My three year old Chinese Water Dragon Lizard stopped eating a week ago. I took a q-tip and gently opened his mouth to reveal this white growth. It seems to be on the bottom gum line and moves slightly. Unfortunately my regular vet is out of town until Friday. Any ideas on what this could be? Here is a picture.
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I am not sure what it is,, but I think a vet visit is definately in order,, good luck and keep us posted!

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

I am not sure but if it is preventing your dragon from eating you may want to make sure and get into a vet ASAP.

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"What is now proven was once only imagined." - William Blake

~*~Lacey~*~

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Welcome and I would definately go to the vet. I have no idea what that could be, great pic BTW it would be very hard to get my Chinese Water Dragon to be still!

It's really hard to tell from the picture, but from the size of it I would agree that a vet trip is in order.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Thanks for all the quick replies. I will definitely take him into the vet when the vet gets back in town on Friday. In the meantime, from a previous vet visit, I have carnivore food that I can force feed him. Another quick question, in the past I had problems with my water dragons totally submerging themselves in their water basin and seemed to go to sleep. We've had to "save" them a few times. My vet thought the water might be too cold, but it has a heater that keeps it at 78 degrees. Any ideas?

you aren't the first person with this complaint. I think we determined its totally natural and not to worry. They can hold their breath for 30 minutes or so.

I'm glad you have a vet for your WD.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

That is mouth rot unfortunately. You can treat it yourself if you feel up to it. If you would rather not, you can get a vet to do it.

Here is how to treat it:

Clean the mouth area with a 50 parts water to 1 part iodine solution (you can use a Q-tip to apply the solution). Then use a blunt, gentle object (such as a blunted or flat wooden toothpick; or, if you can get it, you can use a rubber-tipped dental pick) to GENTLY scrape off the unhealthy gum tissue (the white-yellow pus). Then swab again with the solution. Make sure to swab with the iodine solution BEFORE AND AFTER debriding with the pick. You do not want to introduce new bacteria. A little iodine solution will not hurt, but to prevent excess from being swallowed, wring out the swabs. Only debride every other day and only if you see unhealthy gum tissue. If you do not see unhealthy tissue that needs debriding, then do not debride - you do not want to debride good gum tissue. Swab even on the days you do not debride and continue to swab for several day after you stop debriding. You can swab twice a day (mornings and evenings), but if you can only manage once a day, that is fine.

If you would rather not do this, a vet can do it for you with a similar procedure, except he/she may use a different chemical for cleaning. You need to remove that unhealthy tissue either way. Mouth rot can be fatal if not treated.

Water dragons usually get mouth rot from banging/rubbing their snouts against walls/glass until they open wounds in their mouth allowing bacteria to enter. You can solve the snout rubbing problem by either getting a larger enclosure if the one you have is too small; or if the enclosure is large enough already cover up the glass with paper.

Oh, I would not force-feed yet. A dragon can go many weeks without food. Force-feeding is stressful on the dragon, and the mouth cleaning will be very stressful as it it. You do not want to stress him too much. I would clean his mouth and continue to offer food. Eventually he should get his appetite back without needing to be force-fed.

The submerging should be nothing to worry about. They sometimes will do it because they are frightened by something and will play dead in the water. They will also sleep in water. And yes, they can hold their breath for up to thirty minutes so drowning is not much of a worry.

Veterinarians will advise against using iodine solution on mucus membranes, it can be irritating. You are much better off using a chlorhexidine solution, but I would strongly advise a vet visit rather than at home treatment.

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"What is now proven was once only imagined." - William Blake

~*~Lacey~*~

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