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Post by bluedragon1587 on Jan 23, 2005 16:04:27 GMT -5
What are the beginning signs of mouthrot? One side of Saki's mouth looks completely normal, but on the other side the scales surrounding her jaw seem to be outwardly oriented. If I look really closely then I can see a little bit of his gums. Its just a small pink line. Is this normal or is something wrong with him?
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wdm
Young Adult
Posts: 246
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Post by wdm on Jan 23, 2005 16:32:52 GMT -5
When I got Cronus she was nearly dead from mouthrot along with serveral other serious health issues. Her mouth had brown thick stuff around where her lips should have been. Here is a picture of her when I first got her with the mouth rot and about 6 months latter with a lot of vet visits and a lot of love and care. In the top picture Cronus does have her mouth as shut as she could didnt have much in the way of lips by the time I got her  This is just my opinion but if you even think maybe it could be mouth rot GO TO THE VET NOW!!! |
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Post by bluedragon1587 on Jan 23, 2005 17:14:12 GMT -5
I have a vet appt. for Saki on Tuesday for a checkup and fecal exam, etc. Is that too long to wait? His mouth is barely noticable, it just looks slightly raised on one side. Is it alright for me to just talk to the vet about it on Tuesday?
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Post by MoMmYoF2DrAgOnS on Jan 23, 2005 17:23:23 GMT -5
Waiting until tuesday will be fine. It could be mouthrot or it could be a injury (snout rub) but it is best that you let a Vet take a look and decide the right plan of action. As you can see in poor cronus's pictures it can get REAL bad. I am sure if it is moutrot since you caught it it will be treatable and in a few months never even know he/she had it. My heart breaks everytime I see that pic of poor Cronus. CristaValentine has done a great job!!
Let us know how it goes at the Vet. Good luck.
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Post by dragosmom on Jan 23, 2005 17:28:14 GMT -5
Your dragon should have a nice pink tongue and gum line with tiny white teeth. If the gum line is at all brown or the teeth are not white you may have mouthrot. Keep in mind, that mouthrot is the result of improper care (in your case, before you got her) and the heat, lighting and cage sanitizing problems have to be resolved as well as treating the dragon. Bad cases of mouthrot result in systemic infection which must be treated with antibiotics. If caught in the early stages, before the bacteria invades the entire system, you can clean your reptiles mouth twice daily with dilute (50 parts water: 1 part iodine solution) and scrape the gum line gently with a cotton swab. Most times the gums will have a caseous material imbedded in the gums (looks like cottage cheese-this is reptile pus) and it must be gently scraped from the gums. A flat toothpick works best. Remove as much of the material as possible and then swab with the iodine. Don't let your dragon swallow the iodine. Just use a little on the cotton swab. IF you don't have the caseous material you can use hydrogen peroxide (straight from the bottle is 3%) with a cotton swab instead of the iodine. Watch the mouth condition carefully, if it looks worse YOU MUST go to the vet for a Baytril injection. IF it looks REALLY bad when you get the mouth open GO TO the vet immediately. Stomatitis is usually fatal if not treated before it becomes systemic. BTW, if you cannot get your dragons mouth open, try using a rubber mixing spatula (scraper) to gently pry open the mouth. My vet showed me this trick. Drago WOULD NOT open her mouth for the vet so he used that and she opened right away. Good luck and REMEMBER, if you are uncomfortable treating Saki at home then a vet visit will ease your mind.
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Post by bluedragon1587 on Jan 23, 2005 17:35:03 GMT -5
I was able to look inside Saki's mouth and everything looked alright, the gums are pink and all the teeth are white. I guess I'll just have the vet look at it. Maybe its just swelling from hitting his head on the glass. He doesn't do that often, but every once and a while. I have him in a small 30 gal right now, but I am almost finished with the permanent enclosure, only have to seal it. The new enclosure is 5' x 2' x 4'
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Post by dragosmom on Jan 23, 2005 18:34:01 GMT -5
Sorry, I missed your post about the vet check. He'll look her over good and check out her mouth, then. One of the girls on another forum had her dragon get an abcess on her jaw and it swelled like you are describing. her vet gave her an injection of Baytril and Jollop got over it fine. You never know, as mentioned in one of the posts above, she might have just bumped her jaw on something in the viv. Let us all know what the vet says!
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