cleaning the vage today I noticed on the smallest one of the group what I would describe as some form of mouth rot? Its on the outside rim of his mouth. Its kind of crusty with a tint of brown? He is the only one in the cage with it. Any ideas on what it is, what caused it, and how to get rid of it. I have never had this issue before. I have a pic and am going to try to post it later but any help would be great. Pheve, you seem to be the collared queen so I am hoping you have an answer for me. Thanks...Travis

This might be the cause. I've seen this problem before.
Randy

The laymen name given to this terrible malady that is hitting beardies and other reptiles. One medical name given to it is "Chrysosporium anamorph of Nannizziopsis vriesii". There are many types of fungus that can look/act alike, the only way to know for sure is a culture, this takes much longer to culture than the standard time. There is one researcher of exotic species that is doing extensive research into this particular fungus and we look forward to his information. I am in email contact with him and will share what he has to say as we receive the information.

There are some more links regarding the fungus at the end of this article. Photographs can be seen at the Pogona_Diseases Yahoo Group page. Since I have not been able find any Exotic Vets with info (most we have contacted have not seen, nor even heard of, it, or if seen in their practice did not know what it was. We are reprinting a few post from knowledgeable sources in the Herpetoculture Field who have had experience with it. Special thanks to them for sharing info that seems to allude most veterinarians. Hopefully this info shared with others, and their veterinarians, will help animals be recognized with this and treated properly.

Ronnie Buck - Herpetoculturist (http://www.australianbeardies.com)
AB Herps - Australian Beardies Herpetoculture
Captive Breeding and Top Quality Imports
Featuring the only Veterinarian Certified Import Program in the USA!

If this is the same fungi [the yellow fungus], it takes longer than the standard 10 days for the culture to grow so let your vet know. It's basically a yeast infection and should be treated as such. Gentamicin Sulfate ear drops for dogs has been used externally to help treat the skin but it also contains Dex, which is a steroid, and that can make fugal infections worse so keep that in mind.

Miconazole has been tried with little success but Tioconazole has a more successful record. If your vet doesn't have Tioconazole cream, go to the drug store and buy some Monistat1. The real threat with this infection is that yeast attacks the organs and more often than not, it reaches fatal stages before a successful diagnoses and treatment is derived. For this reason, you need to give oral meds as well as treating the skin.

Itraconazole is a very strong oral anti-fugal medication but one that works. There is a high risk to the kidneys and liver when using this drug so your vet probably won't write a script for it until the culture comes back. Another thing that might work that hasn't been tried yet (that I know of) is Slivadene cream. The silver SHOULD also kill fungi. One last thought... If the biopsies that were taken are pretty large, ask your vet for a 15ml bottle of Gentamicin Sulfate Ophthalmic solution 0.3% to treat the wounds with. This should not only fight off any infection but the enzymes work wonderfully to promote healing and may actually be beneficial in part of a treatment on the scales that were lost.

Ann aka beardielover333
I have been having some good results using lamisil and anitifungal cream for human use. I tried lotrimin, mycelex and several others. I spoke with the pharmacist at my local drugstore and she explained that there are many different types of antifungals that all work in a different way attacking and killing different types of fungi. The active antifungal in lamisil is terbinafine hydrochloride 1%, it is the only one that has turned the fungus black (I am assuming this means is it dying) and the yellow has not returned. This is my own personal experience and I am not certain it is a long term fix, I just know it seems to be working.

Peggy Magyar aka reptigranny
One of the best NATURAL antifungals is Tea Tree Oil, which is made from an Australian tree. Might be safer for the dragons than the chemical lamisil.

Cindy aka cindyslair
Hey Daisy! Yes it was me. I've been a bit busy lately so I only get to the list postings once a week and even then I just skim. I always try to respond to fungus postings because of what I went thru.

The fungus we experienced (and still do at times) was yellow and when advanced, reddish lumps appear under the yellow. I had some rather unpleasant pictures from the last outbreak. It was bad. I had gone away when the yellowing began but since I'm able to "cure" it easily AND my babies happen to have high yellow coloring anyway plus I was only going for 4 days, I didn't panic....until I returned. They looked bad. I started them on fluconazole internally along with novalsan baths, witch hazel swabs topped off with applications of miconazole 2% but I thought that I was to late. Luckily after a week and a half everybody is OK but I still can see points of contention. I don't medicate for long periods of time because the fluconazole is *very* hard on their innards. Whatever the case, It NEVER really goes away, it just comes under control....

Cheri and Axe (http://www.reptilerooms.com)
We lost 2 babies to a yellow fungus, the first came to us from PetSmart, with a tiny yellow spot on his tummy, later his hand. He infected the other beardie on his back, neck and hand. Two Vets treated them both, but neither knew what it was, they were treated with antibiotics and topical fungal meds. Cultures did not show anything. The one died at age 3-4 month, the other at age 8 months, the older one was sent for pathology after a long illness and we had him put down.

Later we found it was a fungus from that. I know the antibiotics did not help and may have hurt, the topical, Zylafen did appear to be killing the external fungus, but they both did of internal fungal problems.

heytravis.......jim k here man.........
i had a yellowhead that had that condition pretty bad.......took him to the vet and she said mine was a bacterial infection. she cultured it and gave an injection of some kind of antibiotic. she then gave me 10 syringes already with the proper dosage and had to inject him every 3 days.......very easy guy. also, i got a prescription of silvadine creme which fights that fungus looking stuff. i applied the silvadine once to twice a day for 30 days and he is clean as can be.
it cost me $90 for the vet work and another $12 for the jar of silvadine.
hope that helps you out man.
take care

Sometimes with collareds they do get a crusty area around lips, always good to keep an eye on any kind of crusty/ brown place/ spots or sores, as they can be a bacterial infection, virus, or scabbing from mite bites.

Also can dab the area with some hydrogen peroxcide.
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PHEve / Eve