Bearded Dragon Wart/Mole/Skin Tag

Question

Wart  

Wart2   Hi Mick. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

I have a very old bearded dragon. I don't know his exact age as he was found abandoned in a car park. I keep him in a 4ft long, 2ft deep, 3ft high vivarium on repti-carpet. I kept him on coco bark originally but he is very clumsy and would get stuck and find it difficult to move around through the substrate.

His humidity is at 30-40% and I bath him a couple of times a week as his skin gets very dry. Ambient temperature is 35 degrees celcius with the cooler side at 29-30 and the basking spot at 45. I maintain this with a Exo-Terra 100w halogen basking spot bulb pluged into a thermostat. He also has a 15% UVB coil bulb on from 6am - 6pm (also Exo Terra). At night, I lower his temperatures with a night heat lamp instead of his basking bulb. This is a 100w Moon light lamp by Exo Terra. It reduces his temperatures by 12 degrees.

I took him to the vet only once when I first adopted him. He had a stool sample which came back fine, and the vet was happy with his health but believed he was very old.

It's very difficult to feed him. When he first came home, he wouldn't eat anything for weeks. He's been living with me for a year now and refuses to eat everything but an occasional vitamin covered pinkie mouse, calci-worms, butter worms, wax worms and fruit grubs. He won't eat any vegetables or fruit so I gutload everything he eats with fruit and veg, and cover them in a range of supplements such as Komodo insect dusting powder, Medivet reptivite and Prorep calci dusting powder. I feed him everyday as he doesn't eat in large quantities. Sometimes I feed him twice a day when he's being especially stubborn. He often refuses food for weeks at a time so I syringe feed him Vetark Critical Care Formula.

Last time he ate was this morning and it was a small pinkie mouse with prorep calci powder. He has fresh water provided in a water bowl with calcium. I also use the Zoo Med Big Dripper to ensure he's drinking often. He defecates two - three times a day and it looks healthy and normal. I don't know if he was captive bred or wild caught due to the circumstances that he came to me.
He hasn't shed since I've had him (around 10 months) but I believe this is due to his age. He also lives alone.

The query I have is the dark bump he has on his chin. He's had it since he came to live with me and it doesn't bother him at all. I have always put it down to his age but cannot find anything like it after hours of researching online.
It doesn't bother him at all. I can touch it easily. It is leathery and hard and attached to the underneath skin. On the other side of his chin is a very small one.
I woke up this morning to find that the 'wart' has grown substantially in size and is sticking out from his chin a lot more. I'd really like to know what the mass is and if it's going to effect his health at all.

Thank you for your time!
Best wishes,
Katie

Answer
Thank you for your attention to details in providing the background info.

Can you obtain better photos than these? The quality of the camera is not that great and I need better lighting and focus.

I will also need a photo of his entire body and one of the feces if available.

My concern is this could be anything from a granuloma to possibly cancer. Had he any injury in that area or the oral cavity at any time? Is he ever fed live rodents or any live insects such as crickets that remain in his terrarium?

The UVB provided is inadequate. Compact and coil lamps are inferior and inadequate for this desert species and just a waste of money. I recommend a mercury vapor lamp such as a ZooMed PowerSun or something from the Arcadia brand line of T5 HO tubes. Arcadia is a UK brand.

You may be over supplementing. Does the calcium you are giving contain D3?

The may be a couple of reasons for his feeding habits, but it may be health related or it could certainly lead to health problems. Especially if he is of advanced age, all that animal protein is not good for him. It could lead to premature kidney failure. He really should be moved toward a more vegetarian diet. He likely has nutritional deficiencies and it will be healthier for him. You will simply have to withhold certain food and keep offering more of what he should be eating. He will eat rather than starve himself but he has been conditioned that if he holds out long enough he will get what he wants. I took an older female into rescue earlier this year who would only eat invertebrates from a set of forceps. She had no idea what a bowl was used for or that fruit and vegetables were food items. It only took a few weeks and she began eating everything that was being put in her bowl. She did have a smaller male companion already at the rescue whom she observed and she became interested in what he was eating.