Yellow Fungus Disease

[Paige989]

Mt female dragon is nearly 2 yrs old. I noticed what looked like a wart 6 months ago so took her to an Exotic Pet vet. He said, "Let's keep an eye on it"; that's it. I put Niosporin in it, in case it was bacterial (he didn't do a biopsy, which he should have done). Six months later, I notice a few "warts" popping up, so took her back. He did a biopsy for DNA to see if it was this fungus. He did not tell me it is a flesh eating microorganism that is fatal & has no cure. He also did not mention that it can be passed to humans, if they r immunosuppressed, which I am! The prognosis for any dragon with this condition is very poor. She doesn't seem to be suffering now, but I'm wondering if, as it progresses (which it seems it will, even tho I have both oral & topical meds from a compound pharmacy I'm giving her)if the most humane thing to do is euthanize. Does anyone have any feedback, or experience with this condition?

 

[Eavlynn]

I am so so sorry that you have to deal with this. I stumbled across yellow fungus while researching diseases so I knew what to keep an eye out for. So far, it looks like there is still no cure. I would do some research on vet hospitals and maybe send out some emails to see if any new info has come to light. If it's still early, maybe something can be done. I do know that this fungus is very aggressive and gets very gruesome as it progresses. Dig up every shred of information that you can, and reach out to any reptile hospital you can find. In the mean time, keep things as sanitary as you can, for your beardie's safety, as well as yours. I wish I had more information or suggestions.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Mt female dragon is nearly 2 yrs old. I noticed what looked like a wart 6 months ago so took her to an Exotic Pet vet. He said, "Let's keep an eye on it"; that's it. I put Niosporin in it, in case it was bacterial (he didn't do a biopsy, which he should have done). Six months later, I notice a few "warts" popping up, so took her back. He did a biopsy for DNA to see if it was this fungus. He did not tell me it is a flesh eating microorganism that is fatal & has no cure. He also did not mention that it can be passed to humans, if they r immunosuppressed, which I am! The prognosis for any dragon with this condition is very poor. She doesn't seem to be suffering now, but I'm wondering if, as it progresses (which it seems it will, even tho I have both oral & topical meds from a compound pharmacy I'm giving her)if the most humane thing to do is euthanize. Does anyone have any feedback, or experience with this condition?

Oh that sucks I'm sorry that you are having to go thru this with your gal.. I don't know much about the diseases but know YF is not good.. I understand your worries on being immunosupressed (I am also).. Keeping really good hygiene is very important. Hoping the others on here that know more will chime in.

 

[PatsyB]

There is no cure for YF but it can be managed with proper husbandry and oral and topical meds that the vet should have given you. It is highly contagious so if you have other reptiles you need to be careful about handling them, their food and tools so you don't spread the disease.

 

[jarich]

Woh, hang tight. First of all, is your vet testing to see which fungal species is the cause of the issue? There are a number of different species that all get labelled under the 'yellow fungus' grouping. Some are easier to treat than others, but I would absolutely not say that at this stage of the game you need to think its untreatable or incurable. Hopefully it is still just limited to the skin, in which case it is treatable and can be basically cured. This is somewhat like the flesh eating disease that you mentioned though in a few ways. First, most of the species that cause what we know of as yellow fungus are always present on the skin of reptiles, just like the flesh eating disease culprit. While its still a little up in the air why CANV and others species cause skin ulcerations and outbreaks like this, its usually down to immune deficiency. You said your dragon is 2 years old. Have you had it for that long? Has it had other issues that might have compromised its immunity?