Bearded dragon’s femoral pores need taking care of just like the other parts of your bearded dragon’s body. If your bearded dragon’s femoral pores become clogged, it can cause pain, an infection or even abscesses in your dragon. In this post, you will learn what femoral pores are, how to care for them and how to clean clogged bearded dragon femoral pores.
What are femoral pores in bearded dragons?
Femoral pores in bearded dragons run on the underside of the back legs on each thigh and look like small dots or circles. Femoral pores are much larger in males and secrete a substance and pheromones to mark territory and to give signals to female bearded dragons during a breeding season.
Are my bearded dragon’s femoral pores blocked?
If your bearded dragon pores look full and if the substance is coming out, there is a big chance they are clogged. With mild blockage, waxy substance would be clear/slightly yellowish. But with heavy blockage, the substance might harden, or turn yellow/orange/brown in color and fill the pores.
Why do femoral pores get blocked?
Femoral pores can get clogged if your bearded dragon doesn’t move around very much and can’t rub its back legs against various objects. Another reason can be if you are using loose substrate or don’t have any rough objects that your bearded dragon can rub against.
Please never use loose substrate for you bearded dragon’s tank. Loose substrate can cause not only clogged femoral pores, but also a serious impaction. Reptile carpet like this, tiles or paper towels are the best options for a bearded dragon tank’s substrate. Please switch to one of the substrates as soon as possible.
Also, please incorporate a basking rock or platform such as this one that your bearded dragon can rub against and lay on. This will help prevent clogged pores.
Dangers of blocked femoral pores
If femoral pores get clogged, it can cause very serious issues and consequences. The buildup can continue to fill the pores, and they can get infected. Also, it can lead to an abscess, which would cause serious swelling in legs. It would then need a surgical intervention to treat.
Please don’t try to squeeze out the secretions if they look deeply embedded or if pores look infected. In this case, your vet would need to perform an incision or drain out the secretion and abscess/pus (if any) in sterile conditions. This is important to prevent systemic infections or even a reinfection in femoral pores.
Cleaning clogged femoral pores in bearded dragons
To start treating clogged pores, please review the pores and legs. If legs look swollen, it could be an abscess. Or if pores look severely clogged and infected they could contain pus. In this case, you must take your bearded dragon to the vet.
Please don’t squeeze femoral pores at home. Instead, you need to try to loosen up the buildup in the pores and help it come out. And this is only if legs or pores don’t look swollen or infected. Remember, if they are, it would cause your bearded dragon a lot of pain!
Start giving your bearded dragon warm soaks daily. Let your bearded dragon soak for 25-30 minutes to let the buildup soften. You can even add Pedialyte to help the buildup soften.
Then, take a soft toothbrush and gently scrub the pores. You can use a soft bristle toothbrush or even get a larger baby body brush. If they become very soft, you can attempt to pull out some of the buildup. After the bath, also put some Neosporin or other antibiotic on, to help it soften and prevent any infection.
If the buildup is still hard after a bath, put some oil (such as coconut or olive) for the night. Repeat the baths until the buildup softens that you can remove it.
Repeat the daily baths for around a week or more until the buildup softens dramatically. With less serious buildups, they are likely to come out after one or few soaks. After a warm bath, you can try to brush the area and use tweezers to try take out the buildup.
How to prevent further buildup in femoral pores?
Please make sure to add some rough branches or rocks in your bearded dragon’s tank if there aren’t any. This way, your bearded dragon will rub against these objects to get out all the secretion.
Also, when pores become clean again, give your dragon a bath at least 2-3 times a week and rub the area with a soft toothbrush for a little bit. Incorporate that in your bearded dragon’s hygiene routine.
Waxy secretion is normal in bearded dragons and will fill the pores again even if you clean it once. The goal is to prevent too much of it staying in pores and causing a buildup.
Thank you for reading this post! You can find a lot of useful posts on bearded dragon care on this resource page.