Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a beardie horror story for ya...my wife works at a vet's office that does reptile stuff as well as dogs and other animals, anyways last week they got a call from a local shelter saying someone had dropped of two 2-year-old beardies saying they were too much responsiblity, so my wife went to get them. when she got them home we checked them out and found out they were COVERED IN MOLD, the cage had a misting system in it and they were also very malnurished and very small, i have two other beardies that are about 2 1/2 years old, mine are about triple the size of the rescues. the rescues are both males, in a 35 gallon aquarium with a huge water dish with a misting system in it, the one's tail is totally black with mold, and the other's belly is covered in it. i have been feeding them as much as they will eat, getting more active now and had to seperate them because the more active they became, the more they started fighting over food. my wife brought home some betadine to clear up the mold, but i am wondering about the long term effects of the mold, they were living in a cage that was just as covered in it as they were.. also i dont believe they are 2 years old because of how small they are...maybe 6-7 inches snout to vent.......how long will it take to get the mold off and how can i accuratley age them???

Hi
i not know much about mold r fungus but cheris from reptilerooms.com know more about that.
byeeeeee
http://www.reptilerooms.com/

The things that awful, uneducated people do to these poor animals is just so terrible. Mold is generally very bad. I woudlnt be surprised if there isnt yellow fungus under neath all of that black. ugh, it just turns my stomach to think that such ignorant frigging people are out there bying these poor animals and letting them rot away because they are too hard to care for.

bless you for saving them.

First thing, obviously, is to keep them VERY dry. i would keep them seperated, obviously, with very high temps and high output UVB. They have probably never seen UVB before, giving their size and state. I would keep the temps well around 90* ambient.

MAke sure they are getting extra vits and calcium during this healing period too.

Betadine soakes 3x daily shoudl help out a bit, diluting the betadine by 1:10 water. Afterwards, make sure they are throughly dried on a paper towel before putting them back into thier tanks.

*sigh*
They should hopefully shed out of this in time. My concern would be with the possibility of toxic mold in their systems and respiratory disorders. Unfortunately you will most likely encounter this. Especially if they have been kept like this for a couple of years.

Try your best to keep everyting as sterile as you can, cleaning every day, and keeping everything very dry.

If you can, get them to a vet asap. After all they have been trought, they deserve that.

Thank you again for your compassion and concern, i am sure the two lives you are saving will feel that way as well.

I can only hope that the idiots that kept these 2 before realise they are horrible people, and remember that things will always come back to them...

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"raised by a cup of coffee"

1.0 ball python- Azazel
1.0 columbian boa- Brooklyn
1.0 red blood python-Hiss
1.0 peach phase thayeri-Sancho
0.1 creamsicle corn- Pandora
0.1 partial stripe ghost corn- Raven
1.0 Sunglow motley corn-Ernie
1.1 hognose- Pricilla and Odd
0.1 russian tortoise- Manja
0.1 collared lizard-O-ren
0.1.1 leos- Boji and Kodama
0.1 beardie- Indie
1.0 BTS- Griffon
0.1 Iggy- Sunny
0.0.2 Red american toadlets with 0.0.7 legs total (er, i have one w/3....)
0.0.1 gray tree frog toadlet
0.0.6 land snails
0.0.2 millipedes of unknown species from TN
0.0.1 spotted slug
5.3 bettas
0.1 pacific parrolet- Mishka
1.1 cats- Cairo and Oberon
2.3 ratties Rizzo, Bounce, Bree, Blitzkreig, and Zelda

Is that a pic of a bearded dragon that you have?

He/She looks sooo sad in that pic. I wish I could adopt it to make it feel better for not having any front paws/hands.
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Depending on what kind of mold it is, they need different treatment to cure/clean

All will respond to Nolvasan and you can spray down the dragon with it and not harm them. That also will help them shed faster and this is what many vets office use to debrief wounds and skin problems.

Once they have shed good, then you need to access if there fungus is still there and what type it is, some with need topical anitfungal meds and some will also need oral ones.
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