The Black Plague of Bearded Dragons | Yellow Fungus

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00][music] >> Simple mistakes often lead to medical conditions in pet reptiles that look to be straight out of horror films.

[00:00:16]But yellow fungus is the most horrific ailment I think I've personally seen.

[00:00:23]Although the origin is unknown, yellow fungus disease was first described in captive animals in the '90s on degus and chameleons. By the early 2000s, bearded dragons were the number one victim where their skin would turn yellow [music] in patches. It's generally first noticeable on their underside around the cloaca, but will rapidly spread all over their body, penetrate their skin, and slowly shut down their organs. This deep tissue infection is highly resistant to traditional fungal treatment, and unless caught extremely early, death is essentially guaranteed within a year. In rare cases, this fungus has spread to humans, which is just not something you usually hear with reptile keeping.

[00:01:01]Before getting into the nightmare of this highly contagious, painful, and virtually incurable disease, I don't want bearded dragon keepers to start panicking watching. So, the biggest risk is introducing a new lizard to your home that may be infected. Separate and avoid contact with potentially sick animals, and keep your enclosures clean.

[00:01:20]Cases in reptiles have now been reported on almost every continent thanks to the global pet trade. And many molds, like the ones you find in a person's home, are generally opportunistic pathogens, which can survive without a host and only cause problems after extended exposure or in already weak or immunocompromised animals. Basically, there's mold in the air everywhere, and it's no big deal. But yellow fungus is an obligate pathogen. It doesn't just passively live in the environment around animals. It has to infect a host to survive. However, the fungal spores can live for weeks on surfaces as it waits for a victim to come along. If you've played Plague Inc. where the goal of the game is to kill humanity, you know that if you create too deadly of a disease, you lose the game and the humans win.

[00:02:07]The most deadly diseases cause the shortest outbreaks. Victims die so quickly, there's no time for it to spread to others. Ebola kills people so fast they don't even have time to travel very far. Symptoms take just a week to appear, and you'll be dead 2 weeks after that without treatment. To win Plague Inc., you want to act stealthily, spread carefully, and not show symptoms until you've infected as many people as possible. Yellow fungus can often look similar to normal discoloration on bearded dragons. Many people get nervous when they see any sort of yellow patch, even if it's just normal coloration or a piece of shed. Many beardies are naturally yellow, and it's normal for them to change color as they age. But because of this, many other owners don't notice when something's actually wrong.

[00:02:51]It kills slowly. According to some sources, the average bearded dragon with yellow fungus can survive for up to 18 months. That's over a year to spread fungal spores to other animals before the lizard experiences his own slow and kind of agonizing death.

[00:03:08]>> [music] >> It eats flesh, destroys their skin, spreads internally, and leads to organ failure. Over 1,600 people wanted to send me their reptiles within a 5-year period. From the very beginning, me and my old team denied certain animals, especially from people who disclosed yellow fungus. We also scrutinized images to avoid the risk from people who may not have known. But some people would share fake or old images back from when the animal looked healthy. This other bearded dragon looked normal at first glance. I really didn't think anything of it, but a vet confirmed he had yellow fungus, and if you look closely, you can see discoloration in the original images.

[00:03:47]If you are concerned your reptile has yellow fungus disease, it can be diagnosed with a skin biopsy or fungal culture.

[00:03:54]This bearded dragon's fungus was caught early. This meant he could go on antifungal medication, but according to a majority of sources, it's not actually curable. It seems to more so go into a kind of remission, but unlike cancer, which obviously is not contagious, even a bearded dragon whose symptoms are suppressed may still spread this disease and kill other animals. Not just through direct contact, but through the air because of mold spores that float around.

[00:04:20]And this one ended up in my home.

[00:04:28]I knew I messed up big time, and so I never actually made a video on this lizard who was sent to me when I was 19.

[00:04:34]So, this footage is actually 7 years old, but it was never shared until well, right now. I did a lot wrong. We started with an antiseptic soak, which makes sense for a fungal infection. We had done exactly this to treat more acute skin infections brought on by opportunistic pathogens. The type that grows in dirty enclosures or too high of humidity enclosures and affects animals with weak immune systems or prolonged exposure. Not the obligate pathogens like yellow fungus. And an at-home antiseptic soak is not doing much for a lizard like this.

[00:05:08]>> [music] >> She was being handled with bare hands in a carpeted room. In hindsight, I shouldn't have even touched the camera while dealing with her.

[00:05:15]>> [music] >> After this, we did dispose of everything the dragon touched and sanitized as much as we could, but mold spores [music] travel through the air. This is all the footage I have as after truly accepting what was being dealt with here, the dragon was euthanized. It was the shortest time I ever spent trying to help an animal. The good news is we got lucky and the fungus did not spread, but I did take permanent lessons away from this. For potentially contagious animals, gloves were no longer optional.

[00:05:41]We began wearing medical scrubs, which kind of felt like we were larping as actual clinicians. Like imagine walking into a townhouse, and it's a bunch of teenagers in scrubs and latex gloves while one of them is upstairs chainsawing boxes open. But they're genuinely more hygienic and easier to sanitize. Back in 2019, I didn't intend to become a makeshift rehabilitation clinic, but by the end of that year, I opened the Pandora's box of ailments. I wanted to avoid euthanasia even in the worst cases because I always believed there was a chance for every animal to survive.

[00:06:14]It felt so wrong to take in someone's pet only to turn around and choose to end his life.

[00:06:19]>> [music] >> It sounds weird just to say that. Like I felt like I had an obligation to try my best even if the odds were virtually zero. But I disagree with my younger self, and today, [music] I would argue I should have stepped back to look at the bigger picture. Even if a dragon infected with yellow fungus was alleviated from pain and her skin healed temporarily, she'll very likely experience a drastically shortened [music] lifespan with the constant risk of transmitting disease to other animals. I should have actually been less conservative about euthanasia. If I could go back in time and sit down with myself who was just starting out, I would aggressively encourage him to end more animals' lives and do it sooner. I mean, seeing that sounds really bad. I was [snorts] in a position that specifically funneled animals into my home that other people had given up on.

[00:07:06]I still felt responsible for their death if I didn't do what I could to prevent it. What I should have accepted was I didn't put animals in those positions of discomfort. I was simply left with the responsibility to end the discomfort, which should have been through death more often than I was willing to allow.

[00:07:22]That very likely would have resulted in getting animals euthanized maybe back-to-back during the worst times. And the thought of driving to the vet's office as often as I go to Chipotle to technically kill animals is a pretty horrible thought. And then on top of that, I was nervous about the Alex took my reptile and killed it for $200 type of reviews. I was also worried it would reinforce the idea that Emerald Scales is there to quickly turn a profit and spend as little time as possible on each animal. I never enjoyed being called a reptile flipper, so I tried to show how much effort we invested into each animal. But the opinions of onlookers was just a reality that I should have accepted instead of trying to minimize it. Although I will give younger me a little leeway because we did need a positive image. Basically, like if we wanted to keep generating revenue, we did need people to like us.

[00:08:13]Obviously, we still didn't make enough because I had to stop, but talking to my younger self here, don't drag out unrealistic treatments with the ignorant belief that there's a chance to save a lot of these animals. Deep down, you know they're too far gone. And don't try to appease previous owners of these animals who oftentimes made the mistakes that left [music] animals dying in your hands. Animals who will be even severely disabled should often live full lives and not be euthanized. One of my favorites was a little stunted bearded dragon. Speaking of beardies, he could hardly move on his own due to pretty bad malnutrition from the previous owner, but he was energetic and didn't seem to be in pain. He could enjoy basking and eating and even hanging out with people.

[00:08:56]Basically, he showed no signs of distress. He could just hardly move and would be tiny forever. He was a little a little bearded Hawking. There are posts online of owners who say they successfully got it under control, but I'd still be worried about spreading this disease to other reptiles. To me, it seems a lizard with yellow fungus disease only has one outcome. And so, it wasn't until the months after getting rid of my animals and getting to see everything I did from a wider perspective that I kind of had a realization. A lot of people didn't send me animals expecting me to save them.

[00:09:28]They sent me animals to offload the guilt or decisions they didn't want to deal with. This absolutely did not apply to everyone. I mean, if you watch the reptile unboxings, many animals looked good because they actually were. Many other animals were actually saved by the person sending them to me. Like there were people who would spend their own money to buy a dying animal from someone on Craigslist, just a random person.

[00:09:51]Then they would invest hundreds to thousands of dollars, sometimes weeks to months of time, to save that animal, and then they would pay me to find the animal a new home. It was very respectable. It also let me excel where I could like be the most useful, which was attracting great owners, and there were people who were transparent explaining how they just can't do it anymore. They lost the love, the motivation, the ability. They don't know what else to do, and ask to offload that responsibility onto me, which of course is sad, but the heads-up alone was always appreciated.

[00:10:24]If you see a bearded dragon with yellow patches, or even scabbing, or black spots, don't panic. It's most likely natural coloration, shedding, or just an abrasion. It could also be yellow fungus, which can happen in other lizards, too, like iguanas and [music] geckos. But yeah, once I was able to spend a lot of time dwelling, or let me say reflecting, reflecting over all the decisions and experiences, I realized the service I had available wasn't always about rehoming. I advertised it as rehome your reptile starting at $125, but some clients interpreted this as clear your conscience starting at $125.

[00:11:06]If you're interested in something a bit more positive, consider checking out one of my last two videos.